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Buying a vt soon and want to know some info about lpg tank and aftermarket parts

Shadow Demon

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Im looking at buying a vt soon and wanted to know is it better to get it on LPG but i always have high watt subs in boot and iv heard it can be risky with a LPG tank and i wanna know if there is anything like body kits, aftermarket parts etc i can do to make it stand out more but not to costly. thanks
 

Cheap6

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Risky, no (well, no more so than having the rear lights in the boot with the tank) but the real estate between the shock towers will be taken up by the tank.

You can't search for images of VT Commodores that you like and work back from there? If you do find a body mod you like and can't ID who made it I'm sure there will be someone on here who can if you post up a pic. Painting them will always be expensive, so used, in the colour of your car, is the cheapest option. Buy your new VT in a common colour. White?

LPG is great for saving on the cost of fuel (it's about half that of petrol, even considering that you use more of it) but there are LPG conversions and LPG conversions; not all are equally good. I believe the safest approach is to use the factory LPG or one that uses similar components. It's not the only way to go but at least you know that it can be made to work, something not necessarily true of other systems. Look for Impco for a start .

It's probably better, if not necessarily cheaper in the short term, to consider buying a car without LPG and having it converted yourself. That opens up a much wider range of cars to look at and you can then chose what LPG system you have (fitted). Cars on LPG tend to be high km (not necessarily a bad thing per se) and abused. Do carefully note what is included in the conversion. Some installers will do more and some less than others. Cheapest is not always best.
 

VTS5

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Im looking at buying a vt soon and wanted to know is it better to get it on LPG but i always have high watt subs in boot and iv heard it can be risky with a LPG tank and i wanna know if there is anything like body kits, aftermarket parts etc i can do to make it stand out more but not to costly. thanks

Stick with the petrol..LPG is only cheap at the bowser..You use more LPG per klm..The heat it generates kills every component in/on the engine,together with installation and maintenance (not many does it till it back-fires and/or creates more expense) out weighes the savings (unless you travel hundereds of klms a week)..Also due to the added complexity of LPG systems, servicing costs can be higher in most cases.
 

Cheap6

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Almost all problems associated with LPG are due to a poor conversion. A crap LPG conversion can kill a car more quickly but the idea is to avoid the crap conversions.

At 20K km/year, ~$1500/year buys a lot of repairs and servicing. Not that they're needed. A set of spark plugs every year instead of every second year is about it. You might consider changing the LPG filters with the petrol filter but the life of those depends more on the quality of the fuel you get than anything else. An LPG specific oil might be a little more expensive but even that's not really essential.

With a new LPG install, on a VT, the LPG parts will outlast the car.

There's no extra under bonnet heat (where from?) and the only thing that LPG is harder on is the valves. Even then it only matters at high load and any potential issue is avoided altogether by using the factory approved LPG MemCal.

Taxi operators must know something.
 

VTS5

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Almost all problems associated with LPG are due to a poor conversion. A crap LPG conversion can kill a car more quickly but the idea is to avoid the crap conversions.

At 20K km/year, ~$1500/year buys a lot of repairs and servicing. Not that they're needed. A set of spark plugs every year instead of every second year is about it. You might consider changing the LPG filters with the petrol filter but the life of those depends more on the quality of the fuel you get than anything else. An LPG specific oil might be a little more expensive but even that's not really essential.

With a new LPG install, on a VT, the LPG parts will outlast the car.

There's no extra under bonnet heat (where from?) and the only thing that LPG is harder on is the valves. Even then it only matters at high load and any potential issue is avoided altogether by using the factory approved LPG MemCal.

Taxi operators must know something.

Yes,we do...We operate 6 of the bastards..And you got no idea.
 

Cheap6

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Actually I do (have an idea). I also have first hand experience of taxis and of LPG. Taxis have to be the most abused, least maintained and most butchered vehicles on the road and they still cost less to run on LPG than petrol.
 

Nut Kracker

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I had a '95 EF Falcon on factory Tickford gas. Had the car from 120,000 K's up to around 370,000 K's before I sold it.
I didn't have any trouble with the gas at all.
Yes, the fuel consumption is higher, I got just over 12 litres per 100 k's on gas and around 10 litres per 100 K's on petrol. (The 4.2 litre Ford straight 6 engines were a bit thirsty).
The only thing is, you have to make sure the cooling system is A1 as the gas convertor relied on the hot water to stop it freezing up.

My 2 cents worth.
 

Shadow Demon

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Thankz.
And yea i thought LPG would be better because im a heavy footer in my vr i had ages ago and was spending over 600 dollars in fuel every fortnight
 
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