THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Hi every one Iam looking to buy a TGB13/C304, I understand they average about 15mpg on a good day!...... at £4.30 a gallon here in the UK they are'nt cheap to run! I was wondering if any one has converted to LPG so that you have more fun driving them and less time at the petrol station! I have heard from other folks who have converted other types of vehicles that if the system is not set up correctly ie the spark plug gap apparently is critical pre detionation of fuel is likely causing a blow back/back fire which can damage the engine is this true? any comments on this gladly welcomed! all the best Jon

I must be sad replying to myself!!!!!?
I have read the comments re fuel efficency for a C303 with better tyres, range rover engine conversions and the like what I forgot to omitt was has any one any experince of lpg converting the standard C3## engine as this would be the easy cheaper and quicker way for myself than engine/gearbox conversions bye for now Jon

LPG is on my next year todo (Q1 if everything goes well).
The B30 engine runs very well on LPG, lots of 164 were LPG equiped.

V8 conversion will bring you still an high mileage and it will be very difficult to achieve (connecting the engine to the transfert box). You should try to contact people in the marine business : the B30 exists as a Penta engine (with three carbs) and diesel conversion seems easier to find if you go that way.

Hi Klug please keep me posted on your lpg conversion of your C303 I would be interested in your comments and any advice on it ie which LPG kit you opted for and why, most of all how well dose it work!

I tend to work like you it seems, on the principle of " keep it simple stupid" and " if it aint bust then dont fix it" well if you add LPG to an allready good low milage engine in my book your improving it! plus since lpg is if half the cost of petrol and by going diesel you have no real benifit in running costs since it is more expensive than petrol here in the UK LPG will be the route for if it works! all the best keep in touch Jon

I'm half way through converting my 6x6. I've got the basic info on my site on www.volvoc303.co.uk

The whole thing a reasonably straight forward but as I'm the first I've got all teh silly little problems to sort out as I go.

A bit more info

I work on the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid. So everything I do is geared for reliability and staying relativey standard so with the LPG conversion I'm doing the following:

Tank is 110 litres with the filler throug the side behind the driver's side passenger door.

The carbs are standard with the mixers fitted inside the plastic airbox.

I will be converting the head to unleaded and increasing the compresion a bit (if I can) to avoid overheating issues.

Richard: I drove a LR 101FC with dual fuel capability...both gasoline and LPG. The controller allowed fuel switching on the fly and worked quite well. I don't have any info on the manufacturer unfortunately.

I've got all the bits, it's just a pig to put together whilst making it as user friendly and off road suitable as possible. I'll be finished in the next week (I hope) and will post loads of info and photos on my site

BTW I've had LPG on my Kia Sorento for 2 years and its brilliant

It's done and was running beautifully unutil I had inlet gasket problems. I can tell you that £30 for a fill up is much less painful than £70.

I just converted the backside of my underpants from white to brown, and cleared out the office.

I think it had something to do with my tripple bean burrito lunch to gas conversion.

Should I check my gaskets, or should I get a new pressure regulator?

I see that E-Bay has used regulators from US Navy submarines pretty cheap. The only problem with these is that they weigh over 6 tons each and the freight would be expensive.

Hey Tony, you need one of those navy pressure regulators. I suggest you have your back side drilled and tapped to fit the appropriate fitting on the regulator and then you can adjust to 125 psig. that should make the people in the office feel better until you reach about 110 or 125 psi internally. However if you are daring set the pressure to 525 psig. That ought to be fun to watch. Let me know and I'll sell tickets and split the proceeds with you.

Well I am climbing up the learning curve on this one.

I've found that I have serious ignition issues that will hopefully be solved by a 123ignition replacement distributor.

I'll keep you updated

Well it is all done and dusted and running perfectly. Apart from the LPG system itself I needed:

New/refurbished carburettors
New plugs, leads distributor cap & rotor arm
New inlet/exhaust manifold gasket
New coil (12V)
123ignition distributor

Now it runs beautifully with more power, smooth torque and hopefully better fuel consumption.

Full story on www.volvoc303.co.uk

Hi, I found a mechanic in Amsterdam to fit LPG at a cost of 850 euros. He did tip top work in 7 hours including an injection system to keep the valves wet (this cost an extra 100 euros)
A very neat and professional job.Can provide his name and address if anyone needs it.
good luck Freddy

Freddy
The extra bit you had done ios basically just putting oil through the engine and causes more pollution than originally and costs more money thatn petrol!

I've been running mine without the flashlube and it's all fine. 2 experts agre that given reasonably low mileage and not hours of flat out motorway work then the engine will cope fine.