E30 Zone

afternoon folks,

right i'm looking into an LPG conversion on my 2.7 sport considering the way fuel prices are going (£1.55 v 90P P/L).

i currently have a 1.8 vectra c estate (needed a cheap run around for over winter) which the previous owner fitted with LPG & it will be going over the bridge as soon as the sport is on the road as it's getting a bit leggy now with just under 200K on the clock & looking it like it may need both a new exhaust manifold/front cat & a new secondary cat as well.

from what i can see it appears to be a (digital?) multi point injection system, with the ecu/controller next to the main battery with a "flash lube) container next to it.

now the thing is aside from the big doughnut tank in the spare wheel well & (maybe, hopefully) the lines what other parts would i be able to convert the m20 to gas? i know i would need to keep the flash lube to stop te valve seats from drying out but would i be able to use the ecu to run 6 injectors instead of 4?

i'm new to the world of LPG so i really don't know where to start.

there's a garage local to me that installs LPG kits & i get the feeling if i asked them i'd be told i need all new parts & that i couldn't use anything (even the tank) off the vectra.

also i know that it would need to be fitted by an expert (i wouldn't even contemplate doing the work myself).

so, can anyone help? point me in the right direction? & tell me which parts i can transfer over?

thanks in advance.

My car had LPG when I bought it but I never ran it on gas, I went the other way and removed it. It's not my daily so less of an issue. Upshot from all that is I still have a doughnut tank known to fit in the wheel well going spare.

Hi Steve,

Brian Moooooooore was always advocating the conversions. Sadly, not heard anything from him these days. I hope he is well.

Gert_8 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 10, 2022 10:10 am

Hi Steve,

Brian Moooooooore was always advocating the conversions. Sadly, not heard anything from him these days. I hope he is well.

i gert, fingers crossed brian sees this & chimes in.

Drop him a pm Steve, you never know mate

Mart.

martauto wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 10, 2022 5:07 pm

Drop him a pm Steve, you never know mate

Mart.

I will do, can't hurt to try.

Depending how pikey you want to be you can reuse some parts, but personlly I would replace as much as possible, tanks are supposed to be a 10 year life, granted if you have removed the valve and checked everywhere thoroughly for corrosion/rubbing then why not keep using it, but you are much better off filling the tank space available to the maximum so you can get as much fuel capacity as possible, it will result in less trips to the filling station which can get annoying with small ranges of about 200 miles especially when they are few and far between.
Hoses definitely want replacing, injectors degrade over time, if the car has done nearly 200k miles then there is a good chance they have done the best part of their working life already so replace them especially as you will need 2 extra
Flashlube is not needed with decent engines, its only needed for poxy engines like ford/vauxhall etc etc
ECU compatibility is very much possible but you would have to read up on that, do you plan on setting it up and mapping it yourself? If so you better get researching, if not and you want to pay someone to do it then I would ask them what system they recommend as it will save you hours of unnecessary pay.
Vaporisers are rated by hp, so if the donor car is 110hp and your E30 is 220hp for example then it is unlikely that you can still use this, again personally I would buy a new one, rated to a higher hp than you require.

DanThe wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 11, 2022 5:46 pm

Depending how pikey you want to be you can reuse some parts, but personlly I would replace as much as possible, tanks are supposed to be a 10 year life, granted if you have removed the valve and checked everywhere thoroughly for corrosion/rubbing then why not keep using it, but you are much better off filling the tank space available to the maximum so you can get as much fuel capacity as possible, it will result in less trips to the filling station which can get annoying with small ranges of about 200 miles especially when they are few and far between.
Hoses definitely want replacing, injectors degrade over time, if the car has done nearly 200k miles then there is a good chance they have done the best part of their working life already so replace them especially as you will need 2 extra
Flashlube is not needed with decent engines, its only needed for poxy engines like ford/vauxhall etc etc
ECU compatibility is very much possible but you would have to read up on that, do you plan on setting it up and mapping it yourself? If so you better get researching, if not and you want to pay someone to do it then I would ask them what system they recommend as it will save you hours of unnecessary pay.
Vaporisers are rated by hp, so if the donor car is 110hp and your E30 is 220hp for example then it is unlikely that you can still use this, again personally I would buy a new one, rated to a higher hp than you require.

hi dan, thanks for that, there's a garage down the road that fit lpg systems so it might be easier for me to pop down & see them see what they say,

the tank looks to be in fairly good condition from what i can see as from what i can gather the last owner of the car (had it about 3 years) fitted the system from what i can see in the paperwork so fingers crossed the hoses are in good condition, but i'm sure it can't hurt to replace them can it?

as for setting it up & mapping it? not a chance i'd attempt that myself, as i say there's a garage in the next village that supply, fit & set up these systems so i'd be getting them to do all that just to be on the safe side.

anyway thats given me a bit to think about for now.