GPreater

Hi everyone

I would like to say that after extensive reading on this forum I have found it to be both informative and for once free from the usual ignorant comments other forums seem to be plagued with. Obviously I have now registered and hope to become an active part of this forum where I can both learn and offer my experiences and knowledge on various subjects. For information I myself drive a 1998 E55 AMG (W210). With 88,000 miles on the clock the car is, as I like to say, just run in! I purchased the car 4 years ago and have maintained it meticulously since, with a full service history from Mercedes and recently having fitted 16 new platinum plugs and new brakes all round the car is tip top so no reason to change. In fact I have just made a lasting decision, that it to now keep this car for the rest of its useful life...........! I have always liked the drive of a V8 motor and the 55 has never let me down, with bags of torque the car has become something I realise I would miss were it not there, additionally (based on its current value) I find it almost impossible to replace it with anything that would come close to giving me the comfort, power, poise and pure drivability of the E55.

However with all the above said there does exist an issue, this is the running costs, at present I get approximately anything from 18mpg (hard driving) to as much as 28 mpg (75mph casual driving down the motorway). Now with petrol at 99.9 pence per litre and my job having just changed I now commute 120 miles a day i.e. a large monthly fuel bill. The answer LPG?????

Now I imagine many people are thinking no way! however I would be happy to hear the views of others on this, here is my arguement:

I have had an LPG survey conducted on my car, due to the configuration of the boot space I can fit an 85 litre lpg tank of the donut type in the wheel well, this will give approximately 70 usable litres, based on an average of 18 mpg on gas (approximately 22 mpg on petrol - 15% mpg loss for gas = 18.7 mpg on LPG) then this should give me a range of approx 277 miles (acceptable just!!!) the real difference being in price the difference being below:

Petrol 22 miles per gallon @ 99.9 pence per litre or
LPG 18 miles per gallon @ 42 pence per litre

You are welcome to work this out for yourself or accept the below:

I suggest I would get approximately 18 miles per gallon on lpg but due to the price of lpg being less than half that of petrol This gives the equivalent mpg for using lpg as 42 mpg (minimum). So on the face of it a no brainer!

Run an E55 with no depreciable power loss (remember it has 391 ftlbs of torque) for the price of my wifes 1.3 fiesta. Makes sence?

Now the recommended conversion should be from Prince (dutch made and engineered) these are more expensive than most but would you put anything less than the best on an E55? The conversion cost is not cheap £2500 +VAT, however as I do approx 30,000 miles a year then the pay back should be within 1 year!!!!!

Now having shared this I would like to ask some questions of the forum:

1. Does anyone out there have a merc running on LPG obviously I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone with a W210 E55 AMG, what are your experiences what system are you using etc.

2. Does anyone out there have access to, a copy to share or a place where I can obtain decent workshop manuals for the above car.

3. Any other comments or experiences you wish to share.

I hope I have explained myself well and maybe given pause for thought! thanks for reading and hope to see some great answers.

Regards, Graham

E55 KEV

Hello Graham, welcome aboard. Hope you find some answers to LPG - whatever that is?

Barada

Yeah welcome aboard. Good luck with the LPG thing as well.

Whitey

LPG stands for liquid petroleum gas, typically used in stoves and other househould applications.

Some vehicles in the UK (and Europe) as well as Asia use them. Here in Hong Kong, its mostly cabs.

I don't have much experience other than standing behind a taxi running LPG...boy it stank! Smelt like there was a gas leak in the neigborhood... I would also like to point out that the need to add the gas tank in the trunk means less space and alot more weight..further depleting performance.

FireFox31

Welcome to the forums. Two thoughts:

At 30k miles per year, will your car live long enough to pay you back for the LPG conversion? Sure, it pays back in 1 year, but what about the hassle of getting the fuel every day compared to the ease of stoping at the petrol station every other day? Do you need a huge tank of LPG at your house, and isn't that dangerous?

And if your trip is 120 miles, isn't a lot of that distance at high MPG highway speeds? Hopefully?! If they make you drive 120 miles on backroads or city streets, I'd invest the pounds in telecommuting.

Good luck with the beast.

GPreater

It seems many people do not understand the benefits of LPG. Yes LPG stands for Liquid petrolleum Gas and is believe it or not a waste by product of oil refining. In the UK, LPG costs about 42 pence per gallon as opposed to 99.9 pence per gallon Petrol. LPG is odourless, however the refining companies do add a scent so that you can recognise leaks more easisly, however due to the fact that LPG has a higher octanne rating than petrol it burns hotter and as such no smell is detected from the exhaust.

In terms of my journey I travel 120 miles per day at least 110 of these are motorway, thus I can cruise at say 80, 85 and see a payback in less than one year on the conversion cost. Additionally I am having fitted a 77 litre donut tank in the wheelwell and a smaller tank in the boot of 60 litres giving a 137 litre capacity which should give a range of approximately 480 miles on LPG, more than the current range I would receive on the 80 litre petrol tank fitted by mercedes.

Space is not an issue I can still fit my spare wheel inthe boot and fundermentally I very rarely carry much with me anyway.

Performance difference is negligible the new system from Prins VSI is regarded as being the best in the world and fundermentally the larger the engine you start with the less the difference. My colleague is currently running a BMW 750i V12 on LPG, difference in performance is not really noticable, however he is gloating somewhat at the return of equivalent mpg to petrol of 39 mpg in a 5.4 litre V12 not bad. I bet a few large Beemer drivers would love to see that!

Any other comments welcomed.

Regards, Graham

GPreater

Sorry I should have said, no I do not need to have an LPG tank at home, the UK has numorous stations selling LPG alonside petrol. I very much doubt I would ever have to go out of my way to find a garage selling LPG, and anyway at the touch of a button I can transfer to run on petrol if required for a few miles. Yes the car will easily last long enough to see the payback, firstly my car currently has 88000 miles on the clock, a V8 Merc well looked after can easily make 500000 miles. Additionally gas is cleaner and a higher octane rating so actually better for your engine, other than the fact that gas does not contain the detergents of petrol.

Air Marshall Eldritch

It's all in the quality of the moderators.

The question I have is how many miles/kilometers you have already put on the vehicle. At 30,000 miles per year, how many more years will you keep the car as your daily driver?

Also, what does LPG weigh per liter? If same or less than petrol, I think I agree that it is a no-brainer if the payback is only one year.

Musikmann

My advice would be to buy an inexpensive commuter auto to rack up all those miles, and to therefore drive your Benz much less often for fun. Something like your wife's 1.3L Ford Fiesta (european Ford, correct?)

For what this is worth, MB in europe already produces some vehicles that run on LPG, but I think most of those are used for commercial purposes, like taxis.

cepal67

Been a while since your questions, Graham... May I ask, how your story ended up? Did you get it on LPG (I can see one car exaclty like yours, with LPG, on sale on Autotrader at the moment!!!), or did you get another commuter which is cheaper to run? IMHO it makes sense to get a lowest-running-cost commuter, like a smaller BMW 325i/E46 and feed that with LPG (6 cylinders = cheaper LPG installation...). Still enjoyable, big enough for an LPG tank && suitcase, actually more agile than that E-klasse... and much cheaper to run (esp. when things work well and don't rust etc.). I personally commute on a BMW K75RT, an old "classic-K" flying brick motorcycle...