Has anyone converted to gas ?

[Zeuk in Oz]

Cooper24's post on smelling gas initially confused me and then led me to the realisation that I have not heard of anyone converting their car to gas. (LPG gas, not petrol gas.)

Is there anyone out there running their e34 on LPG gas ?

This is quite a common conversion here in Oz as until 2007, LPG gas does not have any excise on it so is about 35% of the cost of petrol (gas).

Don't fancy driving around with a big LPG gas tank in the boot myself but many do. They even have to have special red stickers on the number plates.

Is this a conversion that is done anywhere else in the world ?

[shogun]

LPG or alos conversion to reusable fuel oil, like rapesse oil.
www.e34.de has a lot of info on that. Maybe you first have to register there. Then type in the search (Suchen) Umbau LPG) and you find a lot. Here is a 540 conversion with a Prins VST with a lot of pictures.
http://forum.e34.de/thread.php?threadid=35655&sid=&hilight=Umbau+LPG
Price for a good Prins is about 2.500 EURO including the special tank.

Links to LPG boards in Germany
http://www.autogas-forum.de/links/linkliste.htm

In Poland and the Netherlands that is very normal that they convert to such alternative solutions like eco gas.
English info
http://de.search.yahoo.com/search?p=LPG+conversion&prssweb=Suche&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t-1&fl=0&vc=&x=wrt&meta=0&vm=r

Here in Tokyo all taxi cabs are running on LPG.

[AllGo'n'Show]

Whats LPG?

[Zeuk in Oz]

Whats LPG?
Liquid petroleum gas.

[Zeuk in Oz]

LPG or alos conversion to reusable fuel oil, like rapesse oil.
www.e34.de has a lot of info on that. Maybe you first have to register there. Then type in the search (Suchen) Umbau LPG) and you find a lot. Here is a 540 conversion with a Prins VST with a lot of pictures.
http://forum.e34.de/thread.php?threadid=35655&sid=&hilight=Umbau+LPG
Price for a good Prins is about 2.500 EURO including the special tank.

Links to LPG boards in Germany
http://www.autogas-forum.de/links/linkliste.htm

In Poland and the Netherlands that is very normal that they convert to such alternative solutions like eco gas.
English info
http://de.search.yahoo.com/search?p=LPG+conversion&prssweb=Suche&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t-1&fl=0&vc=&x=wrt&meta=0&vm=r

Here in Tokyo all taxi cabs are running on LPG.

Thanks Erich.

You are such an amazing source of information !

[shogun]

I presently follow up all postings on a guy in Germany with an 7 series E65 Diesel.
He bought a large tank, buys oil at the oil mill directly which processes sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.
It started that he was upset with taxes on diesel oil. Then he went into a supermarket and bought some cases oil frying oil and filled his tank.
Car is running since more than 1 year without any problems. :p
He is not the only one doing that.

In trucks and large building oil heater boilers usually a lot of cleaned frying oil from big ready made food factories is used. Nice burning.
Bio diesel plant business is booming in Europe. Re-usable materials are subsidized a lot.
I know of a farmer here in Japan and some in Eurpe, they collect the gas from the cow and pigs sh*t, and they use the gas building up in the tanks to heat the complete house, the hot water system and he runs his car with that gas.
In Brazil they use socalled Gasohol since more than 30 years. Normal fuel is mixed with alcohol from sugar cane plantations.
Simple fermentation process.

[Zeuk in Oz]

I presently follow up all postings on a guy in Germany with an 7 series E65 Diesel.
He bought a large tank, buys oil at the oil mill directly which processes sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.
It started that he was upset with taxes on diesel oil. Then he went into a supermarket and bought some cases oil frying oil and filled his tank.
Car is running since more than 1 year without any problems. :p
He is not the only one doing that.

In trucks and large building oil heater boilers usually a lot of cleaned frying oil from big ready made food factories is used. Nice burning.
Bio diesel plant business is booming in Europe. Re-usable materials are subsidized a lot.
I know of a farmer here in Japan and some in Eurpe, they collect the gas from the cow and pigs sh*t, and they use the gas building up in the tanks to heat the complete house, the hot water system and he runs his car with that gas.
In Brazil they use socalled Gasohol since more than 30 years. Normal fuel is mixed with alcohol from sugar cane plantations.
Simple fermentation process.
There are a number of vehicles in Oz running on what is basically filtered cooking oil from take-away shops - very economical.

