Making good progress towards payback of the installation costs (in fact I am probably way past them)…

Milage at conversion time: 64,352
Current Milage: 86,000
Breakeven (High Estimate): 30,000
Current LPG Milage: 21648
% Complete: 72%

Lost my LPG Fuel cap (Left it on the roof) – I got a replacement off eBay (2 for £6). It’s black, not colour coded to the car, but look fine.

I would recommend that anyone getting a conversion does not pay the extra for a colour coded cap – you are bound to loose it sooner or later!

Making good progress towards payback of the installation costs…

Milage at conversion time:  64,352
Current Milage: 75,000
Breakeven (High Estimate):  30,000
Current LPG Milage:  10684
% Complete:  35.5%

Based on Unleaded at £1.30 and LPG at £0.75 and an average of 20 MPG

Cost of 10,000 Miles on Petrol:  £2,954
Cost of 10,000 Miles on LPG: £1,704
Saving: £1,250

So in another 10,000 miles (20,000 in total) I will have saved £2,500 – Breaking even on the system installation cost.

The “Extra” 10,000 miles is to be 100% sure I have recouped the cost, when accounting for the small amount of unleaded used at startup and the occasional time when I run out of LPG.

After that, every 10,000 miles I do saves me £1,250 (At current prices)

Just returned from a long Trip to France and back. Both the car the LPG system worked perfectly, no problems at all.

The main lessons learnt:

1- A converter is needed for the pumps in France. It screws into the car filling point and the French pumps connect onto it.

2- You need to screw the adapter on nice and tight to get the pumps to work (Only hand tight, not with a spanner or anything!)

3- LPG is France is called GPL

4- GPL is available at almost every motorway stop, and many supermarkets.

5- GPL may not be easily found in rural areas.

6- The pumps in France tend to be older than those found in the UK, 2 did not work with the adapter (Or maybe they were broken)

7- Running at 80mph is really a lot less efficient than 67mph

8- GPL is 80-90 cents per litre in France

9- Very glad I did not have to pay for petrol!

I had been meaning to buy a bag for my spare wheel for some time.  As I am going on a long(ish) trip to France in August I was prompted to finally get one.  Final price was about  £25 from ebay.  With a few bungie cords I have it nicely secured in the boot.  It would not fit when I have the second row os seats up, but this is rare for me, so no worries!

Bought from these guys:  http://stores.ebay.co.uk/cartuningsolution

I got into the car a couple of weeks back and it started up fine, however when it tried to switch to LPG, there was a small smell of gas and the engine stalled.

After repeasting this a couple of times, I pressed the button to disable the LPG, switching to petrol only, this worked fine.

I called my installer, who told me he knew what the problem was.  I was due to vist the installer for a 1000 mile check in any case and he told me it was safe to drive on the petrol system so I went straigt to him.  It was a two minute fix to re-attach a pipe that have come off in the engine.  He also secured it with more clips.

No problems since the fix

I have noticed that the amount of gas I can get into the tank seems to vary depending on the petrol station I visit.  Today I emptied the system on a long drive, then filled up at a Shell, where I managed to get 60 Litres into the tank.  Based on a 71 Litre tank, I think this is about the maximum capacity (I think they fill to 80%-85%).  I get the feeling that the amount that can go in depends on the pressure in the tank at the petrol station (I could be wrong, does anyone know?)

For those who need to know, from my 71 Litre tank, I am getting a range of between 160 and 222 miles.

