I was reading about that earlier, makes you think someone has just said, “ah, gas, yea, that’s explosive, we’ll ban it” without even looking at it properly but not applied the same supposed common sense to campervans.

The attitude of people towards LPG irritates me profusely. On Piston Heads and the FullFatRR forum, people seem to reckon the only reason you fit LPG to a vehicle is because you can’t afford to run it and that because you can’t afford to run it on petrol you can’t afford to maintain it which they seem to think means you’ve skipped a load of important maintenance etc.

That attitude really annoys me. At 13-14mpg average I couldn’t afford to run mine as a daily car doing the 20k a year I do for work, I could afford it as a weekend car and have done when I had my Supercharged Range Rover. When it’s on LPG it means I have more money available for maintenance and repairs as I’m not spending it on petrol every month.

I also like seeing the litres going up quicker then the £’s for a change. Sure enough there are pro’s and con’s to both fuels, but I get the impression a lot of people are quick enough to gob off about LPG without actually knowing the ins and outs of it properly.

David.

I knew they were banned on the tunnel hence wondering if there was a rule i didn’t know about for ferries!

Morat wrote:

isn't allowed on ferries or in tunnels because one spark can lead to a megaton detonation.

The wife and I went from Newcastle to Amsterdam on the ferry in my old P38 which had a gas conversion with no problems whatsoever. We did a lot of local Island Hopping off Scotland on ferries with no issues too. Is that a recent rule? I was thinking of booking it again so had best change my of vehicle for the trip it if it.

David.

Before it switches back to petrol you have to give it a fair prod but from about 50% throttle you can feel it has no power.

There's a gentle slope from the motorway up a B road to get home, the old P38 on LPG will come up that in Sport mode with your foot welded to the floor, on this one I can't get over half throttle and it can't accelerate up the hill, it will just about maintain speed.

Getting onto the dual carriageway from the roundabout locally I can accelerate to about 40 - 45mph as long as it's gently but after that it's full of hesitation and doesn't want to go anywhere.

Unfortunately LPG plans are on hold for a couple of days as I noticed a huge puddle in the drivers side footwell the night before last. The heater matrix O rings are leaking badly. I've been in with a wet vac and have lifted the carpet and put padding under it to try and absorb some of the moisture from the foam and to attempt to keep any wetness away from the BECM.

There's always something!

David.

I tried my old P38 without the front prop on when trying to chase a vibration years ago.

I reversed it out of the shed at my folks, put it on a full lock and reversed gently to turn around on their gravel driveway and the thing got stuck. The rear wheels were spinning but the car wasn't going anywhere. I also had trouble getting up the hill to come out of the carpark at the vets when I did it!

With all the drive going to the rear wheels, they are pretty tail happy so be careful.

I've heard reports of running it with the front prop removed can knacker the viscous coupling... might not be an issue though if you suspect it's already buggered.

David.

Thanks Brian.

I'll have a tinker tomorrow evening hopefully and try n get the filter out.

David.

I ordered a Tartarini reducer the other day as the company had one left in stock and they were doing it for a good price. That's arrived today but I'm not fitting it yet just incase it's not needed. It's nice and shiny though.

I've had a good look at the front and rear today. I can see the solenoid on the tank, there's no filter there, here's a picture of the solenoid that's fitted just before the reducer:

Looking at that, I can't tell if there's a filter in it or not, there's a brass body that sits near the bracket, if there is a filter in there it must be a tiny one, the filtered solenoid on our other LPG RR has a noticeable bowl that the filter sits in underneath it.

Since undoing all of the tension on the pressure adjusting bolt the car seems to run better, it idles fine on LPG, I can accelerate to 30 on the flat but if I try and go past half throttle or hit a slight incline you can feel it starting to choke, keeping your foot in the same place and switching back to petrol makes a notable difference in acceleration.

With the screw undone totally at idle the pressure is still sitting at 2.4 bar, when driving normally it drops to 1.6 - 2.0 bar and when you floor it, it switches back to petrol.

I put the suspension on high earlier and slid under it for another look at the pipe, I can't see any marks on it that would suggest it's been crushed.

David.

I seem to be getting through loads of little jobs on the red VSE at the moment.

There's been a little bit of a whirring noise coming from the front end of the engine since I got it so I decided I'd bite the bullet and replaced the belt tensioner and both idler pulleys, the difference is superb, it's so quiet now.

The new plug leads are fitted, it wasn't as bad a job as I was expecting as I last did this job on a THOR Discovery 2 which was horrible. On the THOR P38 there's a lot more room down the back. The new leads clip into the existing cable guides on the rocker covers too which is nice as it helps keep it neat.

David.

Well, the Magnecor KV85's are fitted tonight. For some reason, whatever idiot fitted the last set of leads, they'd trimmed EVERY single boot back so that the crimp that attaches to the plug was almost visible. The nice thing about the KV85's is that they're squidgy enough to fit into the original cable clips on the rocker covers which the blue 8.0mm ones we fitted to the GEMS P38 weren't.

It feels smoother now, then again, I suppose it would be now each plug is getting a proper spark!

David.

Interestingly, I rang the VOSA and the DVLA once and questioned how far I was allowed to drive to a pre booked MOT. The woman on the phone advised me that as long as I didn't deviate from the most direct route there wasn't a maximum distance allowed.

At the time I was importing a car from Malaysia to the UK and was toying with the idea of it getting delivered to Southampton, I asked her about driving it 400 miles to an MOT and the reply was "As long as you're on the most direct route, it's not illegal".

