Sunday, Oct 12, 2008 at 14:22
Have had 2 vehicles converted by diesel gas australia
1Cruiser 1HD-T 4.2 80 series
1 F 250 7.3 liter Power Stroke intercooled V8
Both rn great on the diesel gas blend and oth get more ho ad save $ on running costs etc.
One thing I'd encourage you to do!
Switch the gas off for a moment - and do an oil change - keep a sample of your used oil from before the conversion, have it ananlysed by westrac CAT & pay for the more detailed analysis kit where they
check soot levels.
Then switch the gas back on and keep testing the used oil at the oil change intervals to see if theres any diofference.
Reason I say that is:-
Most of the converters claim your engine runs cleaner due to higher efficiency of burn when LPG is added.
I hav found the opposite - the oil gets dirtier with LPG not cleaner (quite a few samples now over both vehicles).
I also get reports from the testers that the oil has higher sulphation and nitration levels meaning you can't go to extended oil change intervals - even with the new expensive synthetic oils that claim you can.
at $20 a liter for Delvac 1 and using 18 liters per change in Effie - (i.e. $360 per change) - you would want to get mmore than 5000 km's per change - and because of the resultsI'm getting back on the oil analysis - i can't do that!
What I'm saying is - it pays to keep an eye on the condition of the engine before and fater the conversion - if wear metas were to increase rapidly - you'd want to know in time to do something about it.
I've read a LOT of advice given out at this
forum by those with diesel gas conversions, praising the imporvements but no one so far that i have seen that is easurig / quantifying accurately - any changes in a technical manner such as used oil analysis to look for any downsides.
I'm still happy with both vehicles performance - just not happy that some of the claims (cleaner running engines) the converters are claiming arent supported by the UOA
test results at all.
I'd also suggest installing at a minimum a Pyrometer gauge for monitoring Exhaust Gas Temps, the increase in operating temp COULD be responsible for the early failure of the lubricating oils.
Go into this with your eyes wide open is what I am saying.
I keep excel spreadsheets of my used oil analysis results for all 3 t diesel vehciles, before and after conversion - with or without gas etc, and can graph the changes for a pictorial trend to SEE frst hand the changes!
The advertising isn't telling the WHOLE story only the good bits they want us to know.
Cheers
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Dave(NSW) - Sunday, Oct 12, 2008 at 14:35
Sunday, Oct 12, 2008 at 14:35
Flywest,
You are dead right, The "clean running engines" just means it's not blowing as much smoke out the exhaust
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