converting to gas

[merc230ce]

hi

has anyone actually converted their MBZ to gas?

if so has it lost its ability to perform etc?

thanks

 

[Big Ian]

Gas

I used to drive for a private hire company using S Classes which half had been converted to LPG.The LPG ones were sluggish in comparison to the Petrol versions with hesitation when first pulling away etc.They lost so much time and money spent dorment at the conversion specialist ( reputable one at that ) that the company owner gave up and had the systems disabled.

 

[robparker]

they must have been old systems, because they were not suitable for s-class's. convert your car using a new multipoint system, you will never have any problems. i had my s320 converted and have my 230ce converted... HIGHLY reccomended!

 

[FizzyFarmer]

lpg

I know of someone who has converted a 500sec to gas and had a few problems at the start. However, he has got ussed to it and it has saved him a lot of money. It does cause a loss of power put on a 5 litre car he doesnt care. However if you spend more money on a multi jet system the powerloss is less. The problem with the cheaper single jet systems seems to be they can backfire and also if you put your foot down or de accelerate hard they stall! however, if you just want to crusie around they are brilliant. I know of someone else with a 500se and he swears by it.

 

[robparker]

yea... the system on my s is multipoint and you treat it no different to petrol,, the sytstem on my 230 is single point and you cant put your footdown rapidly from trafficlights because as fizzyfarmer said it can backfire, in 1 year/30,000 miles it has done it twice.. both times it blew off vacume lines making it un-drivable, but 30 mins to fix. but, if you drive gently or switch to petrol if you need to floor it, you wont get problems. with the multipoint system you can floor it all you like and it wont backfire. single point systems are fine, but you do have to adapt your driving style to them

 

[Flying Scot]

yea... the system on my s is multipoint and you treat it no different to petrol,, the sytstem on my 230 is single point and you cant put your footdown rapidly from trafficlights because as fizzyfarmer said it can backfire, in 1 year/30,000 miles it has done it twice.. both times it blew off vacume lines making it un-drivable, but 30 mins to fix. but, if you drive gently or switch to petrol if you need to floor it, you wont get problems. with the multipoint system you can floor it all you like and it wont backfire. single point systems are fine, but you do have to adapt your driving style to them

you can put in an anti backfire valve that opens when you get a backfire and saves blowing off hoses etc

 

[Mark A]

they must have been old systems, because they were not suitable for s-class's. convert your car using a new multipoint system, you will never have any problems. i had my s320 converted and have my 230ce converted... HIGHLY reccomended!

I was looking a few months ago at getting a series 2 LR Discovery V8 converted to LPG with a multipoint system. I spoke to one of my friends who runs a company that installs them, and he told me that if it were his car he wouldn't do it. They have seen many many failures, even with systems installed by other agents. There is a lot of discussion over on the LR forum and the general concensus is don't.

 

[Indefatigable]

Runs better on LPG

I recently converted my 300TE 4Matic to LPG.(Since inspected and passed by an LPGA Installer)
The car was not running to well on petrol it had a fairly slow response when asked to accl. hard.
After converting to gas the engine now pulls very well indeed,as before the conversion the engine timing was set to the Regular fuel setting(Low Octane),but now i have set it to the Premium grade setting( Advanced ignition).I suspect the poor running on petrol to be Bosch metering unit,as sometimes when starting from hot it would not start on all six as if flooding.This fault does not happen on gas.
This is a single point (Mixer) gas setup,and now it will accl full trottle no backfire just pulls like a train.
Granted the car was not running correctly on petrol in the first place .Now i dont use petrol at all.
It starts from cold and moves off very well indeed on gas.
Last three tank refills have given me on average 10.5pence per mile when buying the gas @39.9pence per Lt.
Richard:smile:

 

[lepton]

Baffled

I had my 1990 300SE auto converted over 12 months ago. It was done professionally and quite cheaply (£1450 with a 100 litre tank). There is a slightly noticable reduction in power, though the car drives smoothly and still accelerates superbly, with no backfiring, when using the kickdown accelerator. Fuel consumption is about 90% of that provided by petrol but LPG is about half the price of petrol so the conversion should eventually pay for itself. However, there have been some problems! The car stalls when driving round left hand bends with an idling engine (really !!!), or reversing with left hand down on the wheel. It also occasionally stalls when idling at lights etc, though this can be prevented by putting the auto box into N. Neither of these problems occur when I switch to petrol. If anyone out there can explain why this happens I would be very interested in what they have to say.
Alan

 

[Indefatigable]

Hi Alan
When i fitted the system to my 300TE it was very important to mount the gas regulator( Vaporiser) unit in line with the car,thin end facing fore/arft.and the diaphragms to the left and right,this is to stop G forces working on the valves and diaphragms( so i am told).Your system has been fitted by professionals so it should be in the right place,but worth checking.
The idle speed cutting out i had the same fault on gas as you have,and perfectly ok on petrol.This i think is because all the air/gas mixture is being drawn through the idle valve unit on closed throttle,on petrol the injectors are supplying fuel direct into the inlet track.
The idle speed valve seems to be just a bit too slow to respond on gas.
I have cheated and very slightly adjusted the butterfly valve stop to hold the tick over up artificially( Shock horror i here people saying) and it works fine for me,i dont use petrol so the slightly higher tickover on petrol is not an issue.
For more info about most things LPG visit this forum,
http://www.my90.co.uk/cgi-bin/lpgforum/discus.cgi
they are very helpful.
One of the chaps who has worked on older Mercs is CS Gas,you will find him very helpfull.
Richard