LPG CARS - LPG GURU GETS A COMMENT ON THE BBC

Well chaps and chapesses - I am getting the message out slowly but surely. A couple of days a go I entered a comment on the BBC have your say web page and although they did not publish my blog address they did publish my comment here link. Good Old aunti beeb. Oh and one of my mates at work did me a picture...not sure its much like me but hey..

LPG CAR - THE ACTUAL CONVERSION

The conversion process is quite simple really. You take the spare wheel out and dump in a new tank in the well where the spare wheel goes like this. You then carry aorund a nice can of holts tyre weld just incase you ever get a puncture and need to reinflate your old tyre to get you to a tyre repair shop or back home to get your spare on the car.













Put a hole in the car and and fix in the filler conection point








Then run the pipe work to the engine bay into the fuel mixer




Run the pipe work into the top of the engine
















Connect up a little fuel management computer




Connect up the flash lube stuff to the pipework ( this stops the valves in the engine getting damaged)

Hook up the little fuel gauge and switch and you are all set!







put on the fuel filler cap after you fill it up with £25 worth of gas which will take you 300 miles down the road untill you need to fill up and get motoring!

Simple really.

LPG CARS - STEP 3 GET DRIVING AN UPDATE

An Update

The great guys have converted both our cars and recalibrated the Verso now and all seems well. It seems to be behaving itself and pottleing along fine. So we are on LPG and loving it. Did my first proper fill up the other day which went well managed to get 56 litres into the tank for a princely sum of ....£35 nice. The first tank on the regular corrola lasted 256 miles - I monitoring the next one to see how much I get out of it plan is to mointor the consumption etc and then work out how much I am saving but this will be easy to work out when I compare my monthly credit card bills as my milage is pretty steady month to month. The cars are much quieter when running on LPG which is cool and you don't notice the switch over. granted there is a little bit less accelration power on LPG but its working great. I understand there are better systems on the market that do keep the power up better.


Flash Lube
Right then found out what the stuff is for - basically its a kind of lubricant that gets put through the injectors into the engine to lubricate the valves and keep the valve head running smooth and stop valve seat recesion - all i know is that it will protect the engine and keep it running nicely. Its kept under the bonnet in a bottle and it is supposed to use 1 ml per litre of fuel so I'll keep a close eye on how much it uses over the next tank and adjust accordingly.

I rang up the morrisons in coventry and they promised that the pump was getting fixed lets wait and see...

So the plan is run the car on LPG for 1000 miles get it checked over and all will be well.



Plans for future posts include



A nice set of photos of the conversion stuff (tank, filler point, inkjectors, flash lube, fuel management system etc. so people get to see what's involved.


Plus a full set of links to get people started on their own research.

Happy motoring people...

LPG CAR - THE SECOND STEP - RECALIBRATION

Well campers the second step is recalibraiton - everything still works on the Verso but quite a few interesting warning lights appeared. Don't panic Mr Manwaring Don't Panic

A yellow engine symbol ( if it had been red we would have worried) and the traction control symbol and the VSC symbol came on. The engine runs fine although when it kicks into LPG it almost stalls on idle.

We spoke to our friendly installer chappy and he said it just needs some adjustments to sync the LPG fuel injection computer with the engine management system. All fixable in his opinion and this does happen occasionally so its back to the garage on Monday to iron out the glitch. Will keep you posted on developments.

LPG GAS 101 THE BASICS - FAQ'S on LPG

What is LPG ?

LPG is a natural hydrocarbon fuel made up of propane and butane, and is an abundant by-product of the oil and gas industries. The burning of LPG produces less carbon dioxide than other fuels, meaning a smaller contribution to global warming.

It also has the property of turning from gas to liquid at atmospheric temperature if moderately compressed, meaning it can be easily stored as a liquid and turned back into gas simply by relieving the pressure. And because it is 250 times denser as a liquid, a lot can be stored in a relatively small container.

LPG has a lot of uses, including home heating, refrigeration, air-conditioning and the industrial manufacture of paper, textiles, glass and heavy ceramics. But it is in motoring where the gas is gaining most attention, with around 1,300 UK service stations currently offering LPG, which is sometimes known as Autogas.
Source http://www.uknetguide.co.uk/Motoring/Article/What_is_LPG.html


Where does it come from?
Lpg in gas form comes from the North Sea – there’s plenty of it being pumped out as they extract the oil It is obtained as a by-product of the distillation of oil from crude oil and from "wet" North Sea gas. It is produced in large quantities, a surplus of approximately 4 million tonnes per annum is currently available from the North Sea . This surplus is forecast to increase over the next 20 years. The UK is a net exporter of the gas.

Source http://www.lpg-cars.co.uk/aboutlpg/

Where can I buy it?
Currently there are well over 1300 stations in the UK with the gas with more being set up you can hunt these down here or here . Its pretty likely that a station near you and either ignored it or just didn’t realise it! Plus I have noticed that more are opening up than are on the lists.

How much does it cost?
The average is about 57 p per litre – but for more detail you can look here

Who can help me find a LPG conversion specialist?
Now I’m not in the business of recommending people to a particular supplier – But basically you need to do a bit of home work on where you live to get a hold of a supplier this I how I did it.

