Gas installation on a car - which cars are better with HBO
If you are planning to buy a car and want to equip it with LPG, check if the conversion will pay off. Some models are very difficult to adapt to this fuel.
Automotive gas installations have been the best way to drive cheaply for years. While petrol and diesel today cost about 5 PLN per litre, a liter of LPG costs only 2,5 PLN. This trend has been going on in Poland for more than a decade. Gas has never cost us more than half the price of EU95 gasoline.
Burns LPG 15 percent more than gasoline
Therefore, despite the many negative opinions, automotive LPG is still very popular. Prices for the most advanced, serial chips have already fallen to 2,5-3 thousand. PLN, thanks to which more and more drivers can afford to have their car converted. However, for gas-powered driving to be profitable and enjoyable, several conditions must be met.
Gasoline is more expensive, liquefied gas is cheaper, install a gas installation
- The most important thing is the right choice of installation. First of all, you need to choose it based on the model and technical parameters of a particular car. Fortunately, modern systems can be freely modified with additional devices and programmed very precisely. As a result, the car typically burns only 15 percent more gasoline than gasoline and suffers no power loss. A 2 percent reduction was only recorded in certain rev ranges. In addition, it must work at factory settings, explains Wojciech Zielinski, owner of the Awres website in Rzeszow.
LPG calculator: how much you save by driving on autogas
The engine must be in working order
There are many opinions about which cars run best on gas. According to Lukasz Plonka, an auto mechanic from Rzeszow, Japanese car engines do not work well on gas.
“Our customers who drive BMWs are also complaining. The settings work well in Fiats, Opel and Audi. But on this basis, I would not name a rule. If the installation is professionally selected, installed and checked regularly, this should not be a problem. Defects? Yes, when working on gas, you have to look under the valve covers more often and adjust them if necessary. Otherwise, you will burn the sockets and then get confused with compression. This is especially important in more expensive cars, mostly with V6 engines. For obvious reasons, the repair of the head here requires double the costs, says Lukasz Plonka.
And he recommends that when buying a car for the installation of LPG, pay special attention to the condition of its engine.
- It must be fully functional. Undoubtedly, the coil, plugs and high voltage cables must be in perfect condition. If yes, then HBO can be installed, the mechanic adds.
Troubled direct injection
Wojciech Zielinski assures that almost all cars, from German, French and Japanese to American, are converted to gas. The only problem is cars with engines using direct fuel injection.
Installing a gas installation - how to adapt a car to run on liquefied gas
But there is an exception here too. This is the Volkswagen Group. It uses almost all units of the FSI series, up to 1,8 liters. Work on approved installations for the rest continues, Zieliński emphasizes.
Why is gas in a direct injection car a problem? The owner of the site Awres explains that LPG poses a threat to gasoline injectors: - A standard installation will finish them in about 15-20 thousand. km. Fortunately, the Dutch Vialle systems come to the rescue, using direct injection of liquefied gas. I think that other cars will soon be allowed to be finalized.
Unfortunately, a gas installation on a new Volkswagen costs about 8 thousand. zloty. But only such a device is approved, i.e. it keeps the engine running and allows the car to move.
Is it safe for the engine?
Ryszard Paulo, owner of the Eksa service station in Rzeszow, claims that even direct fuel injection is no longer a problem. In his opinion, the key to economical and pleasant driving on gas is, first of all, a correctly programmed installation.
- In principle, there are no contraindications to installing gas on any car with spark ignition. Yes, many new models require additional installation of certain devices or emulators. But that's only half the battle. The second is the correct setting and programming of the installation, which requires professional knowledge of the engine power system map. An experienced, professional factory with the right equipment should have no problem, according to Paulo.
LPG calculator: how much you save by driving on autogas
And he adds that the alleged malfunctions of Japanese and French cars caused by running on gas are a myth.
- No serious automotive institute will confirm this. First of all, gaseous fuels are hydrocarbons, like gasoline and diesel. It is also incorrect to say that LPG destroys the engine because it is a dry fuel. After all, four-stroke engines have an oil pump and are lubricated regardless of whether they run on gas or other fuels. Oil reduces friction the same way in both cases, and what we burn above the cylinder doesn't really matter. The combustion temperature of gas and gasoline is also the same, adds Paulo.
Governorate Bartosz
photo by Bartosz Guberna
