diesel or lpg

[Monty]

I have a 4.2 turbo diesel gq already in good condition, however with the price of diesel it is costing a lot to run around in. Should i just bite the bullet and get one already on lpg?

has anyone else had both?

my gq is using on average 14.5 litres per hundred k's, does anyone receive economy that is heaps better in theirs?

[CanberraMav]

Ill happily swap you your diesel motor for my petrol and ill buy you a new gas kit to go with it. Thats pretty good economy your getting mate........You are driving a large 4wd

[JemmyBubbles]

Just turbonated my td42..

Got just over 12l/100kms on highway last nigth that was me being quite stompy and accelerating up hills due to new power . That is with 33's as well...

So one could assum I travelled a little further than what I actually did... so in reality I would get 800kms out of a tank if I drove like a nanna. That is probably the best these things can give I guess..

Did I mention I was acellerating up hills... not slowing down ??

[morkz]

how about mix a bit of LPG in with your diesel get a better burn and more power

[thepatroldude]

Well angus, you know we run both, one on 35's and one on 37's, one turbo diseal the other lpg, my brother and dad envy the cost i pay for a full tank,,,,,did i mention only $20 a week compared to in excess of $100+ for the diseal. These are big trucks, but you do the maths.......BIG SAVING=more mods, other stuff u want etc etc.

Only things that I don't like about Lpg is the lack of power etc, compared to diseal but for the price you pay I think LPG is a winner. Remember oil companies don't like to lower prices only raise them, and they will continue to go up!

[r0880]

I get 12L 100kms out of my pertol L28 MQ.

RB30DET conversion underway so expecting bad economy now.

[dumbdunce]

gus, considering your income this year compared with last year, you are a big sook if you complain about the price of fuel until it goes over $2/litre. Fuel cost per litre or per km as a % of average income is lower now than it has ever been, so we really have nothing to complain about.

if you spend half an hour driving a TB42 around, you'll remember how just plain awful it is - noisy, rough, gutless and thirsty, every time I work on eddie's car I have to have a long hot shower to wash off the petrol and patrol stinks.

Eddie I think you are having yourself on if you think the LPG is LOTS cheaper than diesel. Fuel is only one part of the cost of ownership of a vehicle, as you'll come to understand when you are paying the bills.

stay true to diesel Gus - then when all the dinosaur oil is gone your truck will still run on vegetable oil!

[thepatroldude]

hahah, don't think so lol, well for someone who earns only $100 or so a week, LPG is excellent for me, if I owned a diseal all money would be spent on fuel rather then mods etc....Angus stop didling around keep your SOFT SOFT car, keep paying for the diseal and post something of more interest.

People at school who own little 4 cylinder cars say they are spending $30 plus a week on fuel, I travel a good 1.5hrs each day and pay $20 a week (am i missing something here??)

Thats all.. Oh sorry about the mud brian!, thanks for the work much appreciated!.

[Tiny]

oil burner for sure, it hard to fill gas up with a jerry

[bogged]

I have a 4.2 turbo diesel gq already in good condition, however with the price of diesel it is costing a lot to run around in. Should i just bite the bullet and get one already on lpg?

Goto auctions and buy a $1200 corolla.. I did last week (but went with a maxima). runs on smell of oily rag, fire and theft, saves wear and tear on the 4b and its tires....


keep the good 4b as is.

[bogged]

Got just over 12l/100kms on highway last nigth that was me being quite stompy and accelerating up hills due to new power . That is with 33's as well...

I'd be buying a new calculator....

[YankeeDave]

bogged dont know about getting a cheap 4 cylinder for better fuel economy as you are already down the price of the car $1200 or so, then a few hundred on insureance say $200, and another $540 on rego (ouch). and you're close to 2grand.

so by now you're down 2 grand, which you would have had if you didnt guy that 2nd car.

however, 2nd car is great for preserving 4b and very handy if your 4b is off the road for a few days/weeks due to breakdown or mods.

and i get 12L per 100km on turbo diesel with 35's and 4.6's if I dont drive over 80.

Tend to get around 13-14 per hundred and much worse in the bush.

If you are worried about bad fuel economy, maybe consider getting injectors rebuilt and getting someone to properly tune it on a dyno.

