Running Tips for 80 series on petrol/gas

[su11y]

Hi All,

I have recently bought an 80 series petrol/gas. Its has just had a new cylinder head installed which has LPG hardened inserts.

Does anyone know if i can run this on gas throughout the week as it has the LPG suited inserts? Some people have suggested starting and finishing on petrol each day but this doesn't seem practical to me.

Any other tips would be great.

Cheers, Jack

 

[Julian T]

Welcome to the forum su11y, I have to admit I have mostly ignored the gas conversions for engines as I am a believer in not messing with the design of an engine too much, personally I would think running on petrol will probably have long term benefits to the durability of your engine as petrol has the effect of lubricating the parts it comes in contact with and gas (lpg) does not.
Also I would think the engine would start easier on petrol than it would on gas hence the advice to start/stop on petrol and yes it would be practical to run on gas during the week but I would strongly recommend having a gas system professionally fitted with warranty and back up from a company that specializes in these systems.

As an aside back in the bad old days of apartheid and sanctions in South Africa I knew people who ran their cars on paraffin as it was cheaper than petrol to buy but less efficient, but they would start and stop on petrol as the engines would not start on paraffin as the engine had to be hot enough to combust the paraffin.
paraffin as a fuel is closer to diesel than petrol but can be spark ignited, in fact I have seen agricultural spark ignition engines designed to run on paraffin.

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

To maintain the valves your best bet is to run a Flash Lube system. It basically drip feeds oil into your inlet manifold which libricates the valves when you are running on LPG, as the additives in petrol would.

They are are fairly cheap and easy to install.

 

[Yawood]

I agree with Julian T in that I think the suggestion to start on petrol each day has to do with the fact that it is easier on the engine to use the higher energy fuel for starting and then drop back to gas. There should be no problem with running gas for the rest of the time seeing that it has the worked head. I'm not a particular fan of dual fuel systems but my Falcon ute is dedicated gas (just two large gas cylinders and no other fuel) and it's fine. Obviously Ford built it to run exclusively on gas which it does with no problem and has done so for 120,000 km. I don't have the option of starting on anything else but it starts and runs beautifully - to drive it you'd never know that it wasn't petrol except that it's one of the cheapest vehicles to run that I've ever owned. The biggest fear I have is running out of fuel because you obviously can't carry a jerry can of gas back to the vehicle on the side of the road.