LPG conversion-can be harmful?
#26
#27
MBWorld Fanatic!
You sir are with out dout the most un educated , small minded person I have yet see on this forum !! Rude , judgmental and with an opinion that just shows your ignorance! Well done !
So all in all, the only troll here is you my friend. You managed to type an insulting comment without even contributing in any way. Consider yourself ignored.
#28
MBWorld Fanatic!
I also forgot to mention the increase in weight, the massive reduction of boot space and the dangers.
Weight is going to increase due to an extra tank in the boot. This tank is heavy since the LPG is pressurized.
Space in the boot is going to be alot less, the tank has to go somewhere, are you going to customize a tank instead of the factory one? That would kill the car's value. So you won't be able to use the car as well as before for carrying things, one of the advantages of having a car with a big boot has been virtually ruined.
LPG tanks are dangerous because they're pressurized, in an accident if the tank were to burst the fire danger would be huge. I remember a taxi and been rear ended by a truck 2 blocks from where I work. The car ran on LPG and the tank burst. Naturally at an accident a fire can start in many ways and in that instance it did. The LPG ignited and burnt the driver before he could escape the car as it was upside down and the driver died.
There are alot of safety features on LPG cars and their tanks but these safety features aren't bulletproof and may go wrong depending on the situation. A retrofitted tank can be of bad quality and fitment and things can go wrong.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...cigarette.html
Just an example of a situation with LPG, now this ended well with no real damage to anyone. Things however don't always go this well. Do some research on LPG car fires and explosion.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...?from=storyrhs
This though, did not end up so well.
Weight is going to increase due to an extra tank in the boot. This tank is heavy since the LPG is pressurized.
Space in the boot is going to be alot less, the tank has to go somewhere, are you going to customize a tank instead of the factory one? That would kill the car's value. So you won't be able to use the car as well as before for carrying things, one of the advantages of having a car with a big boot has been virtually ruined.
LPG tanks are dangerous because they're pressurized, in an accident if the tank were to burst the fire danger would be huge. I remember a taxi and been rear ended by a truck 2 blocks from where I work. The car ran on LPG and the tank burst. Naturally at an accident a fire can start in many ways and in that instance it did. The LPG ignited and burnt the driver before he could escape the car as it was upside down and the driver died.
There are alot of safety features on LPG cars and their tanks but these safety features aren't bulletproof and may go wrong depending on the situation. A retrofitted tank can be of bad quality and fitment and things can go wrong.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...cigarette.html
Just an example of a situation with LPG, now this ended well with no real damage to anyone. Things however don't always go this well. Do some research on LPG car fires and explosion.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...?from=storyrhs
This though, did not end up so well.
Last edited by e500slr; 09-17-2011 at 06:23 AM.
#29
MBWorld Fanatic!
Good points, just wrong car, wrong forum. Just my opinion. Car never built for economy, 90%+ people here don't care about LPG for E55. Good luck with your quest. Park the car and take a bus
#30
MBWorld Fanatic!
I should also mention the reliability issues and the cold start issues with LPG, it really is a PAIN IN THE ***. The stuff seems good on paper but believe me you will regret it on a top of the line Mercedes like this. Do it to an econo car and drive the E55 when you want to have fun. That's the only solution I see.
#31
Hi I Am new to mb world I have just purchased v reg c230 convertable my problem is that it drinks a lot of fuel I was wondering is it worth me converting it to LPG gas and if so would it give me more mileage as well as the price being cheaper .i have other issues like would it give u problems on gas
#32
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MB; 55KCL AMG, SL550 SLS AMG G500 Cabrio 280SL ML350 CLS550 ML500 E55 AMG CL500 S600 SLK32 AMG
Thank you all for your kind replies, especially to 220S who seems to know a lot about how things are going here.
To make things clear:
In Romania there are some shops that are doing this sort of "LPG conversion", and they claim that with the new type LPG installations produced in Italy and Holland you won't have a loss of power greater than 5%. I don't buy that, of course they have to sell.
But I would preffer to use LPG in the city(where our MPGs are frustrating), drive a little slower(you're not supposed to do all day long races in town) and run my car as I like using gasoline outside.
The $$$ savings comes from the fact that although fuel consumption is about 6-7% bigger on LPG, the price is half of the gasoline.
And now my main concern:
Because as all of you I love my "baby beast", I'm afraid of possible complications that could occur, such as a blown engine, knock on wood.
Of course if you ask the guys from the shop about this they will say "you won't have any problems", but again, they have to sell.
This was my question, but as 220S said I asked on the wrong place considering gasoline is a lot cheaper in the States.
Thank you all again !
To make things clear:
In Romania there are some shops that are doing this sort of "LPG conversion", and they claim that with the new type LPG installations produced in Italy and Holland you won't have a loss of power greater than 5%. I don't buy that, of course they have to sell.
But I would preffer to use LPG in the city(where our MPGs are frustrating), drive a little slower(you're not supposed to do all day long races in town) and run my car as I like using gasoline outside.
The $$$ savings comes from the fact that although fuel consumption is about 6-7% bigger on LPG, the price is half of the gasoline.
