Phil. wrote:

bozmandb9 wrote:

I said, does anybody actually know of a car with a head that has failed due to an LPG conversion? and I'm not talking friend of a friend who read about it on the internet!

Mine did. I told you in an earlier post on here when you bought yours and told you about the high power issues plus plenty of others. Mine spent half its life at JE trying to sort all the 'niggles'.


Here's a challenge for you. When you decide to sell please tell us (1) if you broke even financially and (2) if you would do it again with a S/C, honestly.

At the end of the day its a personal choice. I did it and learned a lot but let's not kid ourselves about the issues and compromises involved with converting and running a S/C on LPG.

bozmandb9 wrote:

So you say you had problems, but did you suffer Valve Seat Recession? I'm assuming not.

Phil. wrote:

bozmandb9 wrote:

So you say you had problems, but did you suffer Valve Seat Recession? I'm assuming not.

Yes, mine did suffer Valve Seat Recession and they were replaced by JE. The VSR issue came about after a period of smooth running and then problems began to reoccur which were diagnosed as VSR after about 20k miles of LPG and 40k miles in total mileage.

Great news that all your problems are sorted. The injector systems seem to have developed significantly over the past couple of years.

bozmandb9 wrote:

I didn't realise you had suffered VSR Phil, so did you break even despite this additional cost? I guess it was around £2.5k to replace the heads?

bozmandb9 wrote:

I may of course be wrong, but am I stupid in thinking that if it all goes Pete Tong, I can just hand over £2.5k for the hardened heads, and then be fine?

Bozmandb9

Glad to hear that you have got it back and running OK - do you know if they connected the fuel trim monitoring wires onto the OBD socket ?

I think that's where my apparent temperature gauge issues are coming from - In a similar way to other people that have experienced HDC failure through the OBD wiring causing interference...

I've disconnected mine and it was OK this morning - need to investigate further.....

Cheers

Colin Stolen / Gone: 2006MY Supercharged LPG Autobiography - Zambezi Silver with Sand/Jet/Jet Oxford Leather.....

Guys,

I've now had the car back for a couple of weeks since the Lovato kit was ripped out and replaced with a BRC kit. This was all done at the installers expense, now time to review it.


Firstly, just to summarise I had found the Lovato kit to be fine. It worked well, switched over easily, pretty much what I expected, the problem was the engine management light, although it appeared to be fuelling properly, it was throwing up a fault for lean running.

So now onto the BRC kit, the kit installed was their plug and drive kit for more powerful cars, with two Genius Max reducers, each capable of handling 240 kw, it also has ugraded injectors capable of more throughput, overall the setup is easily capable of handling well in excess of the 400 bhp put out by the Supercharged. Tech information can be found here:
http://www.brc.it/public/TA01Z043I_P&D_EN.pdf

So the effect of the new installation? On LPG it's a new car. It actually feels quicker on LPG than petrol! No warning lights, no problems. Obviously the installer wish they had tried the BRC kit first, but they've learned, and now only install BRC on L322 S/C's. The installation is also more expensive than the original one, but really worth it.

To answer the other obvious question before it comes up, is it fitted with flashlube? Well yes and no. The flashlube manual kit won't work with forced induction, and the electronic kit has a dodgy reputation for reliability, so they fitted a BRC valve lubrication kit, more expensive at £245 parts only, however again worth it. Maintains a full warranty from BRC, works well with the BRC installation, and more reliable.

So now I really feel I have the best of both worlds. I can drive the Supercharged to it's limits, on LPG, with NO discernible difference in performance compared to petrol, I can run for 250 miles on a tank of LPG costing £50, or I can on a long journey use petrol and LPG and get a range of 600 miles.

I would say for anybody interested in a conversion, yes they can go wrong, but go to an installer who's just done a couple with 100% success (my installer did another one with the BRC kit recently), get the same technician, and the risk to me is more than worth it. I am now saving equivalent to £2500+ per year, I don't believe I will get Valve Seat Recession problems, but if I did, one years savings would pay for cost and installation of the JE hardened heads.

I'm happy to recommend EuroLPG, who did my installation, yes things didn't go perfectly, but they took full responsibility, and carried on improving it until I was happy, not many businesses do that nowadays, and they lost money on my conversion (quite a lot), but now they know how to get it 100% right first time.

Also they will become a site sponsor if they get another conversion which references the site. They'll charge around £2,500 for the Supercharged conversion with the BRC kit as per above.

I have no affiliation other than as a happy customer, and I know a lot of people have been interested in this subject, so thought it would be useful to share my experience. Range Rover-less at the moment - Pining!

Much improved, helps you sleep at night

looks like you have all the hard work for anyone else that wants to lpg a s/c...

scarey wrote:

looks like you have all the hard work for anyone else that wants to lpg a s/c...

bozmandb9 please dont post anymore updates about your sc on lpg, your gonna cost me some money at this rate

seriously tho really pleased for ya that its sorted. i think i'll wait tho and see how yours pan out over the year. i do really like the idea of a sc running on lpg. dont really do many miles but planning on keeping the car until its dead so the savings for me over the life of the car could be massive.

keep us informed with regular updates.

cheers Ex FFRR 4.2 Supercharged

www.thecarpetfitter.co.uk