I have just finished installing an LPG kit and thought I'd post about it. The kit I used came from Tinley Tech (http://www.tinleytech.co.uk) and is straight forward enough to fit but the information is spread across 4 documents so you need to keep swapping between them a bit. The sales blurb suggests 3 days I think for the install but that must be for an inside tank on a 4 cylinder engine! I bet I've spent 5 days on it although I haven't been keeping a count.
I went for the 110lt single hole cylinder tank. There is a 140lt tank that would also fit but it has a 5cm bigger diameter and for obvious reasons I didn't want the tank to hang down more than the 110lt. When choosing the tank I cut a 40cm circle of cardboard to hold under the back of the truck so I could get a better idea of space usage and this size combined with my 40mm body lift has good clearance and leaves plenty of room for a rear winch still:
Getting the underslung tank in just the right spot, so it is as far forward as possible took quite a bit of work and then getting it strapped in place was a PITA that our sloping drive didn't help with. A smaller tank, torroidal or interior tank would probably take a lot less cursing to fit. When positioning the tank beware of the big plastic box that goes round the hole and make sure it won't interfere with anything when the tank is rotated to the correct angle. Also note that my exhaust has been re-routed at the back to be able to fit this tank. With a standard exhaust routing a shorter tank would be needed.
With the tank installed I started in the engine bay and did the gas injection nozzles. These are just little threaded brass fittings that you drill and tap the manifold to accept. I covered this part in another thread - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7072 - where you see I chose to put the fittings into the back of the manifold, right opposite the petrol injectors, as close as can be to the intake valves and in a central position:
That did mean using a full 300mm of hose to each nozzle (the max recomended in the instructions) but the alternative positions were less than ideal and I felt position was more important than hose length within reason. While the manifold is off for the gas nozzles, check if you need to add ports for the pressure sensor and also for the FlashLube feed if you're using that. On this engine there are already 2 suitable ports to tap into but it needs thinking about while the manifold is off.
Next up is finding suitable positions for the gas injector rails and mounting those. The choice is mainly made for you by the length of hose available:
I put the ECU, vaporizer, shut off solenoid & pressure sensor where the AHC pump used to live:
The mounting bracket I made for the ECU holds it away from the inner wing so there is somewhere to stuff surplus wire because the ECU loom is quite generous and mostly has connectors already fitted to the ends so shortening them isn't practical.
It's really then just a case of working through the install diagrams and instructions connecting all the pieces together. I plumbed the vapouriser hot water supply into the rear heater pipes:
I opted for the pre-made injector looms and I'm glad I did. I think it was £30 extra but they just plug in rather than having to cut the OEM wiring and splice in the two ends to go to the ECU and back. Round the petrol injectors is quite a crouded space and although you might be able to fish that section of the loom out a bit it would still be a lot of work to save £30!
Once everything was connected I went to the local LPG place and put 15lt of gas in so I could do some testing. I did need to tighten a couple of connections when spraying them with soapy water revealed a slight leak and I was surprised just how tight the fittings had to be done up to seal them but I expect that's because of crushing the olive (you can power the shut off solenoids manually to let gas flow for leak testing).
Then I installed the software on my laptop and hooked it up to the Gas ECU. You have to configure the software to tell it what parts you're using and then you can run a self calibration mode that works out the basic mapping needed for you. You can then do lots of adjustments to tweak it for different RPM and loads but I've only done the initial calibration so far and I can't tell the difference between the petrol and LPG (except the LPG only cost 60p a litre
). I haven't run it on LPG much at all because I need it inspecting and certified before my insurance will be happy with it so I just have to wait till Tuesday's inspection now before I refine the settings.
I went for the 110lt single hole cylinder tank. There is a 140lt tank that would also fit but it has a 5cm bigger diameter and for obvious reasons I didn't want the tank to hang down more than the 110lt. When choosing the tank I cut a 40cm circle of cardboard to hold under the back of the truck so I could get a better idea of space usage and this size combined with my 40mm body lift has good clearance and leaves plenty of room for a rear winch still:
Getting the underslung tank in just the right spot, so it is as far forward as possible took quite a bit of work and then getting it strapped in place was a PITA that our sloping drive didn't help with. A smaller tank, torroidal or interior tank would probably take a lot less cursing to fit. When positioning the tank beware of the big plastic box that goes round the hole and make sure it won't interfere with anything when the tank is rotated to the correct angle. Also note that my exhaust has been re-routed at the back to be able to fit this tank. With a standard exhaust routing a shorter tank would be needed.
With the tank installed I started in the engine bay and did the gas injection nozzles. These are just little threaded brass fittings that you drill and tap the manifold to accept. I covered this part in another thread - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7072 - where you see I chose to put the fittings into the back of the manifold, right opposite the petrol injectors, as close as can be to the intake valves and in a central position:
That did mean using a full 300mm of hose to each nozzle (the max recomended in the instructions) but the alternative positions were less than ideal and I felt position was more important than hose length within reason. While the manifold is off for the gas nozzles, check if you need to add ports for the pressure sensor and also for the FlashLube feed if you're using that. On this engine there are already 2 suitable ports to tap into but it needs thinking about while the manifold is off.
Next up is finding suitable positions for the gas injector rails and mounting those. The choice is mainly made for you by the length of hose available:
I put the ECU, vaporizer, shut off solenoid & pressure sensor where the AHC pump used to live:
The mounting bracket I made for the ECU holds it away from the inner wing so there is somewhere to stuff surplus wire because the ECU loom is quite generous and mostly has connectors already fitted to the ends so shortening them isn't practical.
It's really then just a case of working through the install diagrams and instructions connecting all the pieces together. I plumbed the vapouriser hot water supply into the rear heater pipes:
I opted for the pre-made injector looms and I'm glad I did. I think it was £30 extra but they just plug in rather than having to cut the OEM wiring and splice in the two ends to go to the ECU and back. Round the petrol injectors is quite a crouded space and although you might be able to fish that section of the loom out a bit it would still be a lot of work to save £30!
Once everything was connected I went to the local LPG place and put 15lt of gas in so I could do some testing. I did need to tighten a couple of connections when spraying them with soapy water revealed a slight leak and I was surprised just how tight the fittings had to be done up to seal them but I expect that's because of crushing the olive (you can power the shut off solenoids manually to let gas flow for leak testing).
Then I installed the software on my laptop and hooked it up to the Gas ECU. You have to configure the software to tell it what parts you're using and then you can run a self calibration mode that works out the basic mapping needed for you. You can then do lots of adjustments to tweak it for different RPM and loads but I've only done the initial calibration so far and I can't tell the difference between the petrol and LPG (except the LPG only cost 60p a litre
). I haven't run it on LPG much at all because I need it inspecting and certified before my insurance will be happy with it so I just have to wait till Tuesday's inspection now before I refine the settings.
. The costs of getting this done at an installer ranges from £1400 to £1750 + VAT so not keen on that route.
) you will take the time to get it set up better than A.N. Other .
