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Thread: Converting BMW E39, 540i Touring to LPG

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9

    Default Converting BMW E39, 540i Touring to LPG

    I have a 1998 BMW 540i Touring, which I converted to LPG back in 2008. It cost me £2000 so, approx $3020 to have the conversion done. I had a really good quality conversion kit put in, made by Tartarini (Italian Co) with a 76ltr LPG tank in the boot.

    To save on labour costs, I prepared the car ready for the conversion. Here are some of the problems I encountered...

    If you don't want the tank clogging up your boot, your need to have a ring tank fitted. My 76 litre tank was the largest tank I could fit in the spare wheel well. It was a really tight fit and required some cutting away of the BMW boot tray, e.g. a small section where car jack used to live.

    http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/...ersion/004.jpg

    After removing the spare, I had to remove the pump for the self levelling suspension unit out of the spare wheel well and find a new discreet home for it.

    I decided to remove the sub woofer unit and replace it with the self levelling suspension unit. Despite being an amateur, this was not actually that difficult. I piggy backed the existing brackets in the back of the car, bolting the bottom fixing pan of the self levelling suspension unit in place.

    I spotted a couple of welds to hold the bolts in place nice and tight. Then I placed approx 6-8 inch of foam padding, which I cut with scissors into a circular shape the same size of the unit, placing it
    between the bottom fixing pan and the base of the self levelling suspension unit before, before bolting the unit back together.

    This first time I did this, I did it without spot welding. I tried using Araldite rapid steel super strong metal bond on the bolts heads against the fixing unit. In a sense the araldite worked, holding the bolts and unit in firm place. However, I discovered the unit was too noisy, as the vibrations rattled through the metal brackets amplifying the noise.

    This is why I had to add extra foam padding, hence me putting in the 8 inch worth. When I tightened the bolts with that much foam padding in, I really had to apply extra torque to compress the foam and get the unit to pressed as tight / close to the fixing pan as possible. Every time I tried the araldite bond snapped, hence me having to spot weld the fixing bolts in place.

    After that it was easy. The unit tightened up nice and firm, the foam padding eliminated all the noise and the unit sits out of site where the sub woofer used to be.

    http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/...ersion/005.jpg

    The only problem now is when I have to replace the battery or fuses in rear, as it takes about 45 minutes to remove and re-fit the self levelling suspension unit, purely because it's a fiddly job. It also makes it harder to replace bulbs in the rear light cluster, though not impossible as I can do it without having to remove the suspension unit.

    I retained all the wiring for the sub-woofer so can sit it in the boot, still wired up. I simply remove the wiring clip and take out the sub-woofer if I am carrying the dogs or any luggage in the boot.

    http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/...ersion/007.jpg

    One other thing to bear in mind is where to situate the gas filler points - In the E39 you are limited where the filler tank hose insert goes. It can't go in the rear bumper, you can't fit it inside the car due to safety / legislation. See the photograph where mine is situated this is about the only place she will go give or take a few inch.

    http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/...ersion/006.jpg

    Despite the hassle of the initial fit, the costs savings have been well worth it. Why? Well compare current UK fuel prices to US prices and you will see why so many people with big petrol engines in the UK have already converted....

    Gas / Petrol in the UK costs £1.12 per litre at the moment. That's approx $1.69 per litre. There are 0.26 US Gallons to every litre. 1 US gallon of gas is just slightly more than 4 litres.

    Based on current UK prices after conversion to the dollar we are paying the equivalent of $6.76 per US gallon here in the UK. I understand your paying approx $2.50 to $2.90 depending on location at the moment!

    For your info, I get approx 200-230 miles out of the 76 litre LPG tank. LPG costs £0.58 per litre at the moment, so the savings for me are huge. There is no obvious loss of power from using LPG on such a large powerful engine.

    It's bit annoying have to refill every 200 miles or so, but the savings are worth it.

    I'd like to hear from anyone who has successfully converted a newish M5 Touring. I suspect with all the extra electrical equipment, bigger and better toys, space is even more limited, making conversion harder if not impossible. It's the only thing that puts me off buying one, as I could not afford to run one in the UK otherwise.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    618

    Default

    Nice wheels!! How long do you think it will take you to get your return on investment based on the miles you do?
    UK 1997 e34 540iA Touring, 1989 535i Sport - now sold, 1998 Mercedes CLK 200 Coupe


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
    Posts
    900

    Default

    Which Tartarini kit did you use? How about some pics of the final install. Thank!
    Ramon
    1994 540iA Nikasil EAT Chip
    Tampa Bay, Florida USA

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9

    Default

    Obviously, the more mileage you do the quicker the system pays for itself. Here are my figures...

    68ltrs of Unleaded x 1.14 = £77.52 = Tank Average 280 miles (Combined MPG – Rural Roads)

    * Revised Unleaded price based on 08/03/2010 figure – One garage I passed was £1.16!!!

    65ltrs of Auto Gas x 0.58 = £37.70 = Tank Average 200 miles (Combined MPG – Rural Roads)

    Note despite having a 76ltr tank I can only ever get 65ltr of LPG in due to the expansion of the LPG in the tank, which is normal.

    So, it works out as follows:

    Auto Gas Costs £18.85 per every 100 miles, so £1885 every 10000 miles

    Unleaded Costs £27.68 per every 100 miles, so £2768 every 10000 miles

    So I save, roughly £883 every 10,000 miles. The reckon you save about 1/3rd in fuel costs running LPG which is not far off my workings out.

    I've only done 18,000 miles since having LPG fitted so the system has not yet paid for itself. By the time I hit 25,000 miles I will have saved approx £2207 in fuel, so £207 quid up in theory.

    Thereafter, every mile I do is a BIG saving.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9

    Default

    Its the Tartarini SGI Evo.

    http://www.northwestgases.com/bm~doc/tartarini-sgi.pdf

    I'll get some pictures of the under hood install and post in due course.

  6. #6

    Default

    nice work buddy. Great work on LPG conversion

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