lpg convertion ????

[liamgoodwin]

hi im thinking of convertion my vectra 1.8 vvt sri facelift, to lpg, wht do ya think is it worth doing ?

[m8internet]

As a 2006, what mileage is it on?
How long do you plan to keep it?
How many miles do you do each year?

[Woody]

Well, I can't say that I've done any homework on the suitability of your engine for conversion, but in making your decision, allow for approximately £1000-£1200 conversion costs and certification for a professional quality job.
A suitable engine should perform with no perceptible difference in performance, even the changeover from petrol/lpg/petrol goes un-noticed on my car.
After that you just need to work out your present annual fuel useage cost & mileage and then divide approximately by 2 to get an annual saving (allows for LPG being approximately half the price of petrol). Converted engines should give you an almost identical mpg figure to the one you presently get using petrol.
Compare your saving to the cost of installation and it will give you some idea as to how long it will be before the installation starts to save you money.
To check on engine suitability, there are a few lpg forums you can take a look at and I'm sure there will be others on here somewhere who can advise on your engine suitability or indeed actual results if they have already have a converted engine.
Hope that helps m8, I'm certainly well chuffed with the results, as I'm sure the other guys will also tell you when you meet them filling up at the lpg pump LOL.
Cheers
Woody

[Aidi]

The other important factor is where your local LPG station is! Easy to forget that one and then realize its a 10 mile drive to fill up! Also take into consideration the size of the tank you want. A wheel well tank that sits flush will be about 54L which you need to take off 20% for expansion. Doing 30mpg on average will give you about 210-230 miles to a tank.

Also, you need to have it serviced each year - so add £80-100 for that.

But having just sold a 2L turbo with LPG it was certainly worth it IMO. Just dont go for a cheap install - you'll regret it! As Woody says aim for £1k upwards for a quality install

[liamgoodwin]

i think it will be worth doing in the long run, coz i love my car , justwould like better consuption,
thank you very much woody

[Woody]

No problem Liam. You obviously will not get "better consumption" once converted (just the same as you got before conversion hopefully), but at least when you "fill up", you can reckon on it costing roughly 50% of what it does now
All the best anyway
Woody

[rich r]

The Z18 engine was designed for LPG from the outset - hence Vauxhall offering it as Dual Fuel on the Vectra (and Astra, Meriva, Zafira etc). I've got a 2004 1.8 Dual Fuel Elegance, and find it superb. As for fuel consumption, the VVT engine is a little better than the non-VVT I have, but I would expect you'd get around 40mpg on LPG with mainly constant speed dual carriageway/motorway driving. Round town it's more I get more like 35mpg. Basically a little less than it'll do on petrol, but with fuel costing half what petrol does, it's not such an issue. A decent conversion will result in no loss of power (as it'll advance the ignition timing), and generally smoother and quieter engine with very clean exhaust.

[DTi Elite]

don't always expect the same MPG when running on LPG , anywhere up to 20% less is considered normal .
my old 2.0 vectra B would do 28 MPG on gas , thats it & made no difference if it was round town or on the motorway , driving like miss daisy or driving like I nicked it .
I may well have considered another LPG car but not worth the hassle for me as the nearest filling stations that are open when I am not at work are about 7 miles ( not enough pressure in their pump so only get about 60 % fill up ) about 8 miles & hardly ever have any gas ( as well as being way over priced ) 10 miles & the price is up & down ( when I sold my B in june they were charging 82.9 ) then another one 16 miles away which was cheaper .
so in the end it got cashed in & I am now back on diesel , can buy it anywhere at any time pretty much .
not much worse than being in a strange area & having to dry a few different garages before you find one with LPG .

[Woody]

Granted, the location and pricing levels of your nearest LPG stockist should be a large consideration when going through the decision making process. Had I not been within a mile of a competitive stockist (69.9p currently at BP Europa Boulevard Warrington) I might have reconsidered with other local stockists being on the "gravy train".

As far as MPG goes, I must confess, all my present values (26-27mpg) are based on the car's board computer which reads the same for instantaneous use whenever I have tested it at a constant by switching from one to the other (I have never done a tank full to empty vs mileage covered test). That said, at 26mpg even though approximate, it still takes some beating at the equivalent of 52-54mpg from a 3.2 engine.

[Bigtee]

Buy a diesel 120 cdti.