LPG in a classic

[R66bby]

Hey guys has anybody had LPG fitted in their carb engined classic car?

[BritishRacinGrin]

Do you really want to drill that many holes in a classic car?

[R66bby]

Depends if it saves me 1/2 the cost of the car per year in fuel costs.

[BritishRacinGrin]

Who buys a carb engine classic car to save costs?

Are you talking about the 2002 here? How much is one of them going to set you back?

[OldGermanHeaps]

Back in 2004 I lpg'd a 1969 transit chassis cab recovery wagon, it had been fitted with an early 70s 3.0v6 capri motor with twin choke weber carb. I fitted a flashlube, carb spuds which used the carbs own venturis instead of an add on mixer, and an omvl closed loop system. To accomodate this i had to weld a boss into the downpipe to take a heated o2 sensor and i had to fabricate a bracket to add a throttle position sensor to the throttle pedal linkage. I added a timing advance processor, which in reality was incorrectly named as it was really a retard processor, you would swing the dizzy to the correct advance for lpg, so when you switch to petrol the processor would kick in and retard the timing so it did not pink.
On lpg it accelerated harder, pulled stronger returned 6 more mpg and would generally run smoother than petrol. I think this was down to the engine liking the perfect mixture a 21st century fuel delivery system could provide compared to the prehistoric chuck it in and hope for the best approach. Normally a lpg conversion would lose a small amount of power and mpg but this wasn't an apples for apples situation. It was at shows for a few years after but i have lost touch with the owner so i dont know its current status. Being an open chassis drilling the metalwork wasn't a concern and it was not original anyway so it didn't really hurt its classic appeal, it was a fun job. Also did an audi quattro, replaced the mechanical fuel injection and retrictive fuel metering system with megasquirt and lpg injectors. Another improvement in performance.

[skyrover]

Fairly common to fit LPG to carb engined range rovers and land rovers

I ripped the LPG system out of mine due to only doing a few miles a year in the thing and the added pipework/loss of space and poor install was a headache when I wanted to tinker with it.

[sideways man]

While looking for a 'new' car as a daily,I stumbled accross jaguar S type,the v8 version.
After initial thoughts of lovely motor but thirsty,I had an epiphany- lpg it.

Considering this for a few days,my conclusion was Money Pit so got a sensible german diesel instead. One for the future though.

[Mr Taxpayer]

sideways man said:

While looking for a 'new' car as a daily,I stumbled accross jaguar S type,the v8 version.
After initial thoughts of lovely motor but thirsty,I had an epiphany- lpg it.

Considering this for a few days,my conclusion was Money Pit so got a sensible german diesel instead. One for the future though.

Though not necessarily a 'classic' in the true sense; an LPG conversion has allowed me to run a WRX Impreza for the same cost as a dull diesel. 40k miles in 2 years and still smiling :-). I can't see me going back to any other fuel type any time soon. Already thinking about my next car a 3.0 Legacy.

[rswift]

A few years ago I bought a 1972 Silver Shadow, early conversion. The car wasn't the greatest example, I bought it for the plate, but enjoyed a few weeks of cheap RR motoring, and had a queue of people at my door when I sold it.

[jmb88]

I've had my 1999 4.2 V8 Audi A6 on gas since last summer. Not actually sure how many miles I've done in that time, but certainly 5k since timing belt was done in late February...

Given that the conversion's dropped the running cost from nearly 30p per mile to (on average) 16p per mile I'd say it's certainly paid for itself a few times over. OK, fuel costs have come down in that time, but on a motorway run it's cheaper to take the V8 barge than the mrs' 2.0TDI Audi Q3, which does generally 40mpg max at motorway speed. Plus, I know which I prefer driving...