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Buying a 2nd hand car ( LPG Or Gas)


kiniyow

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Have been looking for a second car..Older cars with rather high mileage seem to have LPG installed...I know this is much cheaper then gasoline but why is it installed on the much older Cars? More Power?

Why not the Factories sell new cars with an LPG tank installed? Safety? Much more dangerous to drive a car with these Tanks?

If unsafe then I will avoid an LPG conversion but if completely Safe then why are the Manufacturers not selling them like this?

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A good LPG conversion is generally pretty safe however I would advise against buying an old car that was modified long ago If your not sure how to check the condition of the system or know someone who does. It's mostly old lpg cars that were badly maintained that are subject to fires. Im not sure what age of car your looking at but be careful with anything over 10-15 years old.

Also LPG will decrease the HP of your car not the other way around. As to why they don't sell them with LPG (liquified petroleum gas) new its because they sell CNG models now (compressed natural gas). CNG is even cheaper to drive on.

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Actually not, LPG increases the power if properly installed as it has higher energy (octane value) than pertrol. In reality you however will not really see a benefit on the HP side as the LPG systems are all open loop. Meaning they are very simple injectors just sitting behind the air filter, out of control for your engines computer. This will also result in higher consumption, ~10l are not unusual. Still that makes it half the cost of a normal petrol car.

Can't see any disadvantage, we have a 4 year old Optra with LPG and I can drive from BKK to CNX for just 1000B (40l tank with 1x filling up on the way).

Edited by MadMac
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quote from wikipedia.

LPG is prepared by refining petroleum or "wet" natural gas, and is almost entirely derived from fossil fuel sources, being manufactured during the refining of petroleum (crude oil), or extracted from petroleum or natural gas streams as they emerge from the ground. It was first produced in 1910 by Dr. Walter Snelling, and the first commercial products appeared in 1912. It currently provides about 3% of all energy consumed, and burns relatively cleanly with no soot and very few sulfur emissions. As it is a gas, it does not pose ground or water pollution hazards, but it can cause air pollution. LPG has a typical specific calorific value of 46.1 MJ/kg compared with 42.5 MJ/kg for fuel oil and 43.5 MJ/kg for premium grade petrol (gasoline).[6] However, its energy density per volume unit of 26 MJ/L is lower than either that of petrol or fuel oil, as its relative density is lower (about 0.5—0.58, compared to 0.71—0.77 for gasoline).

So because of the lower density it gives slightly lower power in your engine.

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Thanks Roadrunner, not trying to argue, probably you are right. We still have the compression here to add, that makes it more dense. But it doesn't really matter. In practical usage it is unlikely you feel a difference. I'd convert to LPG again, if I would not have bought a diesel car.

For the OP, we were lucky to get the Optra 2...3 years ago, that was quite new and already converted, and saved a lot of money since then. I'd certainly not buy a 7+ year old car here, regardless of which fuel it uses. These are all run down bitches. In the end I bought a new car, our Optra will go for sale in December after engine overhaul. Good deal actually :).

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I have a long historie of driving LPG in The Netherlands and now here I have LPG in a Mitsubishi Cyclone with a Toyota V sixcilinder engine

a thing wich is populair to do here.My dad in law has a Volvo 960 with the same enginebiggrin.png

It runs just as well on fuel as on LPG ,idle and on speed to and I feel no differents in power to thumbsup.gif.pagespeed.ce.dtxKiAJ9C7.gif

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Appears to be some sort of Thai mind set... must have gas fitted... even these new eco cars people are fitting gas in them, as if they are not small enought already...

why some of these little cars 660cc one need a great tank in them is beyond me, is like carrying another person around all the time.... maybe they just want to be 100% sure, a petrol bomb maybe not good, yet have a gas bomb as well.... Lots of these Mini van has 2 tanks

Also get me someone has the money to buy and run a S Class Benz, yet has to fit a great big LPG tank....

Edited by ignis
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Maybe the LPG was not fitted to an older car maybe it was fitted to the car when it was young but now the car is older? An LPG tank is no more dangerous than driving around with 40+l of volatile petrol in the tank.

If it is a second car and the mileage will not be high there is no reason to have LPG. On the other hand if you find a car you like and having taken all factors into account, you would like to buy, just because it can use LPG is no reason not to buy it.

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