Dear all,

I have converted my Stilo Abarth 2002 to LPG. The system used is Tartarini.
At first everything worked fine, but after about a week, a started noticing problems when starting the engine in the morning (cold engine). It goes to 1200 rpm, as it normally should, but stays there only for a few seconds and then drops to 600-800 rpm. The whole car shakes, and it doesn't respond to the throttle. I can only slightly touch the throttle, and pump it on/off to increase the revs to 3000 in order to warm up the engine quicker. If I press the throttle harder, the engine starts exploding from intake. When all of this happened for the first time, I drove the car only on petrol for the 3 days, and then all went to normal, but when I started using LPG same thing happens again. I went to the LPG specialist, and they tried to set some LPG parameters, but none of this helps. They are now sending me to check the pump pressure and the petrol injectors, but I don't think this is the problem, as the car work perfectly before the LPG. If I put it on petrol now, I can hardly get it do accelerate until it reaches 3000rpm... As I have read somewhere, the both ECUs (LPG and the ENGINE) work together, and the engine ECU is setting himself up according to the readings from the LAMBDA sensor. Since LPG is different fuel, and the engine ECU is in liberty to make big adjustments, maybe this is what is going on? Can I somehow lock the engine ECU to preset parameters? Is there a way to reset the engine ECU to his "preset" parameters? Is there any other solution to this problem?

Thanks, Natko.

have you tried using petrol until engines warm and swapping to lpg?

Yup, that is what system normaly does.. It runs the engine on petrol until it reaches 35°C, and then switches to LPG. What's worse, the whole engine, warm or cold, feels ****y.. If it is completly warmed up, and I press it to the floor, on petrol it takes 4-5 seconds to reach 3000rpm in 1st gear... On LPG it goes better, but far from like it did go before the converion took palce...

tkona said:

Yup, that is what system normaly does.. It runs the engine on petrol until it reaches 35°C, and then switches to LPG. What's worse, the whole engine, warm or cold, feels ****y.. If it is completly warmed up, and I press it to the floor, on petrol it takes 4-5 seconds to reach 3000rpm in 1st gear... On LPG it goes better, but far from like it did go before the converion took palce...

Click to expand...

i think all we could say on here... is take it back to who made the conversion kit... for help?

I'm there every day. They are really trying to solve this thing, but we are all out of the ideas where to look for problem..

Ok, from someone who has had LPG fitted to his Abarth.
They are a bugger to sort out. Forgetting the automatic switchover from petrol to LPG, when your car is warm (at normal running temperature) does the LPG operate as it should. If so the system is set to cut in at too low a temperature. The 5 cylinder lump takes a while to warm up.
Has the fitter put in injectors suitable for the BHP of the car? Some fit them just to the 170 which doesn't allow for any tolerance changes between cars. I had three systems fitted to mine. Either crap performance or crap economy. ECOGAS system was the best, economy wasn't brilliant but still cheaper than running on petrol. There are all kinds of parameters which can vary.
I had mine set to a lower temp than it should have come in at as otherwise it would take 4 miles to switchover. If cold it would be very lumpy and stuttering (almost as if it was firing on 3).

Have you got a failed temperature sensor?
Also LPG is more sensitive to worn spark plugs/ failing coils than petrol.
Lastly, vacuum leaks will cause rough running and if they do go bang in the inlet manifold, your MAP and MAF sensors may be toast.

My friends passat used to this every few months. He always kept a spare airbox and filter in the boot as when his went bang, it shredded the airbox every time. In the end he took LPG off as it was more trouble than it was worth.