Hello,
I always liked the X100's and now thinking of buying a 2002 XKR (4.0 litres).
Does anybody here know, if converting this car to LPG would be safe to the car itself ?
Would it create any problems to the engine? Do the valves tend to wear off?

(I own a 3.2lt Alfa Romeo GT, and it's for years on LPG gas with no problems at all. I have saved a lot of money filling up with LPG instead of petrol).
I would be grateful to read what other people think about the matter.

Thank you.
P.S. (By the way, finding spare parts for this jag will be easy or difficult?)

 

Sounds like completely the wrong thing for that kind of car. Either use it as-is or buy a different car.

 

Well, that has to be the oddest question this year. Why take a powerful GT V8 car and put it on a vegan fuel diet. Drive the XKR with vigour and blast it with your foot down. If not stick with the base NA engine and cruise in style.

Still this thread below had someone in the UK do a LPG conversion.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...s-62603/page2/

Petrol/Gasoline prices there are sky high in UK so it was purely economic savings on mpg for him. He gave a description on work done by a professional installer- , keeping gasoline, and auto switch over to LPG when warm, pre-lube cylinder oil additive, plus New LPG tank in spare tyre well. Also some stuff to stop the sensors warnings too (fuel pressure etc). Seems like a lot of work which needs to be professionally done... not DIY.

 

I think the thread you linked to (good find BTW) answers that question - Why take a powerful GT V8 car and convert it to LPG? Because you get the equivalent of 60 MPG in the UK.

Not a consideration perhaps if you live in a country where science is considered a hoax, but in countries like the UK, where other fossil fuel taxes are high, you are getting V8 performance for Fiat 500 running costs.

I would never do it on my car, but if your annual mileage is high enough, it makes a lot of sense.

 

My X100 was LPG converted for 14yrs and never had a problem in 160k miles covered, 100k of those were business miles claimed at 18 pence per mile, on top of which I got a £11kpa cash in lieu of company car

The downside is the conversion cost of quality kit (Prinz or BRC) of circa £2k, the plus's are:

1) Price per liter between 50-60ppl, so currently less than half the price
2) Your oil stays clean as no carbon deposits, as do the internals of your engine

The largest tank you can fit in an X100 is 76l with 60l fill, the furthest I've done on a tank was 350 miles, plus 400 on the normal tank

When I converted mine in 2004 LPG was 32ppl and unleaded 89ppl so almost a third of the cost, now it's half, that said the cheapest LPG I ever bought was in Rotherham, as Yorkshire seems to be the cheapest county.

Two words of advice:

I) Shop around, lots of places do XJ's but said my XK would be more expensive...avoid those
2) Ignore the nay-sayers, I had it done back in 2004 when I asked on forums I received a wave of negatives as you may have seen above, these are probably the same purists/die hard's (that probs have never owned an LPG converted car) that were up in arms at the thought of a Supercharged or a diesel Jaguar back in the day!!

As LPG burns hotter your catalytic convertors will get up to 1400 degrees after a M'way run, so don't park it on grass afterwards!

Hmmm what else, an XK won't need to have flash-lube system as the X100 is not prone to VSR, also you won't notice a drop in performance as the engine is simply too powerful (you would on a car with less than a 1.6 engine).

If you look back at 2006 Jaguar Enthusiast my car had a two page article titled 'Big Cat with Gas'

Now I have to do this bit in UPPER CASE - UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU DRILL THE BEAUTIFUL BODYWORK, have a towbar filler meaning it can be removed without a trace, also that you can pull up either side of a pump (see pic of colour coded filler between my quads)

Any questions feel free to PM me...but if you're doing a lot of miles (15k+ per annum, it'll pay for itself in a couple of years

 

Welcome to the forum Dimitri,

We have had a few members with LPG conversion on the V8 models and some others who have considered it.

Potential valve wear doesn't appear to be an issue. The decision has generally been economics. Will you keep the vehicle and/or cover sufficient mileage to offset the installation costs?

Mechanical spares availability (new, aftermarket or used) is generally good in the UK. The problem parts are trim (particularly plastic items) which are becomming increasingly difficult to source.

Graham

 

I notice that OP hasn't been back, and perhaps never will,but he should only really take advice from someone that has:

a) Owned an LPG converted car
b) Converted a car to LPG
c) Converted an X100

Do any other posters apart from me meet all of these?

Natch everyone's entitled to their opinions but, IM(not so H)O there are a few too many forum warriors with an opinion on something they have no experience of.

Nuff said!

 

Thank you all, for finding the time to write a few words in this thread.
Its nice & useful to listen to other people's opinions, especially from people who have an experience on Jag X100 cars.

Generally speaking, if an LPG conversion is done PROPERLY, by an experienced mechanic, there's no drop in an engine's performance.
I have owned 2 LPG converted cars in the past, (Renault Clio 1,4lt & Alfa Romeo GT 3.2lt ), and both cars were working flawlessly with
absolutely no mechanical problems.I covered thousands of kilometres on both cars on LPG.
More over, I did NOT notice any decreased performance on their engines.
I had exactly the same power, either I was driving the same car on Gasoline, or driving it on LPG.......

I was only sceptical about the long term complications of an LPG conversion on a Jag X100,
especially on the danger of valves wearing off, because I had heard some rumours about it.
(Replacing all 32 valves on an X100, is not cheap at all...)
Fortunately MarkyUK who answered the thread said that he covered 160.000 miles on LPG with no problems at all,
and I take this opinion very seriously into account.