160 Miles is for urban driving at low speeds with lots of stop / starts.

210 Miles (From a brimmed tank to empty) was done at a constant 67Mph on the M1 from London to Leeds.

222 Miles (From a brimmed tank to empty) was done at a constant 67Mph on the M1 from London to Leeds.

My first few fillup prices…

Milage at conversion time:  64,352
Current Milage: 70,000
Breakeven (Estimate):  30,000
Current:  5648
% Complete:  18.82%

MPG on LPG:  23.4 (Not accounting for petrol used on start up)

Date               Miles      Type          Liters          Price             Price/l       Fuel

N/A                  105           Mixed          24.3              £19.43              79.9p            LPG
N/A                  210          Motorway    50.7              £34.93             68.9p            LPG
N/A                  183            Mixed          44.5               £35.56             79.9p            LPG
5-Apr-2011      150           Mixed           45.52            £36.92           77.9p            LPG
8-Apr-2011      88             Mixed           15.70           £12.54            79.9p            LPG
11-Apr-2011    101           Mixed           30.25           £24.47            80.9p            LPG
12-Apr-2011   222           Motorway    40.96          £29.35             68.9p           LPG
13-Apr-2011   171           Motorway    60.05           £47.98              79.9p           LPG
16-Apr-2011   174          Mixed            40.6              £31.63              77.9p          LPG
18-Apr-2011   147          Mixed             36.48          £28.06             76.9p           LPG
19-Apr-2011    218        Motorway     53                  £36.52              68.9p         LPG
20-Apr-2011  —-          Motorway      35.49          £52.36                                     Unleaded  (Problem with LPG system meant a trip from Leeds to Oxford on petrol, took it straigt tobe fixed, it was in 5 minutes)
23-April-2011   142      Mixed              51.82            £37.78             72.9p        LPG
25-Apr-2011    167         Mixed            41.92             £30.14            71.9p           LPG
26-Apr-2011    125.6   Mixed             39.01            £27.66             70.9p           LPG
28-Apr-2011  170     Mixed                 23.58            £20.02           84.9p!         LPG  (Note that I did not fill the tank at this price, shame on Moto Services Pease Pottage for this!)
29-Apr-2011   118    Mixed                   45.3             £31.66                 69.9p     LPG
29-Apr-2011    118   Mixed                  11.2              £15                        133.9p   Unleaded

….. Gave up at this point!  I will update my payback progress every now and then!

Bit of a delay in posting photos – been busy!

So, all is well with the conversion, here are photos of the bits that have changed (Click photo for full size image):

Tank in place of spare tyre.

LPG Filling cap

LPG Fuel Indicator and switch (Under right vent)

New injectors and control box

Valve save oil and controller

All set for the conversion, car goes into the garage on Monday morning…..

Some advice have recieved from existing T6 LPG owners:

Q:What is the size of your tank?

R: 76 litre tank, with little over 60 litre useable capacity.

Q:What sort of MPG do you get?

R: Short runs (very short) we get around 11mpg, with around 20mpg on a run (I don’t drive slow though).

Q:Is LPG easy to find?

R:Plenty of places to fill up. Best to plan your stops on long runs. I also have the autogas sat nav downloads in my Navman (helps having the price too as I once paid 54p a litre and 2 miles down the road passed a station selling for 46p).

Q:Where did you put your LPG filler cap?

R: LPG cap is low down on the bumper and most unobtrusive place in my opinion.

Q:Where did you put your switch? (Which shows remaining fuel level and can switch between LPG & Petrol)

R: The installer put the switch on the gear lever surround trim, and I hate it. Wish it had gone on the dashboard.

Q: Any other advice?

R: Buy a good kit (BRC don’t have great injectors)*. I went for Prins VSI. Make sure whatever you have it will flow enough gas to feed the thirsty T6 engine on full throttle without switching back to petrol.
Get them to put the injectors as close as possible to the point where they connect to the inlet manifold, even if it means cutting or removing the engine cover.
Prepare to take on a new religion. You will beside yourself if you run out of gas and have to run on petrol at any time!

*I have read in other places that BRC / Prins are both high end equipment, and some people reccomend BRC over Prins for turbo cars.  My own take on this is that most installers deal with only one make of equipment and will of course favour the system that they install over the other one.  I think both BRC and Prins would be suitable for my conversion, and I am installing BRC. 

Planning a trip to North Wales? Cleave Court is a  Llandudno Guesthouse you might want to consider staying in.

When will I break even?

