LPG conversion

[Jay P]

Hi Bocobod

In the UK petrol (sorry gas) is expensive (92pence/litre). Hence I decided to have it converted. In short here's how it goes. A separate tank is fitted in the vehicle (in my case under the vehicle) to hold the pressurised lpg. A injection system is fitted in addition to the factory system with its own 'Brain'. The vehicle then switches automatically from gas to lpg when the engine temp. reaches the required temp. When the lpg runs out the system switches back to gas. No need to stop the car or anything like that. Regarding your question about mileages. LPG (Propane) is weaker than petrol in terms of energy output when combusted hence there is a drop of upto 20% in miles/litre. Also they claim that there is a slight drop in BHP. However this doesn't really show on a large vehicle such as the ML.I'm getting 18miles to the gallon (UK gallon, 5L=1.1gal).Conversion cost £1600. LPG is 32-40pence/L. Was 26p until the recent global oil price hikes.I think this is not suitable for the US market as your fuel is reasonably priced. Let me know how much LPG costs over there.
Before you ask, I will post some images of the conversion.

[bocobod]

Sweet! Thanks for the info. I acutally misread you location and thought you were in Boston! [:D]

[Andrew2004az]

In AZ a few years ago you would get a discount on large trucks if you had them running on propane. the problem is the lack of filling stations here in the USA and that fact that people took advantage of these tax credits and now a bunch of people have caddi escaldes that have alternative fuel plates that dont even run on propane but just have the tank. as for conversion costs in the USA its not worth converting for the money saved on gas since gas is a lot cheaper here.

[ae86pwr]

I drove LPG converted Chevy 350cu in vans before.

Our drivers just go out there and shut off the valve and fool the computer to run on regular unleaded.

Going up hill was such a chore.

on the other hand ...
the CNG Toyota Camry was a great car to run around town.
Just hope that the propane gas filling station uses high pressure system for buses or else you'll be ready to spend 15 minutes at the pump.

[woz]

i once had a white lpg ml 1999 320 it was great traded in for cdi amg in carlisle merc garage

[flyboy]

I had my ML350 2003 converted last month, early impresions are good with no real differance in performance, only downside so far is the size of the tank! Only 44 ltr so around town i get 150 miles on gas before i fill her up. I think its 55 ltr water capacity but only 44 ltr of lpg. It fits under the rear floor where the old space saver wheel went and was the largest they said would fit, I didn't want to loose internal space so a larger internal one was out of the question.
What size tank did you get Jey P?