Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

as title.

found a 3.0 litre petrol x5 that i'll hopefully get this week. i want it converted to lpg asap.

i have found a garage to do it for £2100 inc vat which seems reasonable. now the kit they use is an OMVL multi point. apparently its the latest version. anyone got experience with this? Hopefully Mr Bravo will be in with advice?

Only bad thing is that they say i can only have a 67 litre tank due to the battery being down under the spare wheel well. they say they move a compressor which is above the battery but not the battery itself. i definitely dont want to lose boot space. so is this the biggest tank i can get? that seems to be the only bad point.

anyone run an x5 on lpg? couple of people have said they are nothing but bother! surely though they must be ok these days? also they come with a warranty.

reason im choosing the 3.0 over the 4.4 version is due to reliability and also the one i have found is VERY good price!!

when the car is done i'd get a certificate showing emissions after the conversion. is it then easy enough to sort with the dvla for tax purposes?

any help welcome

chop

B16JUS

you need to do a lot of miles to make back the £2100 before you start making a profit

work it out lpg say 58ppl unleaded say 120ppl so 62ppl saving so for every 50litres you put in it your saving £31 thats about 70 refils before you have made back your money

apart from that i have a friend with a lpg car its ok you proberly wouldnt tell the difference

J

Lee_R21Turbo

iTrader: (1)

Could you not move the battery yourself mate to make room for the bigger tank?

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

i havent done the maths properly but...if its 70 refils at approx 240 miles to a tank then thats "only" 16800 miles mate. thats gonna take under 18 months


pmsl@me do it
yes i could see if anyone else would though

Sketch

Good move Chop - LPG is ace!

67litre tank is not so good though Especially if thats its total volume, as you get 20% less than this as actual LPG capacity, thus only 53.5litres (11.78 gallons)

I've no idea what sort of economy you can expect out of a 3.0litre X5, perhaps 20mpg - 25mpg, which would give an approx range of 235-295miles on a tank.....

Only a problem if you're doing quite a few miles every day as like me, you'll end up in the petrol station re-fuelling every 2-3 days

The maths above isnt quite accurate either, as you get slightly LESS economy on LPG than you do on petrol, so its not quite as simple as 70refills before you break even.

NEIL A

iTrader: (6)

Sounds good Chop but only problem with the small tank is how often you will have to fill it up, so how often you will actualy bother to run LPG when its so much easyer just to go into any petrol station.

Benni

Can you not get one that has already been converted?

Benni.

Saaamon

iTrader: (2)

A mate of mine has just sold a 2l ecotec vectra with lpg and he said it was good because obvs its alot cheaper but said it was much slower when running on gas.. thats all i know

jammy86

my friend did the maths for a V8 engine being converted to LPG. and you need to do 20000 miles before your at the point where you start to save money. And this was on paper, so its more likely 25000.

JAmes.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

nige

yeah i know i can only use 80% of the tank. i reckon i could do 20mpg so 200-240 a tank perhaps. its for the wife anyway so wont cover any long trips etc. even if we have to it'll obviously run on petrol too.

see above. it'll be always on lpg unless desperate
is yours still for sale? i was tempted to get in touch with an offer but i have found one MUCH cheaper so didnt want to insult you

trust me i have been looking! most are moon miles. or out of budget.

you having a laugh?

all the figures are stated above and worked out how many miles i'd need to do!!

RWD Pete

i dont trust it for some reason, cars are mapped from manufactures to run on petrol

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

thats like saying cosworth's should all have t3 turbos and 200 bhp

RWD Pete

not at all mate maybe its just because i have had no experience with it, obviously works tho eh

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

yeah mate its fine. Johnny Bravo is an installer and knows his stuff. Just waiting for his advice on this type of kit oh and the price

RWD Pete

Bet theres some dodgy kits out there

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

perhaps. they have been developed for years now though and a tried and tested kit from an approved fitter doesnt bother me

justin.e

Chop,
be interesting to see what mine does to the gallon while towing the trailor to donnylol

RWD Pete

heard horror stories years back of tanks falling out

can we run 34 psi on lpg lol? stu....fancy it? hehe

Benni

You get 30% more torque as well on LPG I'm led to believe.

