m1dge said:

So MrGorsky........does a lpg engine cost more to maintain then a petrol or diesel?
Take it from your comment you have a range rover running on lpg yes? Would you be as kind to explain the pros and cons of having a lpg ran landy please.

Much appreciated Midge.

Click to expand...

Like what Martyn said really.

i have a 4.6 on LPG. I fitted it myself with a kit bought from a place called Tinley Tech. It's dead easy to do if you're reasonable with spanners.

LPG maintenance costs are the same as petrol + about £10 (for filters) a year. Running costs of an LPG RR are about the same as the diesel version broadly speaking I'd have said.

I get 230 miles to tank. A full tank costs me something like £44 at the moment.

As far as I'm concerned it's brilliant. I get a lovely car, for a good price, with running costs of a Ford Mondeo.

It's less true of Range Rovers, but with a lot of cars the top spec was only available to the big petrol engined version. LPG allows you to get one (usually cheap because the petrol costs are so high) convert it, and enjoy Board of Directors motoring for shop floor money.

I have three filling stations with five miles of my house that do LPG so I'm spoilt for choice, but even so I've never run out and not been able to fill up easily. For me there are no downsides, it's cheap, very safe, clean, easy to maintain, you get a V8, and people don't understand it, making it a bit niche so the tax man tends to leave you alone.

The Rover V8 is a great engine to convert, and if you get a multipoint system you will not notice the difference between LPG and Petrol.

Well put Al, I have have had a few LPG vehicles incl. 3 Range Rovers (a Classic, a P38 and an L322) and as said, brilliant!

i,ve run lpg for 10 years now on a classic, its great for long distances and extremely cheap to run when mucking about off road. the only diffrence i really notice is that on short 10 to 15 minute runs there's no diffrence between the amount of petrol it use's or gas. so i would say go for it.

MrGorsky I thank you for your time it is hugely appreciated. It has certainly been interesting to read and helped me decide weather I would opt for a lpg engine (which I would now)

One final question for you helpful folk.......How does a petrol and lpg run engine work? One lad a work says you can switch between weather you use petrol or lpg by the flick of a switch, is this the case?

Again thanks for everybody's input :tea:

m1dge said:

MrGorsky I thank you for your time it is hugely appreciated. It has certainly been interesting to read and helped me decide weather I would opt for a lpg engine (which I would now)

One final question for you helpful folk.......How does a petrol and lpg run engine work? One lad a work says you can switch between weather you use petrol or lpg by the flick of a switch, is this the case?

Again thanks for everybody's input :tea:

Click to expand...

Yes, an LPG converted engine will run on both fuels.
A sequential system will start on petrol until the temp hits a certain point to heat the vapouriser then will switch to LPG (just under 1 mile from a cold start on mine). The switchover should be seamless. Generally a switch is mounted on the dashboard to manually switch over & will also give you an LED type read out of LPG in the tank. When it runs out of LPG it will switch back to petrol under a pre-determined parameter.
Mine also tells me when it's due a service.
The separate LPG tank is generally situated in the spare wheel well so no loss of boot space - but you loose your spare unless you leave it in the boot. Mine stays at home.

It's nice for me to submit a post without moaning about what has gone wrong with my RR!!!

I personally love LPG and would always go for it where possible. I'd probably never get a car and do it myself as I had been know to change cars frequently so I dare say I'd never see the return back but if your's is a keeper then go for it.

Mostly what has been said I agree with ...

1 - Bank on whatever the fuel computer saying minus 15% and you'll be pretty much spot on.

2 - Yeah you'll look a plank at the pump with your hand pressing down on that little red button but you will also look smug at the fact that the litre digits go faster than the pounds and pence digits.

3 - The running costs will be pretty much be very similar to the diesel but at the end of the day it's a free country and down to your choice. I would imagine that a straight forward diesel engine is less hassle than an LPG/petrol combo but like anything, maintain, maintain, maintain. I don't want to say too much and put a hex on myself but this is the third LPG vehicle I've had and no probs to report.

As for filling, I had a 300 Disco that and the nozzle was hidden in the tow bar flat on the side so you had to put your adaptor in and twist. After a couple of fill ups using my trusty Leatherman to tighten and loosen the nozzle, an experienced LPG'er said, "Just use the pump nozzle mate to do that". Durr.

