LPG Coversion for your xj8

[Greyone]

Hi All, I had my car converted over a year ago to LPG, and as with 2 vehicles previously, it was the best thing I have done , and is money well spent, my car runs well on LPG, and allows me to drive when and where I like, LPG price currently 51-55 p per litre, typical fill up cost about £30-£35, the car does around 25mpg (driven carefully), and the tank (80 ltr I think) is toroidal (doughnut shape) and fits in the spare wheel well. The filler is in the area opposite to the petrol filler, where the second filler once was, and makes filling easy.

I have spoken to the owner of Profess Autogas (Andrew) and he says all in cost, with £50 discount to JEC members would be £1350, take a look at his website and contact me for further details by all means, these people I have found to be very helpfull, and ameanable, I have had 3 vehicles done by them now, and have been overall very pleased. Regards Dave.

http://www.professautogas.co.uk/servicesandprices.html or search for lpg conversions on google. they are situated in South Wales, and can usually do the conversion in a day, they also will lend you a car for free.

[daveji]

Members should note that there are several agents around the country who provide LPG conversions for Jaguars.
Some advertise in the magazine,others are recommended by members in the Recommended Suppliers directory.
Perhaps David you would consider adding your favourite to the Directory by using the "New Recommendations" link.

[blackflash]

I did consider converting but the cost was more than this. I know the fuel is massively cheaper so the payback should be easily expressed in miles but I can't quite get my head around the arithmetic. I think it goes something like this (this is written for those who think in gallons, not litres, but for reference there are around 4.5 litres in a gallon):

LPG is just under half the price of petrol. If an XJ8 does say 25mpg, then over 10,000 miles it will use 400 gallons of fuel. Petrol would cost around £5 per gallon = £2000 and LPG around half of that, saving around £1000. So if a conversion costs £1350 then it will pay for itself in around 13,500 miles. That's quite impressive.

The assumption is of course that the Government will continue to subsidise LPG by charging 6.5p duty per litre instead of the 60p or so it charges on petrol. I think this was up for review early last year based on whether LPG really was delivering the environmental benefits some would claim (see below). I suspect this is on the backburner due to economic challenges...

I'm pleased to see the rationale here is a monetary one. Some people try to push LPG as a "green" thing to do but apart from the fact that LPG is otherwise a waste product from the oil industry, it is not green, certainly not at the point of use. It produces around 10% less CO2 than petrol but fuel consumption on LPG is usually around 10% higher so it basically cancels itself out. For example, the go-lpg website claims that the reaons for the Uk government subsidy is that LPG "makes far less pollution". This may well be true in some well-to-pump oil industry sense - I have no idea - but could give the misleading impression that as you drive around you are polluting "far less"... which is simply not the case.

Prospective purchasers should be aware there are a number of different systems on sale and not all are the same. Hence it's good to have a personal recommendation from someone with no connection with the supplier other than being a satisfied customer. You should also be sure that whoever you trust your car to for servicing is happy to do so with an LPG system in place (as this is the X308 forum, warranties are unlikely to be something we need to worry about, but if you were thinking of converting a later model then you'd be wise to check!).

You will also want to check that you know where your nearest LPG stockist is - no good if you have to drive 25 miles out of your way to fill up! I think most cities and towns will by now have at least one outlet so this shouldn't be a real issue for those who don't live in the wilderness.

Finally, unless things have changed, there are cosmetic considerations for those who care about such things. In the absence of a second filler flap, you get a pretty ugly screw cap on the side/boot surround of your vehicle. Perhaps Greyone has found a way around this - or isn't bothered! - but a photo would be helpful either way.

Hope this helps,

Nigel

[Brakebuster]

NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS


i drive a 4ltr V8 PETROL car............lol


more power to your elbow for doing so , but its not for me...

BB


and LPG users dont forget this

the Tax Duty on the ' gas ' can go up , as well as up.................

[Greyone]

Yes BB, I drive a 4litre petrol car too, but most of the time it costs me approx half as much as it used to, occasionaly when feel the need, I switch it back to petrol, just to see what I am missing, and do you know what, the only thing that can tell the difference is my wallet!
******STILL THE BEST MONEY I HAVE EVER SPENT!******** and I dont have to stand around in pools of spilt diesel to get economical motoring.

Each to their own.

Kind Regards. G

[E_PITT]

I've recently had mine converted using an AC STAG 300 LPG system. Just a word for anyone contemplating a conversion using this piece of kit. The garage who did my conversion spent ages trying to get it to work without the car switiching straight into 'Restricted Performance' when the LPG kicked in. After weeks of messing about going backwards and forwards from the garage I found an entry in an online forum by someone experiencing an identical problem. The answer is you need to get a set of Pitagora Emulators fitted.

With those fitted the system now works very well and I get the equivalent (in cost terms) of a combined cycle of about 32 mpg. The car is not quite as rapid on gas and a hard kickdown will cause some stuttering but i think these may be curable problems. It is however, smooth as silk when cruising and the switchover is almost impossible to notice. If i'm expecting to be driving her quite hard (perhaps to overtake) i just press the button and she's back on petrol in an instant. I believe it is probably worth driving her on petrol occasionally too just to keep the petrol delivery system functioning as it should.