Comments on: LPG vs. Petrol

By: patrick

patrick — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:11:47 +0000

i have a ford maverick on gas, it only has a 70l gas tank and 70l fuel,
my consumption is the same. around 200klms per tank. yes it is a heavy car kerb weight is just under 3tonnes. it is heavy on the consumption but it is cheap to fill,
it has just clocked up 400,000 and its done the head gasket,
to replace the head gasket and head work is on the $1000 mark without labour,
ive been told that gas burns dry and expels extra heat, causing the valves and valve seats to wear faster.
has anyone else heard of this?

after this little expense i think i will run an upper cylinder additive.

By: Julian

Julian — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:53:58 +0000

I purchesed my VS commodore (1997 model) 3 years ago with 175,000kms on it. Converted to LPG straight away, after the $2000 rebate I was $225 out of pocket I had the conversion done cheap as they used a second hand gas tank, that had been tested and tagged for another 10 years use. the conversion also included a FlashLube kit.

FlashLube is probably a good idea for anyone concerned about damaging their engine. I cannot find much info about long term flash lube use and proof of its claims, but for the price I’m not going to take the risk. It is a valve & upper cylinder lubricant. These are susposed to be the areas of the engine that wear out due to gas.

My car now has 289,000kms on it with no major issues. Runs perfectly on gas, I also have been running straight gas, no petrol at all. my conversion lets me start on gas, the petrol pump is disconnected in the car.

So costs for the last 100,000kms

Flash Lube $150 approx
changed spark plugs 3 times $75 approx
changed leads 2 times $100 approx

so total extra maintenance cost me about $325 as i did the labour myself.
Also most of the driving I am towing about 1000kgs. my fuel use is very high approx 25L/100km on gas. when the car was on petrol the fuel use was approx 20L/100km

Price of petrol approx $1.40 price of gas approx $0.52.

As you can see the amount of fuel I use is very high and if i had to purchase petrol I would have to change jobs. In the financial year of 09-10 I calculated that I had saved approx $6000 in fuel bills by being on gas. Theres the savings right there. Also I have never had the gas serviced and it still works perfectly.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:53:35 +0000

not any car can run on gas if there on petrol you have to look at the engine if the engine is big enough

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:56:03 +0000

i am considering conversion to a 2000 model Magna .
what brand of system did you use ?

thanks

By: Warwick

Warwick — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:45:55 +0000

I’ve got a VT Commodore and I’m averaging 35,000 Km’s p/year. Anyone know what kind of savings I can expect changing over to LPG, ex-rebate?

By: Storage

Storage — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:12:09 +0000

Ive got a fairmont with 230,000 km and I am considering putting lpg. I understand the current government rebate of $1250 is limited to 25,000 per year. Any idea if that sort of number is funded by say December?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:32:53 +0000

I bought a 2000 Toyota Prado Petrol V6 Automatic recently. The Odo is 220k km It really runs well and we love it. But the downside is the petrol consumption and you know…

Now I consider to convert it to LPG. I read quite a few thread in website and it looks that conversion is worthwhile. However, my mechanic told me that he doesn’t recommend me to convert it. He said 11 years old engine is prone to damage after the conversion. New car is OK.

Have anyone converted an old car(10 years above)? Or someone found problems after converting a Prado from petrol to LPG?

You comment is appreciated.

Aaron

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:46:18 +0000

Could any one tell me how much would be the cost of fitting lpg onto commodore?

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:19:29 +0000

Hi, Can anyone tell me if the 2003 Subaru Outback can be converted to gas and which conversion would be best?

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:14:38 +0000

I have had lpg on a 6 cylinder Falcon for the last 4 years. In winter 2011 my cost per 100 klms was $10.76. I recently have changed to an older model 1.6ltr carburetor Corolla and have been staggered at the cost of running a car on petrol. The Corolla on E10 petrol is costing me $16.31. When the $2000 gov rebate was on NRMA was still a sceptic of Joe public using lpg. I thought a strange position to take when the NRMA runs most of its fleet on Lpg. An NRMA serviceman told me they do it purely for the huge cost saving benefit. I will be selling my Corolla and getting back into a bigger and more comfortable lpg car that is cheaper to run than my old Corolla.