Hi i made lots of enquiries today on an lpg conversion and got lots of mixed opinions 1 lpg installer
told me dont touch "brc" they are the worst and another installer swore that brc are near enough the best.

i spoke to altertech fuel systems who said that the prins system is the best for mk2 gs saying that the system uses kaine injectors which are guaranteed for 180,000 miles.

the prices i was quoted were shocking a brc system fitted is £2000+vat and +£40 if wanting flash lube fitted
another garage prins system fitted £2200 inc with flashlube.

anyway the best offer i got and all the other garages agreed that the offer is a blinding deal and they cannot compete with is a romano lpg conversion fitted within 2-4 days all inclusive of everything along with lpga certificate of conformity, flash lube included, 2 years parts warranty, 1 years labour warranty a free 1000 mile inspection all in for £1720inc or without flashlube £1600 inc, this gentleman has done lex 430s and gs300s and has told me that the injector valves come with 5 year unlimited miles warranty were as prins are limited to 180,000 miles he also said that the valves or injectors on the romano can be used upside down unlike the prins which can only be used upright ( i need to confirm exactly what he meant).

anyways ive booked my car in for the lpg conversion using the romano system at £1720 all inc with flash lube. i hope this info was informative, im sure u guys know better than me all im tryin do is share my hours of research with you lot lol.

what do u all think about my findings? it will be interesting to know.

Hi I have the prins system fitted and it is great you cannot tell the difference between lpg and petrol and cost me £1650 inc

Will be interesting to see how your setup performs. If possible, can you ask the guy to give you a copy of the ECU's config (.rm8) file once he's finished? I've got the Romano system as well and it would be interesting (for me, at least) to compare the final setup with mine.

When testing out the car, do a bit of aggressive driving (in other words, find a dual carriageway and plant your foot) to see if it stays on gas or switches to petrol at high load/rpm.

Good price by the way, mine was £1700. 75 litre Stako toroidal tank (60 litre usable) fits in the wheel well, raises the carpet by about a centimetre. I cut the centre hole out of the plastic tray that sits on the spare wheel and it now sits nicely around the tank and the carpet's level again.

hi guys i booked my car in for inspection this thursday at which stagei must part with £400 deposit ( they say its standard practise). i made some more enquiries today on the lpg conversion and was told that the valves are going to blow on my car at any stage maybe 15k maybe 40k even with flash lube and i will have to pay to get the top end of my engine rebuilt (is this true).

i really want this lpg conversion but now im getting worried (maybe i should buy a cheap diesel runaround for 1700 quid and leave lex for odd days and weekends)

i dont want to spend 1720 on lpg and find that after 20-30k i need my engine rebuilt im really confused, i was under the impression that lpg is better for your car and increases the engine life, will the valves really get damaged or have i been misinformed?

You're having Flashlube fitted, so this should protect the valves.

I've done over 20K, no problem.

Who gave you the scare-story?

[quote name='eXOBeX' date='Jan 9 2007, 10:47 PM' post='407591']
You're having Flashlube fitted, so this should protect the valves.

I've done over 20K, no problem.

Who gave you the scare-story?
[/quote


the guy that told me that the valves will go was s+j motors in hammersmith london, he said that lex rx jeeps could hold out to 30-40k miles and the gs valves could burn out by 15-20k miles even with flashlube fitted. i called my romano fitter and explained this info to him and he said so long as i check the oil for the lpg everyweek and top up as well as having flash lube fitted and a regular yearly service then there will be no probs with the valves.

my romano fitter also told me that valves usually burn out on vehicles that travel long motorway distances on a regular basis i.e 300 miles a day everyday he said that a car thats travelling at 5000 revs will cause valve problems but because im only driving local all the time i wont be affected as the valves are not being used below 2000 revs ( i think thats what he said).

i just dont know wot to do now im really gutted, i might have to find a diesel as a runaround i only have tommorow to decide.

[quote name='seagram' date='Jan 9 2007, 11:19 PM' post='407604']
[quote name='eXOBeX' date='Jan 9 2007, 10:47 PM' post='407591']
You're having Flashlube fitted, so this should protect the valves.

I've done over 20K, no problem.

Who gave you the scare-story?
[/quote


the guy that told me that the valves will go was s+j motors in hammersmith london, he said that lex rx jeeps could hold out to 30-40k miles and the gs valves could burn out by 15-20k miles even with flashlube fitted. i called my romano fitter and explained this info to him and he said so long as i check the oil for the lpg everyweek and top up as well as having flash lube fitted and a regular yearly service then there will be no probs with the valves.

my romano fitter also told me that valves usually burn out on vehicles that travel long motorway distances on a regular basis i.e 300 miles a day everyday he said that a car thats travelling at 5000 revs will cause valve problems but because im only driving local all the time i wont be affected as the valves are not being used below 2000 revs ( i think thats what he said).

i just dont know wot to do now im really gutted, i might have to find a diesel as a runaround i only have tommorow to decide.
[/quote]

Interesting thread especially as my GS is giving me some interesting symptoms at the moment....

