I have a petrol 1.6 Stilo with just over 114,000 on the clock is it worth considering a conversion to LPG? or would the high mileage be a problem?

Thanks

No No No, I would not bother with any lpg, we had a VW in work 2 engines and 3 headgaskets later its sitting there doing nothing, petrols should be petrol, not lpg. The tend to run hotter than petrols and in my experience are not as good, My brother had a Range Rover lpg, and it didn't run as well at all on lpg nor did it sound right.(and it had overheating trouble too)

Also theres the cost, you'd get a 115 jtd for less than the cost of a conversion and itd be cheaper to run and quicker too.

my mother has a 2.0 citroen c5 on lpg and its had no end of trouble with coil packs and overheating also they are well known for bad conversions to take out stem seals and headgaskets as cledan said, also they seem to not rev as highly i.e my mothers car never reved over 5000 rpm when on gas and really needed to be reved hard to get it to reverse uphill onto our drive, throttle response is rubbish also, as cledan said you would probley be better off with a jtd, just to add her car in currently sat in the garage with a missfireing problem, a fault with the cat and suspected coilpack failure again a145quid a time im sure you would be better off with a diesel

thats just my oppinion though
Cheers
Lee

Have a word with MEP (Most Easterly Pandas)

He has had LPG fitted on his Stilo since August 09.


Trev

Absolutely nothing wrong with LPG if the conversion is done correctly. 46k in 27months and I've not had a single problem and the system is looking at coming round for paying for itself 2.5 times over!

I'd say go for it. Sme engines need a flashlube system to prevent valve issue, I suspect the VW mentioned in post 2 didn't have this fitted. Some engines need it, some don't, from experience Fiat's don't.

Runs at roughly the same temp tbh and any HG issues won't be down to LPG.

Like all things it needs to be looked after and serviced, but if a good system is used in the first place all will be well.

BRC and Prinus are the market leaders and anything else not really worth considering tbh.

Older mixer systems were problematic and affected performance, but modern sequential injection system are very good in their effencey

Have never looked back since my conversion and would happily do it to another car. Just need to remember to notify DVLA and insurance

Lecook said:

my mother has a 2.0 citroen c5 on lpg and its had no end of trouble with coil packs and overheating also they are well known for bad conversions to take out stem seals and headgaskets as cledan said, also they seem to not rev as highly i.e my mothers car never reved over 5000 rpm when on gas and really needed to be reved hard to get it to reverse uphill onto our drive, throttle response is rubbish also, as cledan said you would probley be better off with a jtd, just to add her car in currently sat in the garage with a missfireing problem, a fault with the cat and suspected coilpack failure again a145quid a time im sure you would be better off with a diesel

thats just my oppinion though
Cheers
Lee

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Did she have it converted Lee or buy it converted? Equally coil pack failure can't be linked to the LPG conversion at all really, and other than the valve stem seals the way the car ran on LPG would be down to the installation.

Does it have a flash lube system fitted? And how many miles has it done

Never have issues with mine revving, is more than happy to occasionally bounce off of the limiter under load

Thanks all for your replies, MEP what was your mileage when you went for the converstion?

My problem is that in the past year in excess of £1800 of repairs has been spent on the car (i know whould have looked for another sooner), it seems to run well with 114000 on the clock.

I did look at a 53 stilo advertised with 54000 and a diesel but was persuaded against it as the asking price was ridiculously low.

50k when converted, now on 94k. Done 44k (not 46k as indicated previously ) with it

So far I’ve done 60000kms on LPG. It has paid itself more than 5to10 times now (conversion where I live is so much cheaper than in the UK) 650EU for the latest and greatest Landi Renzo sequential injection system with the tank in the spare wheel compartment. Let me bust a couple of myths for you:
1. LPG doesn’t burn with a higher temperature then petrol. It consists of mainly propane and butane which is something like C3H8. Petrol has much more energy in it and burns with a higher temperature and is C8H18.
2. LPG doesn’t burn through valves it’s the lack of cooling provided by evaporating petrol drops that makes them run hotter. As MEP already stated there are some valve lube things out there but Fiat engines don’t need such.
Have in mind that the 1.6 engine is fitted to the CNG Multipla and I’ve seen taxis with more than half a million kilometers on their clocks – but yet again don’t really know what they’ve changed so far and if the engine has some modifications to valves and head for the CNG version. LPG burns much more cleaner and exhausts gases consist of mainly water and CO2, your catalytic converter will last much much longer, so will your engine because petrol dilutes the oil on cold starts and washes oil from cylinder walls where as LPG does not. There is tons of info on the internet just google and you’ll find everything you need.

Just to add a few comments, I will accept that LPG can be good, but certainly not in any motors I've had anything to to with.

I'm not sure what I actually posted, but what I meant was that in general lpg runs hotter, not that it burns hotter.

Oh and the VW was converted by Tickford!

cledan said:

I'm not sure what I actually posted, but what I meant was that in general lpg runs hotter, not that it burns hotter.

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But it doesn't though, and it burns better as it's a injected as a gas and not a liquid vapour.

LPG is the better fuel for some more reasons, you can increase compression ratio up to 13:1 because of the higher octane rating (RON). Then there is the liquid state injection which increases power output by ~10%. which is a lot and cools down valves and head components thousand times better than petrol. The only problem with LPG is the infrastructure. In Bulgaria everyone drives on LPG or CNG and there is a LPG filling station at every single gas station

Does anyone have any suggestions to converters in South Wales?

Thanks

Unfortunatly i don't, I'd recomend having a ring around and going to any with reasonable quotes in person and getting them to talk you through it, they souldn't have any issues doing this if they're genuine.

Also make sure its a good quality system installed, either Prinus or ideally BRC, and there are a lot of crap systems about.

BRC is one of the leaders in its class along side prinus, and is italian

Tha ma for your replies .

I've looked about and asked for quotes, one come back that seemed pretty promising but they have the Romano system, how are these with Stilos?

Thanks.

jaffa89 said:

Tha ma for your replies .

I've looked about and asked for quotes, one come back that seemed pretty promising but they have the Romano system, how are these with Stilos?

Thanks.

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What did they quote if you don't mind me asking? Did they give a break down of the price for the kit and labour?

Labour should be £400-£500 ish, and the rest for the system. Now they might have all gone up across the board but it might be a case of they're charging a similar price you can get a BRC or Prinus system for elsewhere. How far have you looked distance wise also out of interest?

I personally would try and steer clear of all systems bar BRC and Prinus if your planning of keeping the car for a while

I have a Panda 4X4 (model 2008) and I am thinking for the LPG installation. Here the cost is around 800 €, (hardware and installation). My main consideration is the lubricity. I am not sure if the engine will last as long as with petrol. On the other hand the cost per liter is 1/2 of the petrol.

Batfalcon said:

I have a Panda 4X4 (model 2008) and I am thinking for the LPG installation. Here the cost is around 800 €, (hardware and installation). My main consideration is the lubricity. I am not sure if the engine will last as long as with petrol. On the other hand the cost per liter is 1/2 of the petrol.

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What's your belief / what have you heard about the lubricity

Only that it's poorer comparing to petrol, specially over the valves. In other words, that the evaporated petrol lubricates the intake valve, as it passes through, which is not done when using LPG.

Why bother with LPG when you want good milage?
Buy a 1.3 diesel from Fiat and then you'll be pleased with the result.
Think about something else : with the money that you give on LPG system, you can buy enought fuel for what period of time? Considering the answer, you can see if it's convenient or not.

Cheers !