lpg on petrol boat

Used to ski on a couple of club boats on Pine Lake near Lancaster. Boats ran great, no problems related to the gas system that I know of. LPG is slightly less powerfull(about 10%) but the Mastercrafts would still happily pull me out of the water on a mono (I am not the smallest guy in the world!)
 
i got my car converted and the setup was a real pain took about 10 days of running back and forward to the installer but once it was running it has been great since, it saves me 200 a month /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif the one for sale looks like it vapourises the gas into the engine just after the carb i have heard reports of causing backfires and even blowing the carb off the engine, i dont have any experience of them only the injector type. At 37p a litre though it sure saves money /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John
 
Biggest problem is getting the LPG. Calor has reduced the number of places that this is available, and surprise surprise the number of people considering this conversion have a bit of a re-think.
 
no
the products rrp of £1100 i would rather buy new getting warranty and fitting to boat from new.
but it has given me a good idea 37p per ltr sounds great.
with you saying calor has prevented outlets could you buy a gas bottle and connect it that way, if you can how much gas in litres does a bottle hold say a standard 7kg bottle
marc.
 
Not alot. I was going to do this with my petrol Bayliner. I needed two cylinders roughly 150cm in length and about 36cm diameter to give me a decent cruising range. Mine was a 5.7l with 300hp that would have used about 12gph on gas. That's about 50 litres. The two tanks as described would hold about 170litres, so gave me a range of about 60 miles, or 3 hours on LPG.
 
Been running LPG for over 3 years now and I have had no problems - quite the opposite in fact, my engines run better on LPG than petrol. Trouble is geting the stuff. There used to be 28 stations around the UK, now there are only 8. Will there be a resurgeance? - dunno?
 
hi dave

what system are you using do you have details of manufacture do they have a web site?
and who did the install.
what was the cost of product and install

thanks
marc
 
Pal of mine has a Fletcher Zingaro which was in Howards Way, It has twin V8's on lpg and it runs great, he has about 5 tanks under floor and fills them from the large propane bottles using a proper lpg pump which is quite compact and so gets his lpg even cheaper.
 
Hi Marc - the system was installed down in Poole by a company called LPG marine, who no longer trade and haven't done for some years. I had my gas mixer carbs upgraded here in North Wales by a company based in the Pwllheli Marina trading estate complex called "Hardy's". They do range rovers but agreed to do my boat when I asked. I have two tanks with a total volume of 420L and at 80% capacity (which is the max) the liquid volume held is 334L or 74 gallons, which gives me 6 running hours at 25 - 30 kts. I also have a petrol tank (seldom used) that holds 80 gallons, so another 7 hours if needs be. You can expect to pay £2500 per engine, which is expensive compared to a car at £1500.

Where are you based? It will all depend on that.
 
Hi there,

I had a boat converted to LPG, I've also had 4 cars converted and here's my findings....

1) LPG itself is brilliant. It's simply another fuel, and provided you accept that you will lose around 10-20% of economy and power and that is acceptable to you then the concept is superb.
The main problem with LPG is finding it! If you are a trailboater then no problem - there are loads of filling points in garages, and you'll be paying in the region of 38p - 50p per litre compared to 85-100p per litre for petrol. Even at 20% less economy, that still works out at about 60ppl (true cost). However I note you have a 24ft Maxum, which I doubt you trail every time you go out - if that's the case you need to check into availability - these tanks are big and heavy so filling your tank from another tank isn't viable nor would it be legal! You have to fill from a proper certified installation point.

2) The problems come with the fitter! A good conversion will work straight away, straight out of the box, with the proper adjustment to the timing (ABSOLUTELY VITAL) with few problems other than availability as mentioned. LPG works MUCH better on MPI engines than the old Carb ones - because they have a knock sensor which allows them to automatically advance the timing to meet the different burn characteristics of LPG. LPG burns much slower - so you need to advance the timing - on my boat I took it from 8deg BTDC to 15degBTDC and I could have taken it further except I needed it to still be capable of running on Petrol.

Go to a really good car converter and get a price - on a V8 you can go for a Vapour system or a Multipoint system (depends on engine management type) - The multi-points are much better - but a lot dearer.

There aren't many marine converters left because of the farce that was the handling of the LPG launch in the UK.

Like Dave I had mine converted by LPG Marine in Poole - and initially the conversion was shocking - it took over a year and the threat of legal action to sort it (I also got a substantial refund which was nice) - once sorted tho it ran reasonably well. LPG Marine were the guys "entrusted" to roll out LPG in the UK, but I understand that most of the conversions they did were rubbish (Dave, you were lucky!) and many people sold the boats unhappy... Then they went bust, Calor took over, and rather than commit to it, they pulled a lot of sites when the sales weren't great.

As fuel prices rise, I would hope it will come back - especially if Red Diesel goes up (and no, I don't think it should, but I'm sure it will) - and if the demand rises, then the supply will come back - but it is a chicken and egg situation.

You do need to make sure the boat is "well engined" - if it already has a lowish power output compared to what you need, then fitting LPG could wreck the performance, because you lose 20% of your power in an already underpowered boat and you're stuffed. A Maxum 2400 with a 5.0 V8 (if Carb) might be a bit borderline for the conversion - mine was a 28' cruiser with a 5.7 Carb engine, and that 20% drop in power was noticable. If it's a fuel injected motor, then the power drop will be less, (10-15% prob) so it might not be so bad.

If you like, PM me for more info.
 
An excellent write-up Grant. It really hits the spot. The thing I forgot to mention is that for some wierd reason, car fillers are totally different to boat fillers, so you are stuck both ways. All marinas are "Todo 4" type and car fillers are bayonet.

The only happy anomoly for me is that the burn characteristics and "punch" output from my two V6 motors is much better on LPG that petrol.

Why? Dunno /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I have one in my Garage waiting to be installed, not sure if I should though as the complete setup is heavy & the boat would feel the strain im sure.

The parts are expensive to replace & the one on ebay recently was missing a few.
Gas sensors & alarm are common fault area's

How much did the recent ebay setup sell for?
Only curious as mine is complete including Tanks, MGS filler, labled looms,pipes, fuel shutoff solanoid, Alarm, sensors & even the Users manual.
 
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