[dumbdunce]

I travel a good 1.5hrs each day and pay $20 a week (am i missing something here??)

you maths is bad somewhere. to get the same energy as a litre of petrol you need to burn about 1.3 litres of LPG. if you drive 1.5 hours a day at 40km/h average speed, 5 days a week (ie NOT including wherever you go on the weekend), and at a very generous petrol consumption of 17 litres per 100km, that's about 22 litres per 100km on LPG, that's 66 litres of LPG per week, so that's $33 per week at 50c/litre before you have any fun on the weekend. of course if your average speed is faster than 40km/h, and considering where you go to school, it probably is, then I'd have to say you're spending at least 40/week on LPG to get to and from school. then if you do a 400km round trip on the weekend, still allowing you the very generous 17 litres/100km, you're paying closer to $70/week for your LPG habit - ad having to refuel 3 times.

of course if you can provide some actual km and fuel consumtion figures then we can compare apples with apples, but if you say "I only pay $20/week for LPG" big deal - if I only drive 150km/week I only pay $20 in diesel, too.

anyway, that's not the point - the point is that unless you are driving 50,000km/year, fuel cost is NOT a significant proportion of the cost of owning and operating a motor vehicle of any kind, smaller than a 1000 horsepower prime mover.

Thats all.. Oh sorry about the mud brian!, thanks for the work much appreciated!.

don't apologise to me, apologise to yukon group, as they will be picking up the laundry bill.

[Monty]

yeah i guess diesel is the way then, cause my car only goes to Brians for mods unlike your eddy which goes weekly for who knows what hehehe.

Bogged, have thought through the second car option as well and might be the goeer

[dumbdunce]

yeah i guess diesel is the way then, cause my car only goes to Brians for mods unlike your eddy which goes weekly for who knows what hehehe.

cool when are we doing the lockers?

Bogged, have thought through the second car option as well and might be the goeer

monty have yo considered getting a moto? you are a good rider and your trip to work isn't exactly city-dangerous - riding to work on a little two-fitty 4 stroker costs very little fuel, and rego and insurance are cheap as too.

[awill4x4]

I travel a good 1.5hrs each day and pay $20 a week (am i missing something here??)

you maths is bad somewhere. That's 66 litres of LPG per week, so that's $33 per week at 50c/litre before you have any fun on the weekend.

of course if you can provide some actual km and fuel consumtion figures then we can compare apples with apples, but if you say "I only pay $20/week for LPG" big deal - if I only drive 150km/week I only pay $20 in diesel, too.

I do about 400 kms a week in my auto GQ on LPG and use between 95-100 litres so it's around 25 litres per 100 kms. On a trip I get nearer to 22 litres per 100 kms. At current Melbourne prices with the 4 cents shopper docket discount it costs me $35 per week (35 cents/litre).
On a trip last weekend I did 300 kms and refilled with 64 litres LPG for a total cost of $22.40
Assuming your diesel gets 10 litres per 100 (and I'll be the generous one here) your going to use 30 litres for the same distance at a cost of around $1.25 per litre so that's $37.50 for the same trip. If it's more like 12 litres per 100 (more realistic for a TD 42 on a trip) then count on $45 for the same distance.
Diesel doesn't even get close.

[thepatroldude]

I agree with awil4x4 "diseal doesn't get close" for around town, correction I do around 300km a week to and from school, paying $20 not 150km. If i do the same in BIG puppa, it cost over $90, still not sure what I'm adding up, subtracting, etc etc, can someone show me??, cause many say its alot cheaper.

Angus ur car is soft, mine goes there cause i drive it hard and willing to give things ago when u pansy out, not like a soft boy like urself....p.s brian lockers next year, there will be some more business next year for ya!lol.

More to the point, I see my self running a cheap vehicle, this debate can go on and on and on, however I have one advantage, that is driving both vehicles LPG and Diseal, the same distance and I get two very very different costs??? what better evidence is there??

If i had it my way, diseal for long trips, LPG around town. I do agree u get better value for diseal on longer trips, but around town and small distances LPG is in my opinion a better perfomer, not so much in milage but in COST!

[dumbdunce]

Angus ur car is soft, mine goes there cause i drive it hard and willing to give things ago when u pansy out, not like a soft boy like urself...

how hard would you drive if you were paying the repair bills? Angus "pansys out" because he knows the value of his vehicle and that if he breaks it, he has to pay to repair it. For the smart man, getting home is a far bigger priority than driving the biggest rock or the biggest sand dune.

