Dual Fuel

[NotoriousREV]

I thought I'd share my experiences with my LPG conversion, in case anyone is thinkng of doing the same. Mine serves as a cautionary tale, but generally these conversions work OK, and mine will too soon ;)

I believe only the GS300 qualifies for a Powershift grant at the moment, but take a look at their website as things change: www.powershift.org.uk

My conversion was done by Snows Garage in Hanley, who are a franchisee of FuelTech www.fueltech.ltd.uk and I chose the 60 litre "big bugger" long range tank rather than the neater 30 litre space saver tank that fits in the spare wheel well.

So, I have a huge tank in my boot, an ugly filler on my back bumper and a neat little switch bow with a row of LED's, what you want to know is: What's it go like?

Generally not too bad. It feels a little sluggish, but only a little. On the motorway it's fine.

Problems I've had:

1) Mixture incorrectly set, so terrible fuel consumption while on LPG (no difference when running on petrol) and cutting out problems and the ECU gets upset.

2) To stop the "ram air effect" they shoved a restrictor into the air intake, drilling holes to correct the intake area away from fast moving air. Unfortunately, they drilled the holes where they get blocked when the air intake is refitted to the vehicle, causing poor running on petrol (loses it's kick above 4500rpm)

The company involved will put these problems right as soon as I can spare the car, so it'll be nice to drive on either fuel.

The main reason for all my problems was the fact that mine was the first IS that FuelTech had done (many changes were made to the kit after my conversion) so I was a bit of a guinea-pig.

Cost was £1150 plus VAT and took 2 days (due to problems with the kit not plugging into the loom without mods!)

Hope this info helps some else in the future.

[Richie]

We have a lot of LPG cars in Holland but i am not a big fan.

[Steve]

can you get any pics of the filler cap , tank and swirches??

Cheers

[NotoriousREV]

yup, I'll get them at the weekend. I'll even do a "spot the difference" under bonnet shot ;)

[NotoriousREV]

OK, here's the pics I promised, click on the links for BIG images (could take a while if you're on a dial-up!)

Full size

Spot the differences?

Full size

The filler is the little black square at the bottom left of the bumper, an adaptor screws into there, and the pump clamps onto that, it gets very cold during the filling, and can (and has) freeze your skin off in cold weather.

Full size

The 5 LED's across the top indicate gas level, the four LED's on the right are green (all four lit means full) then when a fifth of a tank is left, the red LED comes on.

And yes, I did wash my car after taking these pics, I didn't realise how filthy it was ;)

[Edited on 14-1-2002 by NotoriousREV]

[Steve]

Cool shots.. thanks for that.. never seen a conversion before!

[Steve]

by the way.. what is the average MPG with a conversion?

[Rob]

oohhh, im sorry about this and dont wish to offend anyone here, but, nitrous that just looks plain nasty! the boot is small enough as it is never mind a whopping big tank in there.

But i suppose if you do a lot of miles then its not tooooooo bad?

I am a bit puzzled about one thing though - you say they drilled holes / placed a restrictor in the intake to stop or reduce the ram effect, but any ram effect the car would recieve at normal everyday speeds is negligable.

cheers

robbie

[NotoriousREV]

fluff, I don't use the boot much anyway, the most I ever carry is my mobile phone and occasionally my laptop. However, I did manage to go on holiday for a week, carrying 6 people and their luggage. You can store plenty of stuff in there ;)

I do 100 miles a day and the space saver tank only holds 30 litres which at current consumption would need filling once a day, which would p**s me off more than the tank does :D

You're right about the ram air thing, that is simply thier excuse, the fact is the conversion runs very lean and they restricted the intake to crrect the mixture, butchers. However, the updated kit should sort that out.

MPG _should_ be around 20 -21 mpg on gas, unchanged on petrol, but at the moment it's nearer 14mpg, so it's cheaper to use petrol than gas

Put it this way: I won't be converting another car :)

I do 100 miles a day and the space saver tank only holds 30 litres which at current consumption would need filling once a day

[Edited on 15-1-2002 by NotoriousREV]

[Edited on 15-1-2002 by Administrator]

[masharp]

what do lexus think of this conversion

will it affect warranties

[NotoriousREV]

It only affects the warranty if the gas system is found to be at fault.

[skhell]

Hello!

Just to know, is your car a IS200?

Did you had any problems with the valves? Do you use flashlube system?