lpg cars

matuto

Has anybody converted their cars to use natural gas? How much was the conversion? Is it working well? Tell us your experience.

JUST_JT

LPG <> Natural gas ...

-Just_JT
This.is.a.free.lesson.

metabolicheater

LPG is not natural gas.

LPG is high pressured. Natural gas is low pressured. They use a different orifice to deliver the gas.

I ask a taxi driver how's the performance of their LPG. He told me, the performance is not that good as gasoline, but it saves them more. I think it's working good because a lot of taxi's are LPG powered.

rational

Yup, LPG is primarily butane. Natural gas is primarily methane.

Anyway, the one's with the most experience here are the taxi drivers and they all are unhappy with it. The thing is, I wonder how much of the stories are true and how much are kuwentong drayber,

For example, there's a story going around among them na marami raw nagkakasakit sa baga na mga taxi driver na LPG ang gamit. But, you know, if this is true e di dapat marami ring kusinero at housewife na may sakit sa baga?

jason_10

It's hard to listen to to a taxi driver's tale.

It all depends on how the conversion was done. Modern LPG kits are better since fuel is controlled by en external ECU.

Nietono_no_Shana

Not sure if it is true but according to some taxi driver's I have talked to the torque of the car is somewhat less after being converted to LPG, as for one said that he have to limit his passenger count when he need to drive to Antipolo. And somehow the acceleration of the car is slower.

slamm

jason_10 wrote: »

It's hard to listen to to a taxi driver's tale.

It all depends on how the conversion was done. Modern LPG kits are better since fuel is controlled by en external ECU.

x2 on this.

Been using LPG (SGI type kit) for three years and 55,000kms on one of our cars and am quite satisfied. Installed it on a 2007 Altis when it was less than a year old (screwed the warranty... i dont go to the CASA anyway).

Servicing:
- I just go in for my regular change oil and tune ups every 5,000kms. Just the same with any car. I use regular mineral-based oil (Mobil 1000 which is LPG specific) and colder spark plugs (NGK BKR7E).
- I visit my LPG shop once or twice a year to check and calibrate the ECU and LPG settings.
- I load around 300 pesos of Petron Blaze every 2-3 weeks to use as fuel to start and warm up the engine to optimal operating temp before it switches to LPG (LPG is vaporized for combustion by the engine heat from the cooling system). This also ensures that your gasoline injectors dont get stuck up, and SGI kits also cycle every few minutes to run your fuel injectors and help lubricate the engine (LPG burns dryer as compared to gasoline).

Power:
- Never bothered to dyno tune but the difference is quite negligible with the SGI kits as these run with an ECU in tandem with your engine management. Its a different story with the carb type kits of taxis which tend to lose top end hp but is still acceptable in the daily grind. Taxi drivers are also known to mess around with the settings to maximize fuel efficiency.
- i drive to Baguio, Zambales, Tagaytay, etc. on LPG with a full load (and my Thule roof carrier) and the car can still overtake, run to its 6,500rpm redline, and reach 160-180kph. Maxed out at 200kph once.

Efficiency:
- On the city cycle i still do 10km to 11km/L (1.6L m/t) while my highway cycle dropped to 11km/L to a max of 12 (from 14km/L back when i was using gasoline)... not bad really. I think this can improve if i retune with slightly smaller injectors.

Problems:
- Had some idling bugs when the kit was first installed. Fine tuning worked it out (note: some cars are harder to tune then others, i was lucky that the Toyota VVTi EFIs are easy to tune for LPG according to my mechanic at Greenfuel).
- Had to replace my LPG vaporizer already once (after 45,000kms); cost me around 3K so nothing much really. just the same price as OEM fuel filters for the Altis.
- Less trunk space (but still enough for almost anything except really long vacations with the kids).

At the end of the day, its also garbage-in, garbage out. Most complaints you'd get are from taxi drivers who don't maintain their rides in the first place and go for the cheapest available kit. Its also best to see to it your ride is in good condition before installing to avoid tuning and reliability problems afterwards. I spent 40K for the Greenfuel SGI kit in my car and its paid itself back in full since last year per my computations.

Some helpful articles and forums:
http://www.pbase.com/cmanaginged/image/104147602/original
http://tsikot.yehey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72927

Its not a perfect relationship for all. Just do more research, visit some installers then decide if its for you or not.

HTH.