L.p.g.

[chewie]

I cannot see LPG cars ever becoming widespread its been around for years and i don't know a single person that owns a converted car therefore i think if you were to get your car converted today it will be on the scrap heap long before the price changes to match petrol/diesel.

.

I know one guy who converted a vectra, worst thing he ever done, he was back driving his old car within a few months as he had nothing but bother with the conversion.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I know one guy who converted a vectra, worst thing he ever done, he was back driving his old car within a few months as he had nothing but bother with the conversion.

I looked into LPG conversions in a big way when they put a pump in my local service station many moons ago (fancied a V8 Land Rover) i didn't read anything negative about the Land Rover conversion maybe because they are a fairly basic engine to convert.

.

 

[Nicks90]

Don't let the Landover badge and basic rover V8 fool you.
They are an utter nightmare on gas, several of our local offroading club have them and getting them set up so they don't backfire, pink, fart and stall is a nightmare.
Even then, you need and oiling system to stop valve recession and piston ring wear.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Even then, you need and oiling system to stop valve recession and piston ring wear.

I am no mechanic but doesn't the engine oil lube those parts there is nothing in unleaded petrol that would lube them.

(prepares to be shot down in flames)

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Because electric cars produce 100% fewer CO2 emissions than petrol, 100% less than diesel AND 100% less than LPG perhaps?

Plus, the general public loves a bit of new technology!

Where do you think the energy comes from to produce electricity ?

 

[Duxuk]

electric cars are not the answer - simple. never will be either! or should I say Plug-In electric cars.....
not everyone has a drive and there has access to a charger at home, some people cant access a charger at work, not everyone does short journeys or can cope with hours of recharging as part of their daily work schedule.
However it is a convenient and simple short term solution to localised pollution in city centres by a large part of the city population and should continue to be encouraged.
Economies of scale mean that overall pollution from producing the electricity for these cars will be much lower (and more fuel efficient) than what comes out of a typical combustion engine.

however the future really is with hydrogen cells. zero pollution, instant "recharge" at a fuel station, so basically its a like for like user experience.
we just need to work out how to produce enough hydrogen cheaply enough that its economically viable and doesnt need 75 additional power stations to do it!
I think the root cause for all our issues is cracking nuclear fusion power stations. Once we have that nailed, we can produce enormous numbers of fusion power stations and have enormous amounts of surplus power to do all these lovely eco things and not have to worry about emissions!

but its expensive - or will be - to set up.

Fuel cells have several problems. First is that their efficiency is usually less than 50 %. The rest of the energy produces hot water, which is useless. The second problem is that hydrogen is a by product of oil refining. Electrolysis is too inefficient for commercial production, but does produce hot water.
BMW introduced the hydrogen powered 7 series for trials a number of years ago. So internal combustion engines, though very inefficient, can also use hydrogen as a fuel.

 

[Duxuk]

Just done the sums to help me decide if I'm converting the car to hydrogen. 20 litre tanks cost £60.88 but have only a quarter of the energy density so it's like paying £12 per litre for petrol. Think I'll start putting cheap vegetable oil in the car (it's a diesel), that's a cheap way to save money and if you mix it 50/50 with diesel you can still use it at low temperatures. Or I could just sell the Jaguar and buy something that does twice as many miles per gallon.
Tell you what. I'll stay as I am. Every time I drive it, it's a pleasure.

 

[MarkMayf]

I am no mechanic but doesn't the engine oil lube those parts there is nothing in unleaded petrol that would lube them.

(prepares to be shot down in flames)

Not quite. Engine oil lubes everything outside the combustion chambers.

In simple terms petrol is wet, and lubricates the valves and seats. LPG is dry so the valves wear faster. Many LPG conversions have lube injection systems to counter it.

I just learned all this. I just bought an LPG car.

Edit - I once had a rover V8 that had been previously used on LPG. Wouldn't go near another one. LPG burns hotter, rover v8s don't like hot.

 

[dave_walton]

I had a Saab 93 Hirsch Aero that I converted to LPG, went like the proverbial off a shovel. It was a cheap to run performance car and it was actually more powerful running on the LPG. It started and ran on petrol until the engine was up to temperature and switch over was seamless. I couldn't fault it but it was a more expensive BRC system as far as I remember it was £1800 to convert. Sadly family life necessitated something more practical.

Sent from my SM-T813 using Tapatalk

 

[GlentoranMark]

We have a member who runs his car on bio fuel (forget his name, hope he spots this thread). I've considered it for my own car but I only spend £10 PW on diesel so maybe not really worth the hassle.

There was a local garage that offered conversions and sold the gas but I haven't seen the sign up in the past few years so I assume they've stopped it. There is one or 2 garages locally that sells the gas but again it's the hassle of spending £2k for it to take years to pay itself off.

One thing I've wondered, why haven't we switched all bulbs in a car to LED's? Surely using any electrics uses more fuel so why haven't we converted all bulbs to reduce fuel consumption?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

One thing I've wondered, why haven't we switched all bulbs in a car to LED's? Surely using any electrics uses more fuel so why haven't we converted all bulbs to reduce fuel consumption?

Car manufacturers fit several millions a year so the its a big saving to use the cheaper standard ones.

 

[terrym]

We have a member who runs his car on bio fuel (forget his name, hope he spots this thread).

@cheapbrew is yer man :thumb:

 

[Gunge]

using any electrics uses more fuel

How's that work, then? I can't think how it can increase fuel consumption apart from increasing the load on the alternator and even that is dubious. Patiently waiting to be enlightened and humbled ( seriously!).

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I assume he means the battery needs charging as the bulbs run it down but to be honest the amount the bulbs use is so small i doubt you could measure how much fuel is used to illuminate them.

 

[Druncan]

A guy used to come out here every year to have a holiday and collect waste veggie oil from the cafes/hotels. He would then filter and do some basic chemistry the end product ran his old VW diesel all summer - just needed to switch back to diesel when it got cold.

Such a great idea! I also love the idea of following a car that smells of fish & chips:grin:

 

[Duxuk]

A brake horsepower is 746 watts. If you have 55Watt headlamps and10 watt tail lamps then that's only 130 watts in total. It's a rather insignificant amount of energy compared to the amount of power your car is developing to drive it along. At 70 mph I imagine my car uses about 50 bhp or 37300 watts.

 

[Gunge]

A guy used to come out here every year to have a holiday and collect waste veggie oil from the cafes/hotels. He would then filter and do some basic chemistry the end product ran his old VW diesel all summer - just needed to switch back to diesel when it got cold.

Such a great idea! I also love the idea of following a car that smells of fish & chips:grin:

I know a guy who used to run a small fleet of flatbacks on old chip oil. Worked great but the stench was truly sickening.

 

[Griff097]

I am no mechanic but doesn't the engine oil lube those parts there is nothing in unleaded petrol that would lube them.

(prepares to be shot down in flames)

LPG burns hotter and so knakers the valve seats and can crack the heads on the Rover V8, don't ask me how I know

It sounds like there are alternative methods of keeping them cooler, I have also heard of a water mist spray.