My car was converted at 88,000 miles and I bought it with 106,000 miles on the clock. literally 350 miles later it started back-firing and the engine was very lumpy (basically firing on 5). Lexus reckoned it was a valve and sympathised with my plight knowing they would have to take 3 or 4 thou off of me to either replace or repair the head. Fortunately, I got the head sorted at the local engine centre and they reckoned the head was ok, but they skimmed it, reground the valves, replaced the timing belt etc. as a precaution. The one thing they did do though was replace the spark plugs as they were pretty much shot to pieces. 17,000 miles later (100 a day mostly motorway) it is running a bit rough and has back-fired a couple of times. I've a very strong feeling it is the plugs again and may attempt getting the throttle body off this weekend to look at the plugs.

I hope I'm right as I have run it with flashlube most of the time until my "bottle" fell off its mount and got tangled up at the front of the engine

I'm now wondering should I fit higher spec plugs (if that is indeed the problem), or should I ease of the happy pedal a little although I don't tend to go over 75 at all and do a sedate 65 on my way home of an evening.

I have 32k miles on my Prinz system with Flashlube, i had to change my plugs from the standard ones though as it started misfiring almost as soon as i had the conversion done. No problems since the new plugs.

I think cars that do long motorway distances are more likely to be affected because they have a relatively short time running on Petrol, if your only doing 30 miles then the first mile is Petrol anyway.

Daniel.

Hello,

I'm in the process of changing my OMVL Dream LPG injection system over from a GS300 to a GS300 Mk2 and have just read this topic.
Are the GS300 Mk 2 valve seats more prone to damage than the original GS300? I didn't have Flashlube before, do I need it now? Since the topic is somewhat dated are there any updates on the information given? Any halp would be appreciated.

Hi Seagram

Please read from the link below

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...mp;#entry485543


I have since done 15k in mine and it is running really well. Just filled up at 49p per litre and still getting 5 miles per litre approx 10p per mile.

If I really hammer it (never need to though) it will switch over to petrol. The petrol guage still drops when on lpg but eventualy resets itself to the correct level, please ask your installer if they have a fix for this because mine doesnt


cheers

probsat

Hi All
I bought my 1998 Mk 2 GS300 2yrs ago with 60k on the clock. I converted it immediately to LPG at Panache Autogas in Manchester for approx £1700. This is the third car I have had running on LPG.
I have done over 60,000 miles since that time with the bulk of the mileage on motorways or dual carriageways. I travel from West coast of North Wales to Manchester and North England daily. The car has never had any autolube system installed.
To date I have only had one problem with misfiring, which was cured with a new set of sparkplugs (even though they looked in good condition). The misfiring issue has occured on all my gas cars and in all cases a change of spark plugs was all that was needed. I now replace them as a matter of course every 20k miles. I always have the gas system serviced every 10kmiles (approx £60). to date the car has always performed well, it will change to petrol (automatically) on very hard accelleration, but only when the gas tank has less than a third of gas left. Performance wise there is virtually no difference.
The gas tank fits in the spare wheel well and I carry the puncture foam tin as I do not carrry a spare. Doing 30,000 miles a year the payback was within the first year at approx 24,000 miles. I save well over £2500 a year. Probably more now with the petrol prices so high. I get between 240 and 270 miles from each fill up of around 48-52 litres (cost around £25 to £28 to fill up), and do about 23mpg. Based on curent gas and petrol prices it cost around 10pence a mile on LPG and 17.5pence a mile on unleaded. A significant saving per mile!! This is a financial equivelent to over 40 mpg.
My car always starts on petrol and will change over as soon as the engine has reached a set temperature and/or 2000 revs. In winter it takes longer (for obvious reasons). The system that I have installed can be programme to run full time on gas, but I have always avoided this and was advised against it anyway.

If you are environmently friendly then you may be interested to know that LPG burns much cleaner than petrol or diesel and I save approx. 3 tonnes of co2 emmissions per year against using petrol.
To my mind I have never doubted the benefits of using LPG and cannot understand why it is not used more as it is a waste product and is generally what you see burning away at refineries. Converting to LPG as enbled me to have a large engined luxury car for the running costs of a Mondeo/vectra diesel.

The fuel gauge issue is annoying, but livable (continues to fall even though no petrol is used). On up market cars the fuel gauge is driven by the 'actual tank level' and a calculated anticipated level (from the engine management control system). this is to avoid those standard fuel gauge systems where by, the first half of a tank covers hundreds of miles and then suddenly the last half of a tank seems to cover tens of miles (mainly caused by the simple fact that petrol tanks tend to be odd shapes, to fit where they can). With the Lexus, as soon as the difference between the actual level and the anticipated level is approx 2 tenths of a tank, the gauge will reset to the actual tank level. This is most noticeable on a long journey where I have had the gauge reset a couple of times. I am not aware of any solution to this and just put up with it. Neither of my previous gassed cars had this problem, a Daewoo Leganza (2 litre 4cyl) and a Shogun (3 litre V6).

In all the cars that I have had gassed, the fuel pump continues to run and it is essential that at least a quarter of a tank of petrol is maintained to avoid any problems.

Above all, go to a reputable fitting company that has the LPGA approval and can provide a certificate. the certificate is important for insurance purposes who always ask if a LPGA certificate is with the installation. Also some of the ferry companies ask to see a copy of the certificate. LPG cars are not allowed on the channel tunnel.

I recommend that you visit www.go-autogas.com which lists all the approved installers around the country and can also provide an upto date map book, listing all the gas stations in Britain. They also provide a 'points of interest' file for downloading into 'TomTom' satnavs.

I hope this helps, I seemed to have gone on a bit. If you need any other info I will do my best to answer them.

Regards

Tony