I googled it and followed the natural search links to see who was out there I figured if they have a web site and have put enough time and effort to get good rankings on google they must be pretty committed to making their business work online and driving business to them.

The next thing I did was hunt around for suppliers on this website – the LPGA (approved fitters network) If you get your car converted with an installer who is part of this network you get a certificate for your car insurers if required. I built a shortlist and then looked for indicative prices on their website – pinged a few emails got some quotes and picked an outfit.


Who is converting your car?
These guys are – LPG Cars Ltd they had a reasonable price – their whole business is converting cars and they have plenty of people who like what they are doing – I will follow up with a more detailed review / pictures etc. on how they did once the conversions are all done.

Is LPG dangerous?
There seem to be loads of urban myths on the internet about safety – but it appears most car fires are caused by faulty electrics – leaky fuel pipes etc. In the main LPG is very safe. Its used in a stack of stuff from lighters to patio heaters (not my favourite form of outdoor heating (put a jumper on!) or build a conservatory!
Plus the great thing is the tanks they put in are really strong mainly because it has to take stuff under pressure so they build these things to take a knock or two. They have to be at least 4 mm thick steel. Most petrol tanks are either thin steel / or plastic to find out more read this here

The tank and gas pipes are fitted with numerous safety devices. The gas flow will automatically stop if the pipes are damaged or the engine is not running. If the vehicle catches fire, the gas tank pressure is controlled via cylinder venting, which will prevent the tank from rupturing and causing further damage.

Its as safe as it can be right now.. but I would not recommend installing this stuff yourself unless you are a very very competent mechanic.

Why convert my petrol car?
Its cheaper fuel, its pretty safe and you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Is it really more environmentally friendly ?
LPG is more environmentally friendly because it emits 20% less CO2
A 400,000 Euro emission programme has recently completed, comparing the emissions from petrol, diesel and LPG vehicles:
Compared with petrol, vehicles running on LPG emit about 20% less CO2.
Compared with diesel, one diesel car is equivalent to 20 LPG cars with regard to NOx, and 120 LPG vehicles with regard to particulates.
Diesel emits substantially more fine particles than LPG.

Can you convert a diesel car?
Nope – not yet and if you do you will probably kill off your engine in a short space of time it burns hotter than diesel

Why did you decide to convert your cars?
Fed up of paying crazy prices for petrol I need to save money and this is the best way I can think of to do it

What is the pay back ?
In my case its going to be about 15 months Please see my its all about the money post – but basically depending on engine size it will be about a year

Are there any disadvantages?
Yep my spare tyre won’t be there but I’ll use some tyre weld instead

What about insurance?
This will remain unaffected as long as its covered by a LPGA conversion certificate

Do you still need petrol in your petrol tank?
Yep because it starts up on petrol until the engine is warm and then it cuts in the LPG

Can I buy an LPG car?
Sure some manufacturers sell them form new – but check them out like you would any other car before buying and don’t buy without a LPGA certificate so at least you know its safely installed.

What do you think are the main criteria for converting your car?
If you do any serious mileage then get it done
If you have a car that is relatively young and you can get 25 000 plus miles out of it you are planning to keep it then get it done
If you want to save some money then get it done.
If you want to sell your LPG car and get another then you should be able to sell it pretty quickly and for a bit more.



If you want to know more then just leave a comment or ping me an email

LPG gas a new frontier - Why I have started this Blog

A world gone crazy on oil

It seems that the world has gone crazy - Oil has hit stupid prices and inflation is going up. Frankly I have had enough of trying to make my petrol last by going at 55 miles per hour sitting behind lorries and generally getting depressed about motoring. I have not got the spare cash to waste burning it out of my exhaust.

Driving to work is getting silly

The drive to work is getting unsustainable and I thought about getting a new job but I quite like my current job and moving house is not an option due to personal circumstances and anyway the housing market in the UK is so rubbish I wouldn't be able to sell right now. I thought about getting a diesel car - but that is not going to work out given that diesel is now costing way more than petrol and is not going to deliver much in terms of savings.

LPG a new frontier?
I have decided to embark on a new frontier Liquid Petroleum Gas. For now the tax grabbing government of the UK seem to be leaving this fuel alone and the prices are about half that of petrol and more than that of diesel. I only hope that the price of this fuel will keep within reasonable limits before I have to get a horse and cart. Steptoe and Son come back all is forgiven me old muckker.

What I am doing about the OIL Crisis
I have decided to convert my existing car to LPG, document the process and let people know how I get on. In fact I have been so taken with it I am also getting a second car for my wife to use ( yes I know 2 cars are worse than 1 ) but life will not operate with only 1 car in our family right now.

So by the end of July 2008 I should be running my mini fleet of 2 cars on LPG

So the posts in this blog will hopefully give people some encouragement to have a crack and get their car converted and in the process use a fuel which could burn cleaner than petrol and diesel and deliver some savings in what seems to be a crazy world right now.

The next post will be about how I came to the decision the pros and cons and the links, information and so on that helped me get this far.

Take care campers.