diesel v's petorl and LPG

G'day Paul, You are right,LPG is cheaper, it's just that you will use to much of it. We have found that we didn't benefit from so called better fuel consumption and have recently decomissioned the gas and gone with a bigger unleaded tank.
You may also find that to tune your Patrol is going to be a difficult exercise, you can tune for unleaded or you can tune for LPG but to tune for both is very difficult.
Good luck with whatever you decide!!!!
MightyQ

The petrol/LPG will give you the grunt to get over the sandhills, but you'll have to stay close to civilisation, as most Outback communities don't have LPG (some don't even have petrol). If you want to really get out into the backblocks, go for diesel, otherwise the petrol/LPG would be fine. At the end of the day, you need to work out what you want from the vehicle and how much you want to spend on it. Overall costs work out pretty close for both options when you factor in fuel, servicing, rebuild costs, etc.

Cheers
John, Oodnadatta

Paul, I own an 88 GQ patrol (4.2L) on dual fuel, and must say, LPG is an absolute blessing in city/populated usage. I regularly drive (from sydney) to newcastle, and Nowra (each about 200km one way) and find that the patrol is as cheap to run as most hatchbacks! I get around 28L of LPG per 100km, BUT the advantage is 35c per litre. In the country areas along the coast of NSW I find the price goes up to 48c per litre, but the unleaded is also very expensive in these areas.

I agree you will find it very difficult to get LPG in the outback, but if you plan to go inland for an extended period of time, most LPG mechanics will adjust your timing for unleaded driving for less than $100, and then you can carry plenty of fuel in jerry cans AND keep your LPG for when you get back.

As far as power goes, I can still pull a 2 ton car trailer up to newcastle at the speed limit most of the way, except for some steeper hills. Offroad, I've always had plenty of power to do anything on sand or rock. With timing advanced for LPG you will find no noticable difference in the power between petrol and LPG.

The only other thing that I can think of is that it will run a little hotter on gas, and thus some people have experienced cracked heads. In my family, we have two '88 GQs on LPG/unleaded and have put a total of around 300 000km on them, and never had a problem.

Also, use Penrite HPR gas oil, as it gives better pressure than the others.

good luck,

James