The fuel control is a mixture of the system and the installer.

As to what systems have problems and which ones are best I would rather discuss via phone or email.

The main issue is the installer. Here is a list of many of the popular mistakes that I see from other installers including many that are supposed to be teh best.
1) poorly adjusted map and wrong settings in the ECU.
2) injector nozzles mounted half way up the inlet manifold
3) wrong type/size injectors fitted
4) vaccume line T'd into an existing line or tapped into a single runner in teh manifold.
5) Y joing on V engines fitted wrongly starving one bank of fuel

That is just the sort of mistakes that cause running problems, there are many more that I see that would be considered unsafe like poorly secured tanks and fuel lines held to the brake lines with zip ties!

The biggest consideration should be the installer then the kit.

Sorry for late reply

I agree with previous comments - a good system badly installed or set up poorly

I would suggest SEB or BRC

Make sure you get one with the OBDII connection and someone that will really set up the MAP properly - ideally I think this should be done on a rolling road.

Let us know if you take the plunge

regards
Ian

Volvo V8 LPG conversion. Has anyone done it?
 

Hi Welder,

Could you, please, let us know whether you converted your motor to LPG or whether you decided against it. It would be very interesting to find out.

Many thanks in advance,

Is high fuel pressure really the issue
 

Hi Classicswede,

I converted 3 Volvos in the past and 2 of them did not have petrol return lines. 60k and 70k miles later no MILs due to high fuel pressure have been noted.

I'd appreciate if you could elaborate on this a bit more, please.Are V8 models equipped with a different fuel pump? Why would not emulator fix the issue?

Thank you.

Yes they are fitted with an dumb pump. It needs to see the correct amount of fuel flow. The emulators dont send the right signal at the right time.

Are you an installer or just DIY?

Thank you for the lightning fast reply, Classicswede!

No, I am not an installer these days, but used to work in a garage a while back. Well, long habits die hard and I am still doing LPG conversions on all our family vehicles. I did get officially trained in LPG conversions just for insurance purposes for the period between the time when a conversion takes place and the moment when my vehicle get inspected and the appropriate certificate gets issued.

Coming back to the Volvo V8 conversion, I am glad I found this thread with some very useful information as I've purchased S80 V8 recently. I've had a look and there are a few challenges with this vehicle, but they are not critical. Some points are listed below:

1) There seems to be sufficient space for a vaporizer to be placed at a lower level just in front of the air filter. I believe this is the place where an auxiliary engine preheater should be. Not plenty, but there is sufficient amount of space to put either Magic 3 (350bhp) or Prins (335bhp) vaporizer there.

2) I totally agree with you that some installers put the injector nozzles half way up the inlet manifold and this is not ideal at all. The problem with this engine is that one can insert the nozzles very close to the head(s), however, connecting them to the injector rails becomes virtually impossible. The front bank is ok because there are openings between the individual inlet ducts, BUT the rear bank does not have these openings and, therefore, the connecting hoses will be very long for the rear bank, because they will have to be fed through the LH side of the engine. This is not acceptable.

One possible solution to this problem would be the placement of the individual LPG injectors in the direct proximity of the petrol injectors i.e. underneath of the upper part of the inlet manifold. There is very limited space there and I think the only injectors that can fit there in almost vertical upright position are the magic injectors because they have got the feed inlet from the side and not from the top.

Do you happen to know any other individual injectors that have a very good performance regardless of their orientation? It would be great if the lpg injectors could be placed horizontally.

Another question that I have is whether you know or not about any injectors that can be mounted directly onto the manifold without a separate nozzle and a hose that elongate the whole assembly quite a bit? I know that AG and Autogas Italia used to make them in the past 5-7 years ago but I could not find anything of that kind in the market these days.

I would be very grateful if you could suggest a solution to the high pressure issue in the petrol line.

Million thanks in advance,
Cheers

Hi Classicswede,

Could you, please, PM me your email and/or phone number so that I can get in touch with you. The website does not allow me to send you a PM because my number of posts is below 30.

Cheers,

Contact details sent

From what I read and heard when I was looking into LPG converting my V70R a few years ago, it's no surprise to me that there are significant reliability problems associated with LPG installations, but very few of them are the fault of the technology...rather how it's applied.

Ian said it should ideally be set up on a rolling road...I say it's essential. You're replacing the fuel system, and some of the suggestions I heard ("Just set it at idle...it'll be OK") were flat-out scary.

cheers

James

A lot installers do only set the system up on idle and totaly rely on the OBD connection adjusting the fueling to the correct position. They do not even drive it at all!

You don't need a rolling road but you do need to drive it and take live data from teh OBD port to ensure the fuel trims are within tolerance and it does drive as it should. The cars fuel system is still in control and adjusts the mix as it wants it while in closed loop for pre wide band sensor cars.