Honest opinion on LPG

Bloody hell lads it was a tongue in cheek remark don't get so excited. One thing was true though, i bet it won't be long before the price goes through the roof.

So, loads of honest opinion and I'll bet you are none-the-wiser!

Opinion is formed by personal experience. My experience is that LPG is good but I have never had any problems with it. In fact I don't know anyone who has had problems with gas. My 94 Disco is on 240k miles (converted at 120k) and has a single point system. The doubters will still claim that I haven't saved any money.

Just to set the record straight. The price differential was guaranteed for 3 years at the last Budget.

Land Rover didn't offer LPG from the factory 'cos if they did, they would then have to support it through the dealer network. It was simply a cost benefit thing.

Cheers

Chris

I had a 4 litre V8 Disco II and the money I saved on fuel costs I spent out twice on trying to diagnose a fault. The fault never was found and it cost me big time.

Telephone conferences between the LPG mechanic and the company who supplied the kit (who also do installations) could not get to the bottom of my problem.

New LPG injectors were fitted.
New Ignition coil.
New HT leads.
New Inlet Manifold gasket.
New Diaphragms in the condenser.

Company who supplied the kit sent us a programme for the laptop to test the gas ECU, which was fine. There was no where else to look.

I had many a sleepless night because I heard the horror stories about running lean on LPG ****ing the engine. Because of this I spent every penny trying to get the problem sorted, I even went hungry on the odd occasion because the bill come to more than I thought.

All the parts plus labour added up to about £1,500. I wouldn't touch LPG again if my life depended on it.

i think its pretty much like any product or service, get a good one and you will recomend get a bad one and you won't.

i'd have lpg anyday, in fact i prefer it. was it not for the issue of conveniently obtaining it like you can petrol then i would run lpg exclusively!!!

i pretty much do anyway just have the petrol for backup.

Well I'm glad I posted that one cause it was good reading. especially the not driven between services bit cause I laughed my ass off!! But thanks for the input, I think I will leave it. I filled her up last Friday and been about a bit and I have got 320 miles from a full tank, driving at around very light footedly (if thats a word..it is now) at50-70 mph ish.That said I don't know how much the tank holds and if that is good for a 4.6HSE. Out here in Germany I get tax free fuel at 65 cents a liter, so why am I being a tight ass..... Thanks again...

100 litres!!

If he's getting his petrol for 65c a litre then he can afford to run on the liquid gold.

aye, its 50 p dearer over here so its prolly pointless to fit lpg. he'd have a corenry if he came and filled up in blighty!!

Ok I run a knackered 89 3.9 classic. Had LPG fitted when I got it.(main reason) Had a few back fires at the start due to buggered plugs. No other problems. Runs colder than on petrol, is also smoother. Get better milage on gas than petrol. But thats due to the fuel mixture settings on petrol.
Oh the system is a Lovato open loop (the crapest one).

If you have gas fitted just make sure the services are done regularly (engine that is.)
Don't notice a drop in power except at higher speeds on a hill.

Hi all, new to the forum but i gotta say my bit for the LPG. I brought my 4.6 with 130,000 on the clock and the Zavoli LPG kit had been fitted from 90,000. She's now on 180,000 and still running fine. I guess that as long as you do all the regular changes (oil, anti freeze, etc) and keep under the bonnet clean and tidy it has to be a step in the right direction.

The_Big_P said:

I had a 4 litre V8 Disco II and the money I saved on fuel costs I spent out twice on trying to diagnose a fault. The fault never was found and it cost me big time.

Telephone conferences between the LPG mechanic and the company who supplied the kit (who also do installations) could not get to the bottom of my problem.

New LPG injectors were fitted.
New Ignition coil.
New HT leads.
New Inlet Manifold gasket.
New Diaphragms in the condenser.

Company who supplied the kit sent us a programme for the laptop to test the gas ECU, which was fine. There was no where else to look.

I had many a sleepless night because I heard the horror stories about running lean on LPG ****ing the engine. Because of this I spent every penny trying to get the problem sorted, I even went hungry on the odd occasion because the bill come to more than I thought.

All the parts plus labour added up to about £1,500. I wouldn't touch LPG again if my life depended on it.

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if i was spending money on parts from the supplier that they are telling me to fit and it does not cure the fault i would be asking for my money back, spend all that on their say so and still have the fault, not me!