Anyway, that story might help someone who is thinking about getting it home :)

David.

I've had a good look over it and couldn't find any other filters then the one after the reducer before the injectors, which has been replaced.. If the gas supply was low, would that not cause low pressure rather then the pressure reading being high all the time?

My "normal" pressure going by the diagnostics is showing 2.4 bar at idle, this drops when driving to about 1.8 bar, however just after it's switched back to petrol the pressure is showing 3.2 bar.

The pipe seems to run along the inside of the chassis, again, I can't see any marks on the pipe to suggest it's been squashed. The previous owner told me that the running issues on LPG occurred gradually rather then just over night.

David.

That blue one on the previous page caught my eye out of interest more then anything. That blue leather interior, blue leather steering wheel, blue leather door cards etc. was never standard on a P38, was it? I know the carpets weren't at that age. Looks like someone has spent a lot of money on it.

That green one is interesting too, if it's been sitting for a while and has only just been started for short trips etc then I guess a whiff of petrol from the filler cap might be normal? It looks a fairly tidy car. I notice he's updated that advert today with "SFS - reasonable offers accepted!, just pm me if interested with your offer !" Sounds like he's getting desperate to shift it now.

David.

Right, have taken it for a run today with the laptop connected.

With the screw totally unscrewed on the reducer the car is driving better then it did previously on LPG.

To get it to switch back to petrol I had to use quite a bit of throttle, when it did switch it felt like it was bogging down and being starved of fuel and the LPG reading on the laptop was showing 0.5 bar of Diff. Pressure. When it had switched back to Petrol the Diff. Pressure reading was sitting at 3.24 bar.

Switching it back to LPG at idle brought the Diff. Pressure back down to 2.4 bar.

One thing I did notice was that in the LPG software the Lambda 1 reading was showing a constant 0.5v, checking in the software shows it as being set to having 1 lambda and 0 - 1v which is correct.

David.

Well, the red VSE seems to be well behaved in the majority of it's tasks. It's needed a few odd jobs doing but I think that's because it's not had preventative maintenance don't for a long time, only the necessities.

Since having the car I've ordered:

2 Air springs
PAS Pipe
Full service kit
Oils for full service including gearbox, transfer box and both axles.
LPG Reducer Refurb Kit - Wish I'd spoken to Simon before ordering this!
LPG Reducer
Plug Leads
Aux Belt
Both Idlers & Tensioner
Coolant Pipes for throttle body and radiator return
Heater Matrix O Rings
Tailgate Struts
Bonnet Struts
ABS Accumulator
HEVAC Repair Ribbon & Bulbs
2 Lambda Sensors
Wipers
Headlight Wipers

There's no particularly massive item there but they all mount up so I'm hoping I can get 6 months from it before I have to spend money on it again! It is a P38 though so it won't be. ha ha.

David.

Well, my plug lead issue is sorted... I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on a set of plug leads that had better be good. ha ha.

I bought the improved version of the Magnecor KV85's which are made from a different CN22 cable which apparently gives loner burn times. Apparently the boots on these are unique too being 135 degrees, and because the CN22 cable is made from silicon it's apparently quite squishy which means that they are malleable enough to fit into the original cable guides on the sides of the rocker covers.

http://www.tornadosystems.com/product/magnecor-ignition-leads-for-thor-engine/

If nothing else, I had a very enjoyable chat with Mark Adams who I hadn't spoken to for quite a while.

David.

It was indeed running on LPG whilst the reducer was being adjusted.

I've managed to find a Tartarini reducer that's exactly the same for £159 inc delivery. I'm tempted to buy the same one as the pipes, mountings etc. are already in the right place. Might as well keep things simple, eh!

David.

Lanark is indeed a funny place, it's in the middle of the Clyde Valley which tends to get his pretty harsh with the weather. I went to work yesterday and there was no snow at all, by the time I came home there were 5 or 6 inches, I couldn't get the van up the road, I had to get my brother who was visiting my folks to bring my P38 down and drag me home.

There's still a load of snow on the ground today but it's been dry at least so I've had another look at my reducer.

The pressure with the adjuster screw fully unscrewed is 2.40 bar, with the adjuster screw fully screwed in it's showing 2.46 bar.

It's almost as if the reducer isn't actually reducing the pressure and the gas is running straight through it. When running on LPG, the pipe running from the reducer to the injector rail is almost rock hard to squeeze so there must be some amount of pressure in there.

I get the feeling the rebuild kit was an utter waste of time and that I'm going to have to bite the bullet and fit a new reducer.

David.

That was one of my thoughts, Simon.

Going to get some leads sorted tomorrow and will hopefully get a chance to look at this pressure issue as well. I was hoping to today but heavy snowfall (around 5 inches) put an end to that plan.

David.

Opened the bonnet on the VSE tonight when it was running and heard a TICK, TICK, TICK.

Looked down the side of the engine and saw a spark jumping between the plug and the manifold heat shield. Upon closer inspection, someone has cut the boot on the spark plug level with the end of the connector that goes onto the plug so the spark is escaping. I'd of thought I'd have felt that but it's near perfect when driving.

Anyway... onto the subject of new plug leads.

Our old 4.6 HSE has Magnecor Plug leads on it and they've been great, they've probably been on for 6 - 7 years now.

I'm probably going to for Magnecor leads to this VSE as well unless anyone has any other suggestions? I'm now torn between the 8mm Electrosport 80's or KV85 8.5mm red leads.

Anyone got any suggestions?

David.

Thanks Simon, I'll do some more digging into reducing the pressure at the weekend, weather permitting.

David.