Fuel Economy, engine recon?

[rusty_29]

I was just wondering whether anyone could help me out, I had my VP Berlina (Wagon) converted to LPG early this year. At the time I was getting about 420-450km per tank of petrol. On LPG I am getting around 250km per tank (66L). I have just run almost a full tank of petrol through the car and I only got just over 200km out of it. A mate suggested it may just be the petrol metre playing up, but I am wondering whether this is a sign that it may be time to have the engine reconditioned? The car has done 240,000km can anyone help? The car is in great nick for its age I've always taken car of it etc. When I had the car converted the mechanic told me that it was a risky job because the car is old and may not be able to cope with the change at such a late age he pointed out that the engine runs quite loudly for some reason.

[bradcad]

Engine reco is drastic- and you would see other signs if it was required. Unfortunately I dont know enough about LPG to diagnose except-

Ensure you use a real good oil
There is an old setup that I believe is still in existance, Moreys (?) upper cylinder head lubricant or similar. A drip feed system that all the old blokes used to put on their gas converted cars, which lasted forever. I will be looking into this further if I ever run gas, and use PM800 in it as the lubricant.

Other than that I could only suggest the usual- plugs, leads, filters etc

[jas98]

it is possiable that the injectors are either stuffed or full of crap as (if u have been) u havent ran the car on petrol for a while..............like i said its possiable however this is only 1 thing that i can think of at the moment

try putting some injector cleaner in the pertrol and see hyow it goes

[rusty_29]

Thanks fellas

[aussieghostrider]

could be many things ..

Leaking o ring seals on injectors , bad plugs , stuffed petrol filter , u also might need new guides on heads.

I would be trying new spark plugs to see if that helps...

[dufus]

It could be the spark plugs because cars fitted with LPG are fitted with spark plugs that are one heat range colder and have a gap of .1 mm less than the standard recommended plug for that car. There are also a number of different factors that could contribute, such as the quality of injectors, fuel lines, fuel filter and fuel in the tank etc.

[VPioneer]

When converting a car to LPG a new tune is required because it is different fuel. Now when running dual fuel there is has to be a compromise, its either tuned to run alright on both fuels, or better on one rather than the other. My guess would be that whoever has done your LPG conversion tuned the car to run LPG as your main fuel. I think with newer systems they have dedicated tunes which the computer switches between when either fuel is selected. Im pretty sure im correct if anyone else wants to back me up....or challenge!!

[rusty_29]

Cheers thanks for the ideas. I'll take a look at the spark plugs and chuck in some injector cleaner through another tank of petrol. If that doesn't work then I'll have to take it in, not sure how to go about checking the other stuff out.