Benni.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

AFPMSL! 5mpg??

what you towing? what do you still own? red esc? the saff??

NEIL A

iTrader: (6)

I just topped mine up £80 going to Glasgow in the morning so will check the mpg when i get home , its sitting at 21.6 justnow.
How much is much cheaper as i have just dropped mine a bit as have found another car i like.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

depends if you're down from the PH price. a fair bit tbh and the car has 23k miles or so less.

pm me a number and i can give you a courtesy call however i dont want to offend but i have the other car ready to go. i just wondered if i could do you a favour. oh and black leather is better than grey

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

Anymore today?

foreigneRS

how?

it may well be possible to get 30% more if the engine was optimised for it.

good choice on the 3.0 straight six over the v8. they go plenty well enough.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

having driven it now its not as powerful as i thought it might be but its 2.5 odd MT after all.

yes though its more than enough for the wife! it has a tow bar and guess it could pull a car on a trailer ok too??

justin.e

god knows....lol bringing the red scort
my trailor is closed in so the drag factor wont be as bad

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

ooooooh aren't you the fancy pants!

doubt i'll be there mate but if i am i'll come say hello for sure

justin.e

if your down come over for a natter Iam sure rw and Andy will be down
by the way goodluck with purchase
I have to say I love the x5 and believe it or not they actually handle!tyres are pricey but...Therese hit a rock or sommit on the road the other night and fooked a 315/35r20..women...

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

not sure if the boys are going or not really.

that sounds like an expensive tyre! only 19's on the one i want

TurboShed

Or of the tank exploding in a crash and leaving a massive crater in the road. Then again being blown up is arguably better than burning to death in a slick of petrol...

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

UPDATE

another guy offering a Romano Fully Sequential kit, 83 litre tank, fitted for £1850 all in!

Bargain AND a bigger tank.

The guy will fit the OMVL or the Romano for the same price. He says Romano injectors are closer to the manifold and better.

Anyone?

JonnyBravo

Evening

I'm not a huge fan of the OMVL stuff tbh, neither the Romano, its all quite old hat but people do get on with it ok.

I've done a fair few 3litre X5's and Nick is right they are the still more than adequate, the V8's are cool but they seriously drink the juice.

The air pump and battery lives under the spare wheel so my advice is replace he battery before the conversion and we relocate the air pump so you can fit a 95litre tank in there.

We would either use a BRC Sequent system or a Prins, both systems are the same money but the Prins seems to work nicer IMO, my van is on BRC though and its faultless.

Here is the info about the conversion on our website :

http://www.gastech.org.uk/installgallery/bmw_x5.html

The tank is easily enough removable if required, the easy battery access was a hinged tank bracket which I don't think we still make as you needed to be Mike Tyson to lift the tank up with the bracket in one piece. Its just as easy to remove the bracket and pipes and pull the tank out of the way IF you ever had to.

The BMW management system is very complex and does not like some LPG kits, we have had a few in that simply wouldn't run right without throwing the managament light on so the kit was removed and we installed one of our own systems.

The 95litre tank fits fine, anyone fitting anything smaller should consider the fact that these DO use a lot of fuel and the customer is going to want to drive more than 100 miles without having to fill up.

I serviced a 3litre x5 the other day and the customer gets nearly 300 miles to a tank iirc which I thought was very good for such a big vehicle.

If you need to know anyting else just let me know mate

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

Jonny

MANY thanks for the chat yesterday!

I have agreed today to buy the car so cant wait now! Its gonna be a couple of weeks until we sue it though as we're gonna let the insurance finish on the other car 1st.

I spoke to Tom Harding:greenfuel and he has given me a couple of garages to try . Stirling and Glasgow.

To throw a spanner in the works the guy who gave the best quote has a cancellation on the 4th of august so i might take it.

To fit the 95l tank do you remove the battery strap then to squeeze it in? the guy spoke to his mate who'd done a 95l tank and he just used a bit of ply above the battery and it all went in fine.