AutoGas (LPG) is it worth it?

[Meridivs]

The prices for fuel has reached ~ 1 Euro (1.37 US $)/Liter around here so we started to look for alternative methods of transportation/fuels.

The only viable option to keep the Pontiac's in service would be to convert them to LPG or AutoGas.

Has anyone converted their Trans Sport's to LPG?

Any problems so far?

[danielsatur]

AutoGas - might be the way to go, because emission parts get contaminated with
PCV + EGR gases.
Consider operating cost minus less parts + service for life of car.

[Jeffrv]

LPG has about 30% less BTU's by volume than gasoline, so liter by liter the consumption of LPG will be higher vs gasoline. For a while in the late 80's/early 90's there was a very significant price difference between the 2 fuels here in Canada, and many people were converting over to LPG, but the government has taxed it to the point not much if any savings anymore. People that had the conversions said there was a somewhat noticeable lower power output, and cold weather starts/operations did cause some problems, and it has fallen out of favour lately
Jeff

[Meridivs]

Here it's still half the price of gasoline so it's still worth it price-wise.

Question is: does it causes any other problems worth more in repair parts/labor than the fuel economy?

One is loss of performance and a cleaner EGR/PCV.

How about the valve seals. Do they get burned-up faster by LPG?

[nicke66]

There are lots of Trans Sports in Germany with LPG. Read more:
http://www.pontiac-trans-sport.de/in...forum&forum=12
use Google language tools to translate.

[Meridivs]

Thank you nicke66.

I even posted there (in english). Good job you're doing to keep the TS's alive!

Do you know what kind of LPG installation is best for a 3.1 TBI engine?

[nicke66]

No, I have no experience of LPG. In Sweden it is not an option. To expensive to convert to LPG and also no LPG available where I live. All I know is that is it common in Germany.

I do have some experience of running my TS 3.8 on E85 (85% ethanol). A few years ago it was cheaper with E85 than gasoline. Today the cost is about the same.

What I know, after reading the German site, the thing to have in mind with LPG is that the combustion occurs at a higher temperature. If the engine runs to lean, cylinder heads or valves may be damaged.

[paudashlake]

$1.37 a gallon? Thats nothing! We in US haven't seen a single dollar on the gas menu in years! No lower than $2-$4 a gallon throughout the states! Sorry for the rant, just wanted to state that...

[Meridivs]

1.37$ a liter

That coverts to about 5.26$/ US Gallon of fuel. That's a lot for a developing economy.

The LPG price, however, is around 2.65$/Gallon here which is half the price of gasoline.

[Meridivs]

We finally converted one of our Pontiac TS's to LPG (it was a long story since there aren't many LPG shops that could do the conversion on this type of engine).

So far, so good. Performance/smoothness wise the engine runs as good on LPG as it does on gasoline. I'm curious to see if the MPG Km/Liter ration will change in any way.