Hello All!
Once again I am here and in continuation to my previous post - Advice on using LPG in my 10 years old Martui 800 can be seen at https://mouthshut.com/review/Advice_on_LPG_Conversion_Kit-119466-1.html
It has been almost six months since I have got my LPG kit fitted in my car and in a nutshell hats off to it. Cylinders come in different capacities viz. 30, 45, 60, 70, 75. I got a 60 Ltrs SKN make cylinder. Always remember that you can not 100% fill this cylinder you can get maximum 80% of its total capacity. Before the cylinder gets fitted in your car always tell your retrofitter to get the cylinder’s best possible position to give you maximum space available at both the sides and on top by keeping its height low and this is achieved by the angle(60 or 90 degrees) of meter gadget box fitted on the cylinder. For example if gadget is on top this is 90 degrees, if gadget box is turned towards back door it will be 60 degrees and it will have lesser height in comparison with gadget at 90 degrees. Be ready for little adjustment work done at where you keep spare wheel.
If you are a long distance traveler then its better to go for 70 or 75 Ltrs cylinder you will have two advantages: 1) You will have enough gas with you to cover longer distance without re-fuelling(as getting LPG Pumps at every place is yet to happen) and(2) 70 & 75 Ltrs cylinders are longer with much lesser height than 60 or 45 Ltrs cylinders to give you little more space on top of it.
While going for LPG Kit, it makes a lot of difference that whether your car is MPFI or not. For MPFI engine I suggest go for pure Italian kit and I am pretty sure you will like it because except LPG flow, there is no adjustments for you to do and switch over between LPG and Petrol requires just a press of button and you are done. This is similar to what is coming pre-installed in Maruti WagonR Duo which has kit from Minda company with exactly the same feature.
Whereas in non-MPFI engine switching between LPG & Petrol is a little tedious task especially if you are not driving on a free road because first you will have to burn the current fuel by turning switch over button to neutral position and then switch to the other side for alternate fuel. You can’t ever imagine doing this in the middle of city road or in a traffic jam. From neutral position switching to petrol requires more time than switching to LPG because petrol requires Fuel Pump to push it to engine whereas gas works on its pressure in the LPG cylinder and reaches to engine quickly. If you have MPFI kit then I suggest keeping the switch always to LPG this way your car will always start on Petrol and the moment you push the accelerator/throttle and engine reaches a certain RPM the engine will immediately switch over to LPG automatically and as opposed to Non-MPFI kit an MPFI kit has no choke switch so forget the starting problem(please see details at the end of my this review).
As opposed to MPFI kit which has 2 adjustments(LPG Flow and Kit’s own fine tuning which should better left to its default) Non-MPFI kit has 3 adjustments to make i.e. LPG Flow, Air Flow, engine RPM and because of this you can take desired mileage but of course at the cost of engine’s performance. By setting the LPG Flow alone you can get the desired mileage yourself, after all its your car and you have every right to match your ride to suit your taste. I suggest set it and then do few tests by taking pickup and drive a little bit and repeat again until you get the desired performance. For example, if you increase the LPG Flow by loosening the knob more you will get a nice pickup but mileage will be very low and if you tighten it more then you will get more mileage but with no or much reduced pickup and this will also adversely effect the engine’s performance. In my case I have set it to the manner in which I get the mileage between 10 & 11 and this costs me @ Rs.2.60/Km whereas Petrol costs me @ Rs. 3.50/Km which I think is decent enough so it’s a Rs.1/- saving straight away for every kilometre of drive and suppose you are driving 2000 Kms. per month then you are saving this much amount also and if you have paid Rs.12000/-(for Non-MPFI KIT) then you will recover the cost in approximately six months and that too keeping your kit on ideal settings without putting any extra pressure on engine and without loosing pickup. MPFI Kit will cost somewhere around Rs.18, 000/- . In my case I don’t even realize the difference in pickup unless the car is fully loaded and then also the difference is so little that I don’t mind it at all.
One thing I have noticed since I’ve got this LPG fitted in my car is that starting my car in the morning is not as smooth as with Petrol and if I am starting my car after 2 or more days then LPG’s choke(not Car’s default petrol choke) is a must but after that there is no starting problem. Once started then again the first 3-5 Kms are not as sooth as I see with Petrol but again once you hit the road a little longer then its a canter ride and as smooth as petrol, no problem in that area too. I’ve driven my car upto the speed of 90 Kms/Hr and never faced a single problem ever, no extra sound in engine, no missing at all.
During the last six months with this Kit(Make: SKN) I had two problems, first when fuse of LPG circuit was gone(available easily at even smallest auto shop) and second when air pipe was broken at the point of connection which my retrofitter replaced when I went there. Though I personally feel that for Non-MPFI engines there is no point of going for Italian kit because they come MPFI as standard and also can be fitted in Non-MPFI engines but the quality of hardware / equipments / pipes etc. is remarkable. I suggest inspecting each equipment of both types(Indian & Italian) and decide yourself but getting Italian kit for Non-MPFI engines will burn your pocket twice and for no real good.
I suggest before leaving your retrofitter, talk in details and ask questions regarding functioning of your choice of kit and note down the important points if you wish to do so that will be very handy if some day you are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Also keep all of retrofitter’s contact numbers with you at all times while going with your car because most likely you will forget all the points of troubleshoot with time. Before reporting problem to your retrofitter always double check that if the same problem appears when you switch to petrol because this is very common mistake people do and is the first thing retrofitter will ask you.
In any case, I am happy with the LPG kit and 2 problems in 6 months are not something which I can tolerate at the cost of saving few thousand bucks per month. So guys, This was my story and I am sure you will find all kinds of reviews here from people who are happy with it and some would probably say it was their worst nightmare but I think its best that we do it ourselves hoping for the best(which happens most of the times) and see what in the store so I suggest go for it and experience yourself.
Last but not the least, DO NOT FORGET to get the kit registered in R.T.O. and also with your car insurance company otherwise you might run into big big trouble in case anything happens to your car and you need a claim.