Friday, Apr 04, 2008 at 19:36
Most gas kits are generic, and dont always match the engine in your car correctly. Each model engine has different characteristics and gas kits need to take this into consideration even if the engines are the same capacity (ie Ford 4.2 6cyl -v- Holden 4.2 V8). But to save money on R&D they generalise a kit for a range of engines.
I learnt lots from a very old friend of the family who had worked with LPG for 30 odd yrs. He used to modify our mixers to match the engine. We would get slightly better fuel consumption than petrol and more power. Direct injection LPG is the best way to go, but spend the money on a programable ECU and get it tuned on a Dyno.
Head damage is an issue, and LPG installers should tell you if your engine if not LPG ready - but they rarely do. Do your research well or be ready to replace the heads.
As far as engine wear goes - LPG is far better for an engine than petrol - we useually get over 500,000km out of an engine running on LPG (either factory or converted), and the engine usually only needs rings, bearings and a value grind.
Our cars do over 100,000km each a year and LPG saves us around $10k per year per car.
And I can't wait to see if the cost of LPG installs comes down - I bet it doesn't !!
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