And now my main concern:
Because as all of you I love my "baby beast", I'm afraid of possible complications that could occur, such as a blown engine, knock on wood.
Of course if you ask the guys from the shop about this they will say "you won't have any problems", but again, they have to sell.
This was my question, but as 220S said I asked on the wrong place considering gasoline is a lot cheaper in the States.
Thank you all again !
I don't even look at the price of gas anymore. I drive and I know I need it before the little light comes on.
Good luck MB55, post results if it goes well
#34
Junior Member
Its true that primitive LPG systems without other engine mods will lose power. In Australia, LPG has been very popular to lower running costs and is now becoming popular for performance applications. In fact I have several friends who have converted turbocharged vehicles to LPG and had significant performance gains.
I thought I would add some more facts to this thread:
As for the OP, I think you should definitely investigate the options. There is no fundamental reason why LPG would not work great on a 55K engine. As for whether you actually save any money, that will be largely dependent on how many kms you travel compared to the cost of the modifications.
Disclaimer: I am not involved in selling or installing LPG systems, I don't even intend to do my own conversion. I am just a mech engineer who likes to see evidence based analysis
Some references:
http://www.hsv.com.au/e3/feel/lpi.aspx
http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...720-1holx.html
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11273347
I thought I would add some more facts to this thread:
- LPG is higher octane than premium petrol and much more knock resistant.
- Advanced liquid LPG injection is now available through a number of vendors. Older systems vaporised the gas before mixing with the charge air, negating a number of benefits.
- Injecting LPG as a liquid takes an enormous amount of heat out of the charge air due to the latent heat of vaporisation, especially beneficial on forced induction engines.
- Typically even a normally aspirated engine will gain power after fitting a LPI system without even a retune. Further gains to be made by retune, or increasing compression and running gas only. Forced induction situations allow a significant boost increase and generally running more agressive timing which also increases power.
- Both HSV (General Motor's Holden performance division) and Ford Australia offer performance vehicles running on LPG with no performance loss, in fact Ford claims a gain.
As for the OP, I think you should definitely investigate the options. There is no fundamental reason why LPG would not work great on a 55K engine. As for whether you actually save any money, that will be largely dependent on how many kms you travel compared to the cost of the modifications.
Disclaimer: I am not involved in selling or installing LPG systems, I don't even intend to do my own conversion. I am just a mech engineer who likes to see evidence based analysis
Some references:
http://www.hsv.com.au/e3/feel/lpi.aspx
http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...720-1holx.html
http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11273347
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MchaelG (07-29-2019)
#37
Super Member
I have seen a few converted in the UK, it can and has been done, cant comment on performance impact, but for everyday cruising it should be fine, just switch it to petrol when you need the grunt!
#38
Wow I can't believe the lack of understanding about using LPG / Autogas as a low cost option to running on petrol / gasoline. The impact on performance is negligible and I would challenge anyone to actually feel a difference in real world driving. In Europe and the UK petrol currently costs about £1.40 per litre, that's £6.36 per gallon !!!!!! Autogas can be bought for around half the price, so its just a straightforward mathematical comparison to work out how much you can save. Obviously the cost of conversion has to be considered as well but I do know that in several Eastern European countries high quality conversions can be got for very reasonable prices. A local convertor routinely fits systems to his own S500's, CL500's and SL500' s he's had over the years. I've been running vehicles on LPG for many years, Range Rover V8's, Jaguar V8 S Type, Lincoln Navigator, American RV's, Volvo T5's, Volvo S80 etc. among many others and what it actually means is that you get to enjoy high performance motoring for half the fuel cost compared to running on petrol. My current S80 returns about 24mpg on autogas, on petrol maybe 24 /25, so in reality its as if I am driving a petrol car which returns 40-45mpg. 105k on the clock, runs sweet as a nut 100% reliable. Even thinking about having my wife's A150 converted which would give her the equivalent of roughly 80mpg....................now that's something worth thinking about !
GO FOR IT MERCEDESBENZ55............you won't regret it and it will make your car much more saleable when you decide to sell
GO FOR IT MERCEDESBENZ55............you won't regret it and it will make your car much more saleable when you decide to sell
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MchaelG (07-29-2019)
#41
MBWorld Fanatic!
OP - you'll be fine, as long as it's set up properly. Find a reputable shop first of course.
I know of people that have used LPG to fuel nitrous powered sleepers that hit 11's all day. Why oh why have so many people jumped on the bangwagon of attacking the OP in this thread
#42
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03 W211 E55
Hi
In Australia it is common knowledge and done on a regular basis and that is if a car is converted to lpg using ICOM JTG hardware for a liquid injected system the car will never lose power running on lpg and in more instances than not it will gain some horsepower.
Regards,
OZZYAMG
In Australia it is common knowledge and done on a regular basis and that is if a car is converted to lpg using ICOM JTG hardware for a liquid injected system the car will never lose power running on lpg and in more instances than not it will gain some horsepower.
Regards,
OZZYAMG
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MchaelG (07-29-2019)