right with reviewing my overall basis of my ST185 project one thing i do and will do is an LPG conversion. Reasons being not only for economy reasons but also power. When i had my Escort Van i was running a low boost 2.0l Zetec turbo with LPG and the when mapped to run on the LPG which is 102 octane the difference was substantial. What i am asking you all is has anyone had any experience of the 3S-GTE converting to run LPG?? If so who has the required experience to fit LPG as to me its not a job for a home mechanic but a true professional

My mate had a RAV-4 with 3S-GE engine which had been converted to LPG, and it all ended badly. I'll find out exactly what the failure was.

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cheers Lorro
the Zetec i was using LPG on not only made more power with LPG but was alot more driveble with it aswell, hence why i am looking towards this fuel for the celica

I'm sure nibbles will be along in a min as he's has a LPG 205 as his daily drive.

NIBBLES where are you lol

Duncan, maybe you were lucky with the Escort but anyone I know who has had an LPG conversion done has had issues with it in one way or another. As you say, the installer needs to know what they're doing.

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Chris (nibbles) is at Letchworth today. But he will bring you up to date on his lpg 205 once back online.

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Darryl

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Darryl

I texted my friend who had the LPG on his RAV and these were his opinions (he's a mechanic):

"I wouldn't bother doing a conversion. It'll burn the valves out within 10000 miles, or worse the valve seats. Although the 3S-GE is a tough unit, it's very particular to exhaust gas/fuel flow. Absence of cooling from petrol or carbon results in LPG burning channels in valves ultimately reducing performance."

I hasten to add that this was a text conversation, not a full technical appraisal, but it gives you feedback from someone with experience of the matter.

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Thanks for that dude. Surprising really as i would of expected the 3S-GE engine to be as tough as the Zetec which loved LPG

Chris's car has done many many miles on lpg. His first have the fuel maps or maybe large enough injectors to run much positive boost on lpg. But it drives pickup and torque wise same as petrol. Only trouble I've seen on Chris s car is icing in cold weather ( okay bitterly cold weather ) of course the cost savings are a bonus

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Darryl

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Darryl

Briefly - as I'll hopefully see you at Japfest tomorrow.

My LPG installation is quite old and doesn't have the biggest injectors available so I'm limited to actuator boost only and not all the way to top RPM. It also misfires if you put your boot all the way down although it's not going weak. I suspect it needs uprated ignition to cope with igniting the LPG at full pressure.
The system I'm running is Prinz VSI with yellow spot kehin injectors. No 'valve lube'

I've fitted my aftermarket ECU and switching the dual map facility with a relay from the LPG system. This allowed me to run more ignition advance - which gave me a lot more ecconomy, power and improved drivability. It also allowed me to get the mixture map more accurate as the prinz just piggybacks off the standard ECU with crude corrections.

I've probably done well over 60K miles on the current engine (the one in the car originally suffered failed thrust washers, not LPG related). I've had to re-shim the valves once so far (probably at about 40-50K) as it was starting to run a bit rough and a couple of valves had virtually no clearance left.
Weigh up the relative cost of 'valve lube' per mile against the cost of a re-shim every 40K miles with maybe a head rebuild avery 100 - 150K. I'll go with the re-shim

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Hi as a number of people know I used to work for an engine remaufacturing company and did all the cylinder head work,and have had to rebuild at least 10 heads run on lpg with severely ingressed valve seats as standard unleaded seats are not hard enough and need replacing with lpg seats.This is just my experience

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TERRY

94 Silver ST205 JDM 280bhp
gone but not forgotten

Would valve seats on turbo engines such as ours be of a similar spec to LPG seats ?

Good to see you on here again by the way Terry.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Not normally I did a couple of Nissans but only 1 3s non turbo but it could be the reason for you having to reshim as the valves regress the clearances reduce.

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TERRY

94 Silver ST205 JDM 280bhp
gone but not forgotten

Thanks for thag Terry. on my zetec they did change the valves before the lpg qent on. What valves are there available for the 3s?????