Is it cost effective to convert a diesel MPV to run on LPG?

Question

Is it cost effective to convert a diesel MPV to run on LPG?

Answer 1

Never say it cannot be done.. There was once a fellow in Cyril, OK who converted several Cummins diesel engines to LPG. It was not an easy chore, as compression had to be lowered by increasing the size of the combustion chambers and dishing out the piston tops. The injectors were pushrod operated, the holes were resized to accept 14 mm sparkplugs and a six cylinder Ford distributor was added in place of the diesel pump.

He had his own machine shop, so the conversion was relatively cheap for him, however, electronic fuel injection systems would be daunting to perform, and not cost effective.

Answer 2

. Search the web for Bio fuel conversion kits, there is a great deal of information out there. Don't know where in the world you are situated as average ambient temperatures do have to be taken into consideration when choosing the conversion kit to fit. I am in the UK and run a mixture of 75% veg oil and 25% diesel oil with no problems at all(summer months) During the winter I adjust the mixture to a 50/50 mix. I have made no alterations or fitted any kit at all, I do however change the cam belt at half the recommended milage as veg oil being thicker than diesel oil, places a greater strain on the cam belt.

Answer 3

In a word No.

It is possible to get a diesel to run on LPG but the costs involved and your low annual mileage mean you won't be saving anything, If anything I suspect you would still be out of pocket some years down the line even taking into account the reduced road tax.

Also the price of LPG is slowly creeping up. The average is about 42p a litre.

Suggestions, Have a good hunt around the net for LPG conversion company's. Ebay also is a good place to look to get a rough idea of costs.

Ultimately I would look at selling/trading in the diesel and going for a petrol that has already had the kit fitted.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Would really need to know what you get to the gallon, but at that mileage I would say probably not. Assuming 40 to the gallon you use 125 gallons and would therefore save about £350 on fuel costs and about £200 on VET. Conversion costs £1500 - £2000 so you would need to keep the thing for 3 years minimum to get a return on your investment assuming you can't get any form of grant from your local council.

Answer 5

A diesel. No. If it were petrol, then perhaps.



Diesel to LPG would require an engine change (to petrol) and then conversion to LPG (£1000+).

Answer 6

LPG conversion is only available for petrol engines so that rules you out. Environmentally friendly solutions for your car are to run on bio-diesel which is derived from rapeseed oil or similar, however this doesn't solve your tax problem. Are you sure your tax will rise to £400? this applies to quite a small number of cars and only those registered in the last year or so. The highest tax bracket generally encompases very expensive vehicles such as Aston Martins where tax is not so important given the cost of the car, although I admit there are some vehicles which will lose a shed load of their resale value such as a V6 2.5 Mondeo or W32 Golf!