Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 01/11/2013
The trip computer seems to give innacurate readings of mpg when using lpg. It seems to give a reading that resembles that of using petrol, but when measuring it accurately by filling the gas tank and reading milage it gives a different true mpg.
Still means cheap motoring.
Trip computer !!?
Alien technology on a '96 Suzuki,lol. Just use the good old fashioned odometer.
Trip computer works by using the fuel trims for petrol. As far as it's concerned the engine is still running on the original fuel source which is petrol.
Now problems occur when the installer hasn't mapped the engine well enough and the fuel trims go way out. The ECU thinks it's either over fuelling or under fuelling and adjusts to suit and hence this knocks the trip computers MPG way out.
The only way to work it out on LPG is manually by how many miles per tank.
Quote: Originally posted by jayc001 on 31/10/2013
The polish systems are fine. I'm conversant with AG centrum and Stag systems and they both offer value for money.
Something like 25% of vehicles in Poland are on LPG so they know their beans. Like anything the Poles get a bad rap and probably just down to a select few who offer poor conversions. Nothing to do with the brand, more the install.
From you're prices I'm assuming this is a fitted price.
Any system can be config'd to switch back to petrol and some are programmed to switch back under load to reduce valve seat recession or at least that's what many installers tell the customer when in reality they have installed either an underpowered system that can't supply enough fuel under load or they can't get it mapped correctly.
Thanks Jayco, I had been told a few bad things about the stag system, but not by a caravanner lol, So I asked on here.
And am going to contact a Polish guy in Deeside and arrange the conversion in dec or jan if not sooner.
Regarding burnt valves, our Discovery had an LPG system fitted in 2005, but we have no previous history of it before we bought it with a knackered engine in 2009.
It took a while to get the story out of the seller, but it turned out that at some point the engine had dropped a valve and nuked the engine. He then paid a fair wodge of money to have another lump fitted, which was a right mess.
We bought it for £1900 in 2009 with a known bad engine.
It turned out to be a 4.6 Range Rover engine, and was thoroughly bodged, so we got a new short engine and rebuilt the whole thing, and have covered 60,000 miles since then with absolutely no problems.
We had the heads off after 45000 miles due to a water loss which we put down to bad quality gaskets, we fitted Reintz gaskets and it has been fine to date.
Getting to the point, the valves were ground in when we did the engine rebuild, they didn't need the seats refacing. 45000 miles later, they still only needed grinding in, and that's all we did.
It may be different for other cars, ours is a 1999 car, built in Nov 98, so possibly a bit old tech.
You must run a decent quality oil in the engine, we use a semi-synthetic diesel 10W-40 oil and have done since the rebuild.
You should also use decent quality spark plugs, platinum contact types are very good.
The other thing that hasn't been mentioned is the extended oil life that you get with LPG. There are far less combustion by-products with LPG than with petrol, so our engine oil stays clear for nearly 10000 miles, and even when we change it, it is still semi-clear on the dipstick.
You exhaust will last longer as well, less corrosion in the exhaust makes a big difference to the life of the system.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought I'd try and go into some detail.
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Topic: LPG Conversions
