Well, here are a few pics of my new (ish) Benz. Lovely, in't it?!
Trouble is that it's really bloody expensive to run (18mpg on a good day!)
Along comes LPG... Good!
I have been installing the LPG gas conversion over the last few weeks, which should pretty much halve the fuel cost. Still not cheap, but certainly better than spending £70 to fill the petrol tank, and it then lasting less than 300 miles!
Someone on here asked me to show my installion, so here goes...
The way gas works is actually quite a crude, but devilishly simple system. The petrol fuel pump is switched off, and gas is mixed with air at the air intake of the engine.
I opted for a toroidal tank this time, rather than the big cylinder that sat in the boot on my old SEC. This give me more boot space, as it takes the place of the spare wheel, and I now carry a can of that inflator stuff in case of a puncture.
Picture of tank in spare wheel well:
I have hidden the gas filler behind the number plate, which is now on a hinge.
A pipe then runs out the bottom of the spare wheel well and down the underside of the car to the engine bay. There are several regulations to take into consideration here such as keeping it well away (250mm min) from the exhaust at any point.
Picture of gas pipes running up to filler, and along car to engine bay:
The gas then flows through a series of safety valves, and then into the regulator which supplies the engine with the correct quantity of gas, based on vacuum and pulses from the coil. Again, a very simple system, but it works well.
Picture of regulator installed in engine bay:
When I first ran the car on gas it would always stall at the lights etc. I found out that this was being caused by a ram air effect disrupting the gas supply down the intake. I simply twisted the pipe 90 degrees and the problem was solved. Yes it looses a little power at speed, but it's a 4.2 litre engine! There is still plenty!
The gas is then fed into the intake by the hoses show in the following pic:
Finally, all of this must be controlled and monitored somehow. I installed the electronic box of tricks in the centre console. This allows me to chose between gas and petrol at the flick of a switch, and also shows how much gas is in the tank:
All in all, very pleased. It still goes well (about 20% less power on gas - I can still run on petrol, of course), but it means that it now costs the same to run as a Ford Focus or something equally as dull!
Marvellous!
Trouble is that it's really bloody expensive to run (18mpg on a good day!)
Along comes LPG... Good!
I have been installing the LPG gas conversion over the last few weeks, which should pretty much halve the fuel cost. Still not cheap, but certainly better than spending £70 to fill the petrol tank, and it then lasting less than 300 miles!
Someone on here asked me to show my installion, so here goes...
The way gas works is actually quite a crude, but devilishly simple system. The petrol fuel pump is switched off, and gas is mixed with air at the air intake of the engine.
I opted for a toroidal tank this time, rather than the big cylinder that sat in the boot on my old SEC. This give me more boot space, as it takes the place of the spare wheel, and I now carry a can of that inflator stuff in case of a puncture.
Picture of tank in spare wheel well:
I have hidden the gas filler behind the number plate, which is now on a hinge.
A pipe then runs out the bottom of the spare wheel well and down the underside of the car to the engine bay. There are several regulations to take into consideration here such as keeping it well away (250mm min) from the exhaust at any point.
Picture of gas pipes running up to filler, and along car to engine bay:
The gas then flows through a series of safety valves, and then into the regulator which supplies the engine with the correct quantity of gas, based on vacuum and pulses from the coil. Again, a very simple system, but it works well.
Picture of regulator installed in engine bay:
When I first ran the car on gas it would always stall at the lights etc. I found out that this was being caused by a ram air effect disrupting the gas supply down the intake. I simply twisted the pipe 90 degrees and the problem was solved. Yes it looses a little power at speed, but it's a 4.2 litre engine! There is still plenty!
The gas is then fed into the intake by the hoses show in the following pic:
Finally, all of this must be controlled and monitored somehow. I installed the electronic box of tricks in the centre console. This allows me to chose between gas and petrol at the flick of a switch, and also shows how much gas is in the tank:
All in all, very pleased. It still goes well (about 20% less power on gas - I can still run on petrol, of course), but it means that it now costs the same to run as a Ford Focus or something equally as dull!
Marvellous!
5.7l can do that ;D
). Maybe this can be utilised to boost power? (As if it needs any more! 
)
Now that is going to be VERY VERY cool!! 
)
