# LPG conversion experiences please!



## epavelin (May 19, 2005)

Hi,

I'm thinking of having my camper converted to run on LPG, as petrol is a major expense for me on long trips. It's a 1989 Transit with the 2-litre Pinto carburettor engine. I do about 10,000 miles a year at about 24mpg, so I'm expecting the conversion to pay for itself in about 18 months.

I know my insurer won't cover me if the conversion isn't done by an LPGA-approved installer. I've had a couple of quotes so far, one from an LPGA approved installer at about £1175, and one non-LPGA at £750. Do you think this price difference is because of the LPGA approval? I'm not going to consider any non-LPGA fitters, because of my insurance requirements.

Also, has anyone had any experience of Gas Power UK in Exeter? The guy on the phone sounded very helpful...

Finally, any tips on what to watch out for would be appreciated, both in terms of installations and use. What's the situation with long tunnels in France? Are LPG vehicles still banned?

Thanks!


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

Funnily enough I was chatting with the same guy this morning about converting my RV and sounded a very decent guy.


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## maddie (Jan 4, 2006)

Hi please be aware that my mates a mecanic and tells me about vavles /head buring out-don't know after what mileage only that he has a backlog of taxis wanting diesel engines,i asked a similar q of rv onwer's a few days back but none replied
terry


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

maddie said:


> Hi please be aware that my mates a mecanic and tells me about vavles /head buring out-don't know after what mileage only that he has a backlog of taxis wanting diesel engines,i asked a similar q of rv onwer's a few days back but none replied
> terry


Blimey be interesting to see what the LPG brigade reply to this is.


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## 98064 (Mar 10, 2006)

Pinto on a carb is more than likely a leaded engine, PUT THE GAS DOWN AND MOVE AWAY! 
Generally leaded motors can't cope with running LPG and it's worse than running unleaded petrol in terms of damage. A mate is/was an LPG fitter and went LPG on a supposidly unleaded Pinto in which the head lasted less than a 1000 miles before serious valve issues!

As I understand LPG through a carb is a very spit and hope setup, actually it appears the same on early EFI set ups to, the current types involve an additional ECU etc and are 'proper' acurate.

Beware cowboys, had a Rangie some time back with LPG, didn't like it/didn't work so well so removed. Good job I did, the main gas feed pipe was connected to the tank, mixer and one retaining clip, the rest of the pipe was 'resting' on the chassis, and just about worn through on one spot just under the passengers seat!!!!!

Si.


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## epavelin (May 19, 2005)

dodgey said:


> Pinto on a carb is more than likely a leaded engine, PUT THE GAS DOWN AND MOVE AWAY!


No, it's an unleaded engine.


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

maddie said:


> Hi please be aware that my mates a mecanic and tells me about vavles /head buring out-don't know after what mileage only that he has a backlog of taxis wanting diesel engines,i asked a similar q of rv onwer's a few days back but none replied
> terry


Sorry terry never saw the post. its not in the RV section, give it a "bump" and I will look out for it.

No idea whether your engine will be ok on LPG Epavlin, as for the rest. 
You will get about 20-25% less fuel economy, and LPG varies wildly in price from 34p to 49p so your payback is difficult to estimate. I would guess from 15,000 to 25,000miles

Go for the biggest tank you can fit, at least 80litres (remember you can only fill 80%) with fillers on both sides.

Only place I know I can't go is the shuttle, never had any problems with tunnels.

Gas con. kits come mainly from Italy and the Nederlands I believe, when I was researching this I was told the Italian ones are cheaper and not so good. You pay your money and????

Olley


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## epavelin (May 19, 2005)

Thanks for the replies so far. I'll probably go and visit Gas Power UK sometime soon to have a chat to the bloke and ask some more questions. He said he was happy for me to inspect the work they're doing too.


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

Ian (olley) how many litre can your hold?


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi John about 175litres 2x100 litre tanks. Absolute minimum IMHO wish I had room for another.

Olley


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## 1noosa (Apr 29, 2007)

*vw t25 runs on LPG*

Hi all, i have been running my 1987 vw T25 1.9 on LPG for nearly 4 years, had it converted at 118,000 and it's now on 154,000.
The only problem i have had was trying to run it with the standard spark plugs it was originally fitted with them special Bosch plugs 4 prong type from Halfords, when i bought the van it ran great after the conversion. When I serviced it 6 months later i changed the plugs to the recommended type, (single prong with adjusted gap) the van developed a small misfire at low revs, after a few hundred miles i got another set of plugs and all seemed well, a few hundred miles down the road and the misfire developed again, I then spashed out the 20 quid and bought another set of Bosch 4 prong type plugs and have had no problems since.
Starts on gas every day and have spent about 40 quid on petrol just to keep the petrol system running since the conversion.
The oil in the engine stays clean as a whistle as there is no carbon build up or burning 
The conversion paid for itsself in 12 months
and the van returns 400 miles for 36 quids worth of gas @ 36pence per litre, from the local gas supplier.
120 litre tank is fitted. 
Also due to the age of the carb the van runs smoother on gas with no loss of power to speak of.
2 Tanks of gas gets my lady and me to the French Alpes you can't say fairer than that for a bit of snowboarding.


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## 101411 (Oct 15, 2006)

I had 2 vehicles in LPG.