Well, my trip computer tells me I get about 22 MPG currently (I am not a heavy footed driver)

I have been told that trip computers normally lie a little bit about the MPG, so lets say its 20MPG

With LPG I can expect to get a little less, around 18MPG I guess.

LPG cost per gallon: £3.24

Unleaded cost per gallon: £5.71.5

LPG price per mile:  £0.18

Unleaded price per mile: £0.28575

LPG saving per mile:  £0.10575

So I should be saving about 10.5p per mile.

21,000 mile = £2,205

So I estimate me real break even point, bearing in mind the car will “warm up” on petrol and I am sure I will run out of LPG and run on petrol at some point, will be around 30,000 miles.  Of course if petrol goes up in price faster then LPG then it could be sooner…. or LPG price could go through the roof….

Planning a trip to North Wales?  Check out this great Guest House in Llandudno.

Here are some photos of the car before the LPG conversion.

Volvo XC90 T6 Engine before LPG

Volvo XC90 T6 Spare Wheel before LPG

Volvo XC90 Petrol Filler before LPG

Volvo XC90 Interior before LPG

Planning a trip to North Wales?  Check out this great Guest House in Llandudno.

After looking around last week for an installer I have finally decided on Oxford Autogas.  Kenny has been very helpful over the phone, and gives me confidence that he can complete the work to a high standard.  I have decided to add a Valvecare option, as opinion is divided on wether this is required or not and I am going for the better safe than sorry approach,  in addition it may make a difference if I ever decide to sell the car.

So, total costs are:  £1,600(+VAT) for the conversion and £200(+VAT) for the Valvecare, so a total of £2,160

Included in price:

• BRC Equipment and fitting
• Colour coded filling cap to match car
• Chrome surround of in car switch
• Largest Donut tank that will fit
• Curtisy car during fitting
• 2 Years parts and labour warranty

Car is booked in for 21st March 2011……

Planning a trip to North Wales?  Check out this great Guest House in Llandudno.

My research into LPG has shown me that there are 2 “high end” systems that should be suitable for my XC90 T6. 

Prins VSI and BRC

These seem to be at the more expensive end of the market and it seems that either could be used with some success when converting. 

An additional cost might be something called “Valvecare” that stops a problem called “Valve Seat Regression”.  One installer straight away told me I would need this, how ever 2 other companies have told me this is not required and it was not mentioned by the first company I got a quote from.  From reading around the internet, it seems that “VSR” is not normally a problem with Volvos, however according to some it is possible, in particular on turbo versions and for the sake of £200 it might be better to have piece of mind.

Current conversion costs estimates I have had from £1,390 to £2,500 (+ VAT).   Three are for Prins VSI and Four are for BRC, some include Valvecare, some don’t.

The system I am going for is the BRC, with a valve care system, total cost of £1,800 + VAT.  (Valvecar £200 + VAT)

Conversion includes:

• BRC Equipment and installation
• Colour coded filler cap installed next to existing petrol filler
• Courtesy car for duration of install
• European converter
• 2 Year parts and labour warranty

One seemingly minor consideration is how the switch will look inside the car, the Prins VSI switch looks quite dated, whilst the BRC switch is a bit more stylish and can be seated in a chrome surround.

I will post before and after pictures when I have them.

Planning a trip to North Wales?  Check out this great Guest House in Llandudno.

After some careful thought (I think) I have decided to fit a LPG conversion to my 2005 Volvo XC90 T6 (with around 60K miles on the clock).  With petrol now hitting £1.30 per litre I have worked out that I should make back the installation cost in around 2 years.

This blog will contain the details of my decision to convert and will hopefully help others who are considering a similar conversion.

I should think that I will be putting up posts on the following subjects:

• My XC90
• Economics of conversion
• MPG before and after conversion
• Tank size
• Quotes from suppliers
• Different systems
• Finding LPG stations
• Servicing
• My general first “LPG experience”

Planning a trip to North Wales?  Check out this great Guest House in Llandudno.