Reading through the posts its quiet clear there is good and bad in all,,,
systems are only as good as the people that fit them, i run on petrol and happy with the fact if it aint broke dont fix it , and as the old saying goes if you look after it , it will look after you,,,, and people that have bad experences tend to steer well clear, i had a jvc car stero once, i'd never buy jvc again..... lol... gas or liquid gold each to there own ...Rob

Medusa said:

:doh: I guess I walked right into that one.

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PML LOL LOL :hysterically_laughi

I had mine converted a few months ago for £1800, and have done 13000 miles since, so cannot comment on the likelihood of higher wear yet.

However, I have noticed no power reduction on LPG, and have a cost-per-mile on LPG of about 14p against 25p on petrol, so have saved over £1400 already. The sums clearly make LPG worth it unless engine life is severely reduced.

My local LR specialist tells me that the Range Rover is about the most commonly converted car, so the percentage of cars in the scrapyard with LPG tanks doesn't seem strong evidence.

Does anybody have any technical reason why the engine should wear more? If so, would ceramic coating the pistons or ports help?

LaurieK said:

Does anybody have any technical reason why the engine should wear more? If so, would ceramic coating the pistons or ports help?

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LPG runs at a higher temperature than petrol and we all know how P38's love the heat!! Its also a drier substance so offers less natural lubrication although there are additives to overcome this. People with more knowledge than me will be along shortly to correct me if I'm wrong.

If I had my time again I would have bought a P38 already converted. I can't justify the cost now I simply don't do enough mileage.

As a side note, I'm in the market for an LPG Classic, so for future reference have been noting garages that sell LPG. In the last 2 weeks I've been in 6 garages that sell it but in 4 of them it wasn't available for one reason or another. Is this normal??

not where i live, if it says they do lpg then they have it. only when some nerd drove off with the nozzle still attached was it inconvenient cos i had to use the pump on the other side!

lpg will run hotter if you run lean. bias to slightly rich and it runs just fine but it is a dry gas as opposed to a liquid as it enters the combustion chamber!

Hello

I'm just thinking of buying a range rover and joined the forum for "research". This thread is the closest I've found so far that answers my main question (sort of).

My conclusion, from the various answers given, is that a P38 at moderate maileage with a good history and LPG already fitted would be a good buy.

Does that sound fair?


Kav.

yeah but you really need to asses each car very carefully!

Got my 3.5 110 with gas conversion and it runs very well.. the gas is set a little rich as I broke the adjuster off and cant weaken it off again:doh: but never mind. It has two gas tanks and a petrol tank, I can switch to either pertol, lpg or propane and it runs fine on any. The ign timing needs to be advanced a bit more ideally but I cant be bothered altering it every time I switch back to petrol so it's slightly retarded on gas which reduces power a bit over petrol.
The twin mixer ring system works fine and it never back fires, never overheats and has been reliable. I get my gas cheap so the fact that it does 9mpg round town on gas dont matter much.
If I was paying full price for lpg then I would rip the V8 out tomorrow and put the diesel in as 25 to 30 mpg is far better than 9 to 12 which is 20 ish average equivelant.
I have never bettered 13mpg even on a run using gas, but I suppose if the mixture was fine tuned then a bit more economy would be there to be had.
The 110 has a Disco 1.2 transfer box behind an LT85 and is lower geared than a Disco but higher than a 1.4 110. If I drive carefully or normally then the mpg is no different but urban driving with it's stops and starts and not often getting into 5th gear is never going to be economical. The oil remains clean all the time so must be better for the moving parts in the engine.
The engine isn't standard though, it has 4.6 heads and a different cam so that wont aid economy will it, it dont half go though, even on gas.
The 3.9 Rangie I had on gas was on injection and was no better economy wise, it was still single point mixer ring though, I got 14mpg on gas at 55 to 60 on a motorway run once.
If you buy a converted motor then you cant loose really, no payback time.

I have a 4.6 withsequential gas I agree with Gav about the maintenance mine runs fine and has since I had it converted some 60 k ago - I replaced he Rad and all hoses at the time and do an oil service every 4k and have the garage who did th installation look at the set up every 6 months - about 8k miles the reason for all the maint is I travel to europe a bit and just like to know its ok so my vote is if you do the miles get gas.