Are Prins the Dog's Wotsits or are there better systems

[LPG-T5]

Hi Folks
I keep seeing BRC, Stag, Prins and one or two others.
Which brand gives the best results from the following perspectives?
-Fuel Economy / Fuel Efficiency
-Reliability
-Servicing costs

Also, people seem to think Prins are tops, how much more economy/efficiency do you get from a Prins kit vs one of its compettiitors?
Cheers
Leon

[classicswede]

Stag is not actualy a complete system only the controller. It is most often coupled with the very cheapest hardware and a system to keep away from. There are pleanty of cars out there running fine with them on but I will not fit the system personaly. I get a number of cars coming for repairs with the stag system on and in most cases the installation is very sloppy.

BRC is a reasonable buget system. The down side with BRC is they are not conventional and seem to go about things in a backward way. They have had a very shakey history but they have improved in recent years.

Prins was a great system years ago but are now technicaly lagging behind.
The injectors are still great, the reducer is still good with stable pressure and cable of powering high powered cars. The problem is with the electronics. They just have not developed the system and it is now left behind compered to alost every other system. The ECU is massive and hard to install neatly, it needs seperate injector emulators taking up even more space! In fact many of the modern ECU's are smaller than the Prins Emulators. the next problem is that the software is not the most flexible and can cause issues with some cars.

To an extent there and pros and cons with every system. The great thing is that it is now possible to do a bit of mix and matching to get a kit that will work best with each car.

[LPG-T5]

Thanks for the info - all good! Had a friend recommend Stag and wondered why.

Still keen to understand what sorts of results people have had from various makes in terms of:
-Fuel Economy / Fuel Efficiency (e.g. 15% loss on LPG)
-Reliability (has yours ever failed)
-Servicing costs (what servicing does it need? flash lube, filters, adjustment etc.)

There seems to be six or seven big players out there and very little customer feedback on any of them that I can unearth easily.

[capt jack]

My experience is of just the one car, but I had a Tartarini system fitted to my V70 8 years and 210,000 miles ago.

The system itself has actually gone wrong just twice in all those miles - once the operating pressure dropped a bit, and once No 5 cylinder solenoid (injector) went west. Total repair cost in each case less than £20.

Other than that it has performed flawlessly, reliably and economically.

I can remember shopping around quite a bit at the time, and what impressed me most was the fact that the conversion company were also the main UK agents for Tartarini, and had recently converted a Rolls Royce belonging to the Queen (the one with with the big glass rear compartment - the car that is, not HMQ!).

I reckoned that if Her Maj was OK with it then I should be too!

And I'm glad to say things have indeed turned out very well indeed.

Servicing involves a filter change and ECU reset every 15,000 miles. Service costs are less than £25 a time. As important as the hardware undoubetdly is, I reckon it's vital to go with a convertor who impresses you with their standards of workmanship and after-sales service. The other essential is keeping your ignition bits in good order. LPG does not like tired electricals, but the good news is it runs best on the most basic (cheapest) spark plugs. Economy wise, my 2.5 10v auto returns 25 to 28 mpg on LPG, which is the cost equivalent of better than 53mpg on petrol or diesel. And that is more 'economical' than most small family hatchbacks can manage, let alone the uber comfortwagon and all-round super loadmobile that is a V70.

Buy well and LPG is a fantastic choice that you won't regret. I reckon my fuel cost saving over the years to be in excess of £14,000. Which is a brilliant return on a £1700 investment.

Cheers

Jack

[M D E]

I can only speak from my experience... 30,000 miles in running 220 miles on £30 of LPG, BRC for me .... no problems from day one and my C70 T5 has never run so smooth.... everyone has there preferred choice, I did lots of homework and am very happy with running my C70 50% cheaper .....

[V70 Geoff]

Originally Posted by LEONDAPHILLIPS

Hi Folks
I keep seeing BRC, Stag, Prins and one or two others.
Which brand gives the best results from the following perspectives?
-Fuel Economy / Fuel Efficiency
-Reliability
-Servicing costs

Also, people seem to think Prins are tops, how much more economy/efficiency do you get from a Prins kit vs one of its compettiitors?
Cheers
Leon

I have 2 turbo cars (V70 and C70) converted, one with Prins and the other OMVL. I think the Prins is slightly better quality and has the advantage that you can get the car to restart on LPG. The OMVL always starts on petrol but has cheaper parts and more serviceable injectors from my experience. Both cars are multi point and economy is identical. The Prins evaporator does seem prone to seizing up after a while but is quite straightforward to fix.

[LPG-T5]

I'm considering Romano (based on a Welsh friend of mine's experience with his 318 ci - 10% less efficient than petrol)
Anyone else had a good experience with Romano?

[classicswede]

I could find a long list of bad experiances. With the Romano system you would need 2 or even 3 vapourisers on a T5. Good systems will only need to one.

Romano is a low end budget system

[Jameshow]

BRC for me,
Although I cannot get the tank to fill fully i get about 40l out of a 70L tank. I should get 60L surely?
Installation neat, and drives flawlessly and change over in inperceptable.
James

[Chesh740R]

I have a sequential Landi system (allthough think they have gone bust) that was allready fitted to my Jeep Cherokee 4.0 Litre straight six, in the 30,000miles i've owned the car, i've not done anything with the system at all. Been totally reliable without a problem.

Not sure weather servicing it would help it or if any of the parts are still available.

The only think i have to do, is replace the distributor cap and rotor every 10,000miles as they wear and then it struggles to light a good spark on LPG. But £18 for the parts hardly breaks the bank, specially when the jeep only musters 14mpg!!!!

I would be intriqued to know if i could transfer the kit to a newer V8 Jeep. I know i'd have to get hold of another 2 injectors. But the loom has two spare plugs, so should be doable.
Does the Ecu have to be reprogrammed to the V8???

Seems a shame to waste the kit when i do eventually scrap this current Jeep in a year or 2's time.