I'm a car enthusiast, I take care of all my cars, but I don't like paying that much money on gasoline, not at these prices.
Before I do my 1st LPG conversion, I was also sceptical about it.
After I did it, and saw the benefits, it's very difficult for me to go back to gasoline again...
Thank you all, again !!!

 

Dimitri

A pleasure, the increased range made it a continent crusher and managed 800 miles from both tanks on a trip to Debrecen in Hungary, where my Jag got a LOT of attention as you don't see them on the roads there. Had to take the ferry accross as you will know you can't take an LPG converted car through the tunnel (or couldn't when I went)

Yes X-Types do suffer from VSR and that's well documented, no such issues with the X100

If the X100 you buy doesn't have heated seats the Prinz button/lpg indicator fits perfectly in the space for the passenger seat heater on the dash

No loss of boot space but you have to deal with a bottle of inflator goo instead, which slots down the side of the lpg tank

As to power, in my case I had both the petrol and lpg ecu's remapped to give me increased performance, I also fitted a carbon dynamics air intake, a straight through exhaust (for 10yrs without cats) it was LOUD but emissions were that of a 1.0 Nissan micra. I also had higher lift cams and ran it on Royal Purple fully synthetic, so even before the conversion got my economy on a regular 300 mile round trip, up to 39mpg...then I converted it So in monetary terms my 4.0 V8 was doing 75+mpg using the current petrol price.

Best of luck, you have my contact details via PM so stay in touch!

 

Hi MarkyUK

I know this is an old thread but I am curious did you fit flashlube on your car?

Also who remapped your Jag ecu?

Cheers
Nick

 

I owned an LPG converted 2003 XKR 4.2. I had it converted myself, and owned it for 5 years, during which time it was my daily driver, and my average mileage was 20,000 miles per year. Some approximate statistics for you:

Installation and cost
About a week to install. The cost was approximately 2500 pounds sterling, at the time.

Problems and Faults.
It initially seemed to work well, but faltered under high acceleration, and sometimes fell out of LPG. This was determined to be caused by insufficient fuel flow capacity through a valve. A second valve was paralleled in, and this cured the problem. This was within the initial settling in period, about 3 weeks after delivery.

About 6 months later a small fuel leak occurred. This was traced to a clip mounted poorly during initial installation, causing a poorly routed line which abraded. Fixed on the spot by the installer.

Cost savings in UK
Approximately 2000 pounds per year, over a 5 year period of 100,000 miles

Engine problems
None. The system was fitted with flashlube cylinder lubricant, with the container placed in front of the radiator. The engine and associated systems showed no sign whatever of malfunction, wear or damage.

Disadvantages
Loss of boot (trunk) space -my conversion was in a convertible model. The tank is a toroid, the same diameter as the spare wheel, which fits in the well. It is slightly fatter (though thinner, Lower capacity and smaller range tanks can be fitted). The boot floor just about fits back in the upper position, and the spare wheel is kept in the boot. There is therefore significant reduction in storage space.

Power and Acceleration
There was no discernible or measurable difference. Measured acceleration on petrol (gas) to 60 and to 80 was identical to that achieved on L PG.

Difficulty of Use
None. As with all such systems the car starts onpetrol, and after about a mile, once the engine is sufficiently warm, automatically switches to LPG, with a slight hesitation as it does so. If you run out of LPG it automatically reverts to petrol, and you can also select petrol instead of LPG. The LPG remaining is shown by illuminated lights on the small LPG changeover button: not quite as direct as a fuel gauge, but you get used to it. An LPG fill would last about 200 miles, which means more frequent stops, but of course the petrol tank remains in place, so by using both fuels the range is good. Due to the system design, the vehicle computer underestimates fuel consumption by about 15% whilst on LPG.

The LPG filler was placed where a tow bar would be fitted. Easy to fill, but liable to hit the ground on occasion, which bent the bracket. If the flashlube ran low an indicator in the control button would (appropriately!) flash, with increasing speed as the container emptied.

Would I recommend it?
Can I say this gently? I suspect that the naysayers tend to have no direct experience of this, and the problems and disadvantages they quote are theoretical, but not born out in reality, whereas those who, like me, have carried out the conversion are, shall we say, themselves converted. A conversion should absolutely be considered, if your mileage justifies it, LPG is reasonably readily available, if your journeys are not just short local ones, and you are prepared to lose boot space. Otherwise, no.

I would be driving it still, if the car had not met a sad end at a roundabout (I accelerated into a car in front which did not move when I thought it would). I now have a 2005 XKR. Why have I not converted this also? Well, I have now retired, and my mileage is substantially reduced. I live now in Portugal, and LPG cars are not permitted in underground car parks, which would mean we could not go out and ever leave our dog in the car for an hour or two in the sometimes over 105F, 40C, heat of summer. I am also not confident of the ability of LPG converter firms here to do the job properly, though have not looked for one, And I quite like having the larger boot back! But the main reason is my current low mileage.

And, finally,
This is a specialist job, requiring expertise, experience, ability and special software. It is not anything that even a highly competent non-specialist engineer should contemplate, I believe. If you do want this conversion, then check out a few potential firms carefully and explore and compare their proposals and expertise. In my case I found a firm that had actually previously converted an X100 before.

ps. Just seen DavidYau post 3 on this thread, with links to another (much of what I have written here is on that thread)