My current RR has it neatly cut into the lower o/s/r bumper with the LPG cap colour coded so this is the nicest LPG nozzle I've had.

You do get used to the little spray back off the nozzle when you disconnect and it takes a few trips to stop smelling your hand (or maybe that's just me. I'm filling up on the way home tonight so I'll be on the look out for that).

I filled up three weeks ago at a cost of £25.01 and I'm going to top up later so I'm expecting around £15. No I don't have the most economical L322 in the world, I just do low miles per year!!!

So it's choice my friend. I love em as you can tell but I've always loved my diesels as well

Oh and one final thing, God willing, it will/should always be cheaper than petrol but that's probably one for another post!!!:lol:

Hope this helped

Scott

m1dge said:

One lad a work says you can switch between weather you use petrol or lpg by the flick of a switch

Click to expand...

That's right. You have a switch, mine is hidden in the top corner of the dashboard storage tray thing next to the clock so you can hardly see it. I've seen them put in the place of the cigarette lighter too, so when the flap is down you can't see it all all. A popular place to fit the filler is in the spare electrics connection hole in the centre of the rear bumper. Done well you'll never really see the installation, or at least it'll look original.

The LPG system piggy backs on top of the Petrol one. It uses the Petrol engine management to run the LPG engine management, and as the car doesn't know it's on LPG it just carries on regardless.

My tank is where the spare should be. I leave my spare in the shed, I've never needed one so I risk it, and carry one of those cigarette lighter compressor things!

It all works like Martyn said. The car becomes essentially a dual fuel car. You start on petrol, warm up and then the system switches over automatically when the engine is warm. My system does it one cylinder at a time so it's seamless. You install a set of LPG injector nozzles next to the petrol ones. Drilling and tapping a perfectly good inlet manifold is the most terrifying part of the job.

When you run out of LPG the system just returns to petrol and you drive on until you can put some more in. Once it's been set up, if you leave it in automatic you should never really need to touch the button again. The level indicators are pretty rubbish to be fair, that's why everyone knows how much they get to a tank! You just reset you trip at every fill and fill up again before you run out.

Because you start on petrol every time, you still will use a bit of petrol, but you will use much less petrol than before!

it takes a few trips to stop smelling your hand

Click to expand...

Nope i still do that.

ukadamwest said:

Nope i still do that.

Click to expand...

Well so do I but I wasn't going to be the first one to admit it :mooning:

Wow thanks guys the replies have been fantastic!
I would'nt be converting to a lpg system myself but have seen a couple of decent landys for sale that are ran on lpg engines and didn't have any idea about them, but thanks to all your amazing info I now know all I need to know!

m1dge said:

I now know all I need to know!

Click to expand...

If you're not careful we'll nail you down and tell you even more.....

Castor said:

If you're not careful we'll nail you down and tell you even more.....

Click to expand...

He he he sounds fun :faint2:

Hey again peeps, got another question regarding LPG.
Do you pay less road tax running on LPG or is it still charged on size of engine?

Thanks again midge.

Datatek said:

Diesel is more reliable

Click to expand...

Possibly, but you have to be careful you don't park on any chewing gum

Fergie46 said:

Possibly, but you have to be careful you don't park on any chewing gum

Click to expand...

Left behind by a V8 owner that used it to try and seal coolant leaks?

m1dge said:

Hey again peeps, got another question regarding LPG.
Do you pay less road tax running on LPG or is it still charged on size of engine?

Click to expand...

Mine is charged as if it were petrol so I don't think so no.

MrGorsky said:

Mine is charged as if it were petrol so I don't think so no.

Click to expand...

Didn't think so. Cheers though Gorsky.

May be year dependent but sadly mine is charged at full rate

I think some cars get the London Congestion Charge free if they're LPG. The rules seem to be model specific though, so the 4.o might be free, and the 4.6 still has to pay.

I looked in to it once, but can't remember the ins and outs of it. Probably not much use in Sheffield!

From DVLA: For cars registered before 1 March 2001 the rate of vehicle tax depends on its engine size.

The rate for cars registered on or after 1 March 2001 depends on CO2 emissions and fuel type.

I'm looking at a P reg 4.0 Range Rover and a R reg 4.0 disco so would be paying full whack for tax