Lpg tanks

[TLC]

Ive come across a slight hitch in my plans to change to LPG,not the actual kit but the tank sizes .you dont get enough variants!I had hoped to put one in the space under the estate floor But there to big;.! because of the ridge in the middle and 2;because the lid wouldn't close but this could be fixed by rising the floor 2" with a sheet of ply.There are several cylinder tanks but none will fit.The alliterative it the doughnut type that replaces the spare wheel.:laugh: I was told to do with out the spare and carry a tyre inflater. Thats no good if your a few hundred miles from home and have a blow out late at night.
Is it legal to not drive with out the spare if the car had one when it was produced? and how far car you drive on a foam inflated tyre.Shirley you can get a more conveniat size to fit or have on made.

[mgdavid]

there's absolutely no requirement to carry a spare wheel (in UK anyway). If you drive slowly and carefully you can drive on a re-inflated tyre as far as you like. not sure about 'foam-filled' type - the ones I know about are sort of liquid rubber goo injected by aerosol, they spread all around inside and seal the leak. However they are no good for a big hole or slit. Why can't you mount the spare wheel upright to one side of the luggage space? Or have you considered cutting away the central stiffener in the underfloor space - it doesn't actually do a lot.

[TLC]

The space in the back and when the seat are down is required foe my 5 Golden Retrievers and sometimes a wheel chair .The stiffener is needed for the tow bar .I suppose i could have the wheel at the back of the front seats but its not what i should like to do unless absolutely necessarily.Alternitive tanks size would be better.

[Simon]

Have a bespoke tailored carpeted spare wheel cover upright in the rear compartment to accommodate a doughnut, or bin off the idea of LPG in the first place and do as I do...


drive gently-save fuel! It's a no -brainer!

[threelitre]

Actually - I have one of these donut shape tanks fitted to my Maestro. The spare wheel was not missed during the last 35k miles. The problem is, that due to the age of the Maestro, the tank is not really large (as is the spare wheel well). So I have a maximum fill of slightly more than 30 litres.

Alexander

Edit: You can't beat LPG by simply driving gently. In particular when you drive gently on LPG.

[Simon]

I am intrigued now...


Thanks for your input Alex...welcome as always

[Jonathan]

drive gently-save fuel! It's a no -brainer!

I was sent an interesting link recently.

In the film they managed to make something like a 10mpg improvement straight away (in a modern Golf). I've yet to be tempted by LPG, apart from the initial conversion costs I suppose I just don't like the thought of extra tanks cluttering up my cars.

[Guest]

Bit of a topic revival here. Can anyone recommend a spare wheel well tank for a maestro? i.e. what is the largest tank that will fit, and if anyone has a link to one that they have used that would be great. I see a few posts up that Alex has a tank that fills to just over 30 litres, but I'm not sure what capacity the tank would actually be as they do not fill to the brim.

Regards,
Ben

[threelitre]

My tank is - I think - 40l full volume. The valve stops filling it at about 30l, probably a little conservative. With some fettling on the valve I should have 2l more fill, while still being legal regarding the 80% rule. Any larger tank will need either a modification to the spare wheel well (i.e. making it deeper) or will stand proud in the boot.

Regards,

Alexander

[Guest]

Thanks Alexander. I am going to start sourcing parts soon. The conversion kits all seem to be mega expensive. If I can find a used tank and vapouriser then the rest should be fairly cheap to buy new. I see a company on ebay sells mixers for SU carbs for about £40, and the shut-off solenoids are cheap too. We have converted a few of our family cars to LPG in the past (the last one we did was in 2003) and I found the invoices from a company in London that sold the kits and set the car up afterwards so I shall give them a ring to see if they still exist. Do you have any pictures of your setup that would help me? i.e., where have you run the pipework and mounted the components.

Many thanks,
Ben

[threelitre]

There must be some pics here on the forum in some old LPG-threads. I didn't use a mixer (well, the company who converted it), as there is so little space with the airfilter. I also remove the carb needle when not used, as it wore down the jet pretty quickly...

Regards,

Alexander

[threelitre]

Pictures are in this old thread here:
http://www.maestro.org.uk/forums/sho...&highlight=lpg

Nothing has changed since then and I've had no problems with the LPG at all - about 65k kms since then.

Alexander

[Guest]

That thread is very helpful. So is that simply a bit of copper pipe joined to the carb elbow? I did think that it would be tight with a mixer so your method may be the answer. Also I am surprised that you have no problems with starting from cold on gas. I remember our old cars being difficult to start on gas (usually took 10-15 seconds of cranking).

Cheers,
Ben

[threelitre]

It starts more or less like on petrol. It might need a short blip on the pedal for very quick starting - but it will work every time. This winter at -10 it was a bit difficult - not the initial starting, but I needed to keep it running for about 30 seconds slightly raised rpms, as to not let the engine die. The cold gas was creating a too rich mixture and would flood the engine if I let it die. After a little warm up everything was fine. I use the choke like on petrol, it does only raise the revs, not alter the mixture. But I found that the cold vaporiser does create a richer mixture. This is possibly not needed, as the atomization problems of cold petrol do not exist with lpg, but it does only harm if the vaporiser is very cold...

My mixer is indeed just a little bit of copper pipe. Since then I flattened the opening a little and stretched it vertically close to the carb piston. The raising carb piston created a leaner mixture when raised (i.e. at motorway speeds), so I thought that a vertical slit close to the carb piston would be ideal. It does work much better regarding a more stable mixture on driving, but cold starting suffered a little bit (might be due to not tweaking it to perfection though).

Regards,

Alexander