An Isuzu Trooper 4X4. Ran ok but had the occasional backfire, but the cost saving on fuel was well worth the odd backfire. :wink: 

Then had my 20 year old Chevvy V8 RV done. I can honestly say it ran much better on LPG than it ever did on petrol with better starting and no loss in power. Biggest gripe was not fitting a bigger tank!! You must fit min 200ltr tanks to make it useable. :lol: 

Not having the new RV done as the cost to convert a V10 is £2500ish and that buys a hell of a lot of petrol and the amount of miles we do would take years to recoup the costs. There is also no guarantee that the government :roll: wont hike up the duty on LPG to further reduce the advantage of having it fitted.

The best thing about the RV conversion was having the filling point in the middle of the van at the back for easy filling from any side.  

Dazzer


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## antnjac (May 12, 2005)

Hi, i ran a a Rover 2000 on LPG, system fitted at 90k miles and engine still running well at 240k miles when i parted with the car. Like Dazzer the odd backfire (the car  ) can be a problem. HT system should be in good nick, change spark plugs regularly (6k miles) and make sure HT leads are OK. On my car any missfire at the plugs would create a backfire in the inlet manifold which would destroy the air filter box and sometimes singe the paper air filter. I used to carry a spare filter box top, and got quite good at plastic welding old filter box's (use an old soldering iron).

Tony


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## maddie (Jan 4, 2006)

Hi I did not want to -scare-monger- any one in last reply just make you aware! I have no personal experience with gas only frends,1 with a mondeao -ford conversion-115,000 mls compleatly kn--kerd/new D engine fitted and will never will have gas again.
mondeao engines are 10 a penny but what price a yank V8 OR V10?
Then again how long will you keep yours or sell for somone else to fix from what i understand they give plenty of warning all is not well.
terry


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## Drew (May 30, 2005)

Hi all,

I think that this is a case of: 

My friends friend, who was my cousins friend, told me that his friends friend, told him that his friends friend and so on!!!!!!!!!

Regards

Drew


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

Well I have a tugger mate who bought V70 Volvo with 171K on the clock and converted it and 2 years after and 30K is painfully over the moon with it :wink:


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

hi My Chevy V8 is converted, but having driven a total of 50 miles since I brought it i cant offer much help 

not sure how big the tank is, would hazard a guess at 100l so it wont get me far.. mind you it is about 5 foot long and sits under my bed... it may be bigger.

the first annoying thing is the one time I tried it, it seemed to take 20 seconds or so the make the change, in fact the previous owner told me it was best to hit the switch on a downhill section ... ?

John


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## maddie (Jan 4, 2006)

Hi Drew sorry for passing on my friends experiences,but they are not friends of friends of friends
From what I have read LPG burns at a lower temp than petrol so it should not burn valves etc,it could be that it is burning too lean a mixture,ie not set up right?I don't know but have seen the burnt out head for myself .Indeed it changed my mind from converting a v6 to gas about 4 yrs ago.I must agree that if I was running a big yank then for me I would be doing my sums ,petrol against cost to convert plus fuel savings and mileage per year.Then there is FEELGOOD that it's costing me half price for fuel I use-I will get rid before any damage comes to light-who cares?certainly not me.my FRIEND cert felt smug about gas and indeed praised it to everyone.
terry


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## Drew (May 30, 2005)

Hi Terry,

No offence.

It seems to me that when a post like this comes up once in a while, the friends of a friend syndrome appears. 

We receive genuine first hand reports that are excellent bits of information then the "My friends friend" posts appear and are nothing but drivel.

This is an excellent Forum with a vast amount of genuine information.

Regards

Drew


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## epavelin (May 19, 2005)

OK, I've done a bit more reading on the web, and one thing that people keep on mentioning is that the valve seats can rapidly wear out when running on LPG due to lack of lubrication (a bit like running a leaded engine on unleaded).

Is this really true? I have not read any first hand reports of this actually happening to anyone- everyone who describes their experiences with LPG seems to be happy. Do any of the LPG'ers here have experience of this?

Thanks!
Ed.


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

I am starting to think this a no brainier if people pay £2000 upwards to have engine trouble.

This is the first time I have heard derogatory words about the conversions.


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## 101411 (Oct 15, 2006)

The chap (a friend for 12 years) who did the conversion on my car and my old RV has been doing LPG conversions since the 70s and hasnt had 1 report of any serious engine failure due to valve problems on any conversion he has done in the last 30 odd years.

He did say that the technology has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 10 years and improved another 10 fold in the last 5 years. 8O 

The main problem people have, is not fitting the correct spark plugs when they get the engine serviced and this is a constant problem even today.

He has had his Vauxhall Carlton V6 on LPG for the last 12 years and done over 200k miles on the same engine with not a single breakdown or any kind of an engine issue in all that time. :wink: 

I think theres a lot of scare mongering in the press and would be really interested in finding a % of people with LPG that have had genuine problems as a direct result of the conversion. And then compare that to a similar % of people running diesel engines on chip fat to see how the 2 compare. :? 

The simple fact is this. If your doing over 12000 miles per year and intend on keeping your vehicle for 3 years or more you will save money. If you run an RV the savings will come a lot sooner and the feeling of "well being" whilst you fill up your "yank tank" with £80 of LPG and the bloke in the Range Rover next to you digs deep for over £100 for less fuel has to be experienced!!  

Dazzer


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## 100407 (Aug 7, 2006)

I'm running LPG on my 2 Litre Talbot Express. It runs much better on Gas than it does on petrol and I only run it on Petrol if I get caught short on the gas. I have 2 Tanks which gives me 140 Litres. It takes up a bit of storage space but the cost of running the old girl more than makes up for it.
If you are worried about burning out valves then get a flashlube kit fitted. It will cost about £40 and give you piece of mind.


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