More to the point, I see my self running a cheap vehicle,

cheap? you would be surprised by the running total of repairs and maintenance for that truck! - There is no such thing as a cheap vehicle, and you certainly aren't 'running it' anyway. Do the sums for rego, insurance, repairs, maintenance, etc etc you will find that "cheap" vehicle owes you a lot of $$.

this debate can go on and on and on, however I have one advantage, that is driving both vehicles LPG and Diseal, the same distance and I get two very very different costs??? what better evidence is there??

well for starters you're not comparing the same 2 vehicls, you have a GQ on 35's with 4 - 5" lift and a much heavier GU on 37's with 7" lift, of course there will be higher consumption from the bigger truck. Remeber that to some people, driveability, comfort, range, torque, responsiveness all count for something, and a GQ on LPG has none of these things. Reapair costs on the GU are also much much less than for the GQ, and that $ not spent on patching up would buy a lot of diesel. I'll say it again, the cost of fuel is almost insignificant unless you are a long haul operator, and for a private operator it is a smaller slice of average income that it has ever been.

If i had it my way, diseal for long trips, LPG around town. I do agree u get better value for diseal on longer trips, but around town and small distances LPG is in my opinion a better perfomer, not so much in milage but in COST!

count the whole cost. include the cost of the LPG conversion, because most people have to convert any vehicle they buy, they don't come out of the factory with LPG.

while I agree LPG has a place as a fuel - for taxis, golf carts, forklifts, and 1981 Datsun 2100B's it has no place in true 4WDs. can you carry it in a jerry can? can you tune your engine without a degree in LPGology? If a truck has LPG it remains, in my opinion, a shopping trolley. Yes this includes Antunac's SWAMPA


EDIT: potentially upsetting figures removed

[Beastmavster]

can you carry it in a jerry can? can you tune your engine without a degree in LPGology?

Why do you think it's particularly hard to tune for LPG? It's no worse than tuning for petrol.



Do you put dual fuel vehicles in the same category of "shopping trolley" city use only?

If I was doing a trip from melbourne to cape york and back the cost would be cheaper on dual fuel considering that the first 3800kms and the last 3800kms would be done on LPG. That's most of the trip at 1/2 to 2/3 the fuel cost of diesel.

[thepatroldude]

Ah brian think you've taken this too far, any figures for BU are confidential and should not be placed on the net for everyone to view. Please make sure that does not happen again. . Posting personal information has taken this far past the original post from monty. This is not appreciated!!!

[dumbdunce]

Ah brian think you've taken this too far, any figures for BU are confidential and should not be placed on the net for everyone to view. Please make sure that does not happen again. . Posting personal information has taken this far past the original post from monty. This is not appreciated!!!

my apologies. any reference to actual figures was estimated (ok guessed!) but I have removed such references from my post so as not to cause offence!

PS we all know angus is soft but someone needs to stick up fo him!

[awill4x4]

while I agree LPG has a place as a fuel - for taxis, golf carts, forklifts, and 1981 Datsun 2100B's it has no place in true 4WDs. can you carry it in a jerry can? can you tune your engine without a degree in LPGology? If a truck has LPG it remains, in my opinion, a shopping trolley. Yes this includes Antunac's SWAMPA

Dumbdunce, I have hereby placed you in my long list of diesel elitists.
It seems to be the only people with a strong negative feeling to LPG is the diesel brigade. I'll continue to save my $35/week $1800/annum compared to the equivalent TD 42 and the cheaper servicing costs that goes with LPG as well. 1 oil filter rather than 2, oil changes extended because the oil/fuel contamination is much reduced.
Over the past 7-8 years of using LPG I and many like me have saved thousands of $ in the running of our vehicles.
If my engine dies, I'll pull it out and put a V8 petrol/LPG one in to replace it and still reap the benefits.
If my GQ falls to bits, I'll buy a cheap GU preferably with a blown motor and transfer the V8 to that.
Regards Andrew.

[r0880]

Hmm maybe its coz im hung over but this is confusing.

For me fuel cost is significant in cost of ownership of vehicles.