Our sugar cane industry is on its knees but the federal government appears very reluctant to mandate the use of ethanol.

This is quite unbelievable as it would save on fossil fuels, save our sugar industry and save motorists money, all at the same time.

Methinks some of the larger corporations with vested interests might have got into their ears. ! (Shock horror - how cynical)

[shogun]

Forgot one thing: CNG=compressed natural gas is that called what I described.
That is also booming, mainly in the Netherlands as they have a lot of that.
German makers are offering new cars modified for CNG and both CNG and normal fuel.
Here is the list of cars.
http://www.erdgasfahrzeuge.de/appFrameset.html

Here info from Canadian reusable fuel association
http://www.greenfuels.org/

Catch words:
Breaking the Crude Monopoly
Today ethanol production costs are lower than crude oil.
Shortage of Refineries Increases Gasoline Prices
Ethanol Increases our Refining Capacity
We need a federal strategy

[mattyb]

i was just thinking the same thing the other day.

[skr]

lpg has got a lot of downsides:
-piston rings wear faster due do running dry. normal gas reduces friction
-you loose 15-25% power
-you carry a big ugly tank in your trunk
-you probably have to cut a hole in your bumper for the fill plug

there probably are more but those are the most essential. i ran lpg on a renault 19 but that was a realy shitty car so i didn't care too much. took it off in half an year, sold it to a taxy driver and then sold the car.
i whould never consider running lpg on a bmw. i'd rather not drive it, fill it up once a month with normal gas and enjoy the ride.

[632 Regal]

rapeseed oil is Canola oil for you cooking conesours (Canola=Canadian Oil)

[romus]

I was looking into that when the premium peaked 1.49 a litre and everyone approached said it was a system that was as yet non existant. But i found a website where in Britain they do all sorts of euro cars, including E34s, seven series etc. Here they said they would have to "make up" a system, to what i said "no thanks!"

In Victoria my friend says there are many Mercedes and BMWs driving on LPG and to tell you the truth, i'd still be interested. But here in Sydney they are overbooked and so far they prefer straight forward Falcon installations - coz its straight forward :)

Apparently is safer to carry LPG than normal petrol around mate. In city performance almost unchanged. You'll notice difference above 100km/h but by then you're breaking the law already. :) The only thing is, you have to replace spark leads every 10.000km or so, and this is what gets bit too costly if its E34.

Again, i'd still do it if i found a decent and reliable place.

[romus]

Well, i was looking into diesels as well but here in Australia i couldnt find any diesel E34s. As for the downsides, yes the additional hole in the bumper is a bit of a bad thing. But i at least never use the huge trunk entirely, if at all, so having a tank in there (which by the way fits perfectly) wouldn't be a problem. I don't think you'd lose that much (25%) on power. It's far less than that. And lastly, you do have to run roughly 100km's a week on petrol even with LPG installed, to prevent damage you stated above.

[mattyb]

when u fill up every 2-3 days in a 540i it doesnt hurt to be thinking of other fuels. we dont see any turbo diesels here though, hows it on the juice?

[DanH]

LPG is a mixture of propane and butane gases.

You have to use a high % of propane in cold weather climates since butane's boiling point is -0.5 deg C, so it will remain in the tank if its not heated. Also, in really cold weather, -43C propane will also need to be heated to use it.


Liquid petroleum gas.

[grave77]

very commong in Turky and Syria ... I saw 1961 old american cars in syria converted to run on butan with the cookers containers in the trunk ... I should get some pics ... looks very funny .. it had a problem in the beginning so they kept the original petrol start then they turn a liver valve inside the car to start running it on Gas ... I dont know much about the setup .. I will try getting some more information just for those guys who wish to see the premative ways or in another way DIY conversion.

[motorman]

Thic company makes a gas injector that replaces the standard injector, so that the ecu thinks that the car is still running on petrol and ecu still runs the whole show, I saw it on an inventors show in aus and it sounded really good, no loss of power, roughly same kh's, site is www.gas-injection.com

[romus]

Yes the systems avaliable here do the same. The system automatically switches to petrol by start up and runs for about a minute then changes back to LPG.