Gas Conversion

messy · Post by **messy** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:11 pm

Hey guys just a thought, with rising fuel costs and good subsidies by govt. bodies on gas conversion whats people opinions?

I heard you lose power when using gas compared to fuel? does anyone know a lot about it / use gas themselves with FTO?

Just thinking with my keyboard

Hobbsie · Post by **Hobbsie** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:13 pm

mate.. gas conversion costs about $3 grand for most cars, probably more for FTO since its an import. there is a proposed goverment subsidy that may knock 1 grand off it. better to buy a ex-taxi or something than convert your FTO, yes you will lose significant power, and it may kill your engine.. ftos arent built to run on gas.

ygoslo · Post by **ygoslo** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:50 pm

Not to mention COMPLETELY stuffing up your weight distribution...

Please don't!

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:50 pm

I don't know why people bother to converting to gas, unless you drive 24/7 like taxi driver, and then I don't see any benefit at all.

*Gas can only do half the mileage as normal petrol car
*You lose more then 50% of the power
*It will give you a cold start problem, which increase the engine ware significantly
*You need to have an injector flush every couple of years & they aren't cheap
*Reduce boot space, in a FTO, that mean no boot space left

When you put those things in perspective, how much many are you really saving? Don't forget that it will take you at least 2-3 yrs before you break even with the initial cost of installing one, and when you add the maintenance cost on top, you just playing the catching up game, with no real saving.

khunjeng · Post by **khunjeng** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:09 pm

u can run LPG at higher compression than petrol
I had a LPG falcon when tuned properly almost the same power as the petrol. it was 80 V 85 or something.
cos u tune for LPG and petrol you don't really get it right...best to go straight lpg and tune it properly and get real benifit.
My falcon ran for 300,000km on the same engine, injectors everything.
Based on the tune...u might only get 75% of the efficency in general but since the price is what 60c? then its nearly a 1/3 of the cost. I remember filling up for 9c / ltr one day!

can't remember how much it cost but I think I spent 2.5k on the conversion about 4 years ago!

yeah but you better drive it a sh*t load to recover your costs on a 2l car!

sublime19 · Post by **sublime19** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:10 pm

well its not long before we run out of petrol... few more decades

jonowong · Post by **jonowong** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:56 pm

the new vw is designed to run on lpg and has pretty decent power figures was reading it in the magazine at work

forgot what it was called though.. and i cbf looking it up for you guys, because we aint going to buy it!!!

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:03 pm

Really? I get media release from VW & i haven't read anything about new VW running on gas.....could it be diesel that you mistaken?

And whats wrong with VW, I own one & one of the ex member is now driving one too.

DeFunkeD · Post by **DeFunkeD** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:22 pm

sublime19 wrote:well its not long before we run out of petrol... few more decades

i don't personally think that this would be a good enough reason to switch to LPG considering the fact that petrol and LPG are both made from crude oil, which, coincidentally, is the substance that's running out...

another fantastic band-aid solution by the australian government! (note the sarcasm).

messy · Post by **messy** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:30 pm

Yea wouldnt be happy on the whole power loss and boot space loss to begin with! was just weighing up the pro's (if any) and the cons coz i hear WA state gov is giving subsidies on installation along with the federal governement making an install almost free.. but as pointed out i dont think its gonna be for me either was just interested in seeing how good or bad lpg was ..

JOeJOe · Post by **JOeJOe** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:37 pm

If you want to drive the car, you gotta pay for the petrol ...

There's always public transport and drive the car only on weekends.

Thinking of getting myself a bike

Bike cruise anyone?

messy · Post by **messy** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:41 pm

to rainy

jonowong · Post by **jonowong** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 6:16 pm

i didnt mean it like that... i meant that most of us arent looking into buying a new car

sublime19 · Post by **sublime19** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 6:20 pm

Well I rkn by the time I'm like 40 they'll prolli start making electric cars lol.. well that's 19 years away

I always wonder.. when you have an electric car, say u blow a fuse in the wrong place and your car will prolli blow up, or the brakes will fail or sumthin like that.. gee im a morbid mood 2day

Or you could always have solar powered cars hahah, as soon as it's dark everything shuts down! and everybody's doing 5 kms an hour (that'll prolli be the speed limit)

Camo · Post by **Camo** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:01 am

gas conversion usually costs around $2.5k (maybe more for FTO's)
the govt is giving out $2k

the $500 you will make back in fuel savings within half a year.

You get about 30% less km's using LPG (not 50%)

And an obvious power loss.

In the end, prob not the best idea for the FTO (as you would have almost 0 boot space left) However, its a great idea for everyone with larger cars.

Your fuel bill will be almost halved. I dont see a problem with that!!!!

Go govt!!!

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:47 am

Interesting news tonight where a Liberal politician claim you will only save money on LPG after 50,000km. Way to go to dig yourself gov.

Btw I got that 50% less in mileage figure from the channel 7 morning program Sunrise, where they had the LPG Austrlia (something along the line) claim it does reduce up to 50% of mileage with LPG when it compare to petrol.

Anyway it certainly did with my stupid ex-work VAN, and all the other problems are from the experience of that VAN too. Like i said people always just look at the surface benifit but not the overall pictures.

Ford use to make dual fuel falcon & they took it off the production line after couple of years. If they are so good, why car company spending more money on develop Hybrid & diesel but not LPG?

JOeJOe · Post by **JOeJOe** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 9:59 am

What are your thoughts regarding Ethanol as an alternative fuel source?

I was listening on the radio today that it's much cleaner and cheaper to run plus the conversion won't cost as much as changing to LPG.

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:23 am

Hmm what do you mean by converting to Ethanol? As in running the car with pure Ethanol? The only place I'm aware of that have petrol station which provide pure Ethanol is a tiny state in Brazil. (The story was featured on Beyond tomorrow)

So until we have petrol station that provide 100% Ethanol, is way too early to guess what can or will happen.

But lots of petrol station do have 5% ethanol blend already and apparently the save level for any car at the moment is 10%.

JOeJOe · Post by **JOeJOe** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 12:09 pm

The oppisition premier was on the radio this morning, he said he converted so now his car is running on 85% ethanol and been running on ethanol for about two years now ... don't know how much truth is in that comment but it sounds like a good idea.

As to how bad or good it his for your car i don't know. I'll do some research on it and see what'll come up.

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 1:16 pm

OMG so does he go to Bunnings & buy ethanol by the truck full?

I'm wonder how do people convert a modern cars these days, as 80% of the new cars now have direct injection (don't get confuse with normal fuel intected), which give better fuel economy & more power. So if theres no petrol to inject, what will happen?

I guess that won't be a concern to those who drive Ford (Australia) or Holden, as 95% of their cars don't have direct injection yet.