Well for one of my cars (RX7 13B Turbo), spent around 20K on building and have driven it around 100000km in last 4 years and at 15L/100km and say average fuel price of $1 (optimax always) thats $15K on fuel. Significant in my mind, the other 20 has replaced nearly every part on it.

My MQ Ive owned for 5 years Ive done around 100000 in it also (WTF do I do so many kms... ) It cost me $3500 to buy, spent at very most (until new mods recently) $1500 on servicing and maintenance (including tyres 1 set) so thats what $8K inc rego etc for the period. Fuel I get 12L 100km at say 90c average for 100K = $10800. Significant? I think so.

If LPG reduces the cost whilst making consumption worse its going to reduce the running cost significantly.

If it costs half as much and uses 50% more thats saves well and truly the cost of the LPG setup for that period. It costs less than half as much atm, and doesnt use 50% more (around 30%).

Also working in a servo I see Prados and shit come in and put like $180 in diesel that gets them 1000km and real 4x4s (patrols, landcruiser) come in and put $120 in for petrol and gas and claim it will go just as far.

*END OF RANT*

[Beastmavster]

LPG should use no more than 30% more fuel. This is if it's tuned up to the same horsepower as it was on petrol.

Considering at the moment in Brissy we're paying about $1.30 a litre for petrol versus $0.50 a litre for LPG, even at a 30% extra fuel consumption the running cost for fuel is 1/2.


If the car is setup a little differently it may use less fuel but make slightly less power, say a 15% reduction power and a 15% increased fuel consumption.

This is of course assuming that a petrol (or diesel) engine runs at 100% efficiency and thus can actually burn all of the calorific energy of the fuel. Which of course is complete and total bullshit.

The difference in fuel consumption is not normally anywhere near 30%, bcause a car engine would be lucky to be running at 40% thermodynamic efficiency.

As far as losing performance relative to diesel, even if it had the power cut in half it'd still blow a NA diesel 4.2 into the weeds.

Line up against an LPG TB42 any time you like, I know who my money will be on.

[thepatroldude]

All good Brian, I'm not a person who holds grudges "only for 5 minutes" lol!! . All forgiven!.

[MQ080]

What is going on here? Over the past 50 years wage increases have far exceeded that of the increase at the pump. Granted it has jumped 30% since the start of the year. However if an increase of $30 per tank can make you sell a 15K 4x4 so you can save what you would have made in a hour of work, this is just plain silly.

This is all hysteria whipped up by the media; fuel for most people is not the largest expenditure of a budget so why go on like this? Furthermore if it’s that much of big deal buy a 121!

[carts]

What is going on here? Over the past 50 years wage increases have far exceeded that of the increase at the pump. Granted it has jumped 30% since the start of the year. However if an increase of $30 per tank can make you sell a 15K 4x4 so you can save what you would have made in a hour of work, this is just plain silly.

This is all hysteria whipped up by the media; fuel for most people is not the largest expenditure of a budget so why go on like this? Furthermore if it’s that much of big deal buy a 121!

So why dont you bite the bullet and sell the pulsar and buy a patrol again? You know you want to!

[dumbdunce]

What is going on here? Over the past 50 years wage increases have far exceeded that of the increase at the pump. Granted it has jumped 30% since the start of the year. However if an increase of $30 per tank can make you sell a 15K 4x4 so you can save what you would have made in a hour of work, this is just plain silly.

This is all hysteria whipped up by the media; fuel for most people is not the largest expenditure of a budget so why go on like this? Furthermore if it’s that much of big deal buy a 121!

So why dont you bite the bullet and sell the pulsar and buy a patrol again? You know you want to!

cos cops take all day to make $30, silly!

[Tayls]

just to reopen this debate, awill4x4 mentioned that when his pet/lpg dies, he'll be looking a putting a dual fuel 8

what engine would you be looking at, ive heard clevo's arnts the best, same as the holden equilvant. what about an injected 8 on gas? what are the options????

[MQ080]

just to reopen this debate, awill4x4 mentioned that when his pet/lpg dies, he'll be looking a putting a dual fuel 8

what engine would you be looking at, ive heard clevo's arnts the best, same as the holden equilvant. what about an injected 8 on gas? what are the options????

Dumbdance rebuilds a mean Buick 8