1995 E36 328 Coupe LPG Conversion - DRAFT

Disclaimer
No warranty of any kind implied or given and no liability accepted for any loss, damage or injury, no
matter how incurred from reading or attempting to follow this document. This is merely how I
installed LPG on a car and I am not recommending this process.
Revision history
This document is in draft and unchecked.
Safety first
Work should only be undertaken by competent persons
If in doubt seek expert advice or help prior to starting the job and do not attempt it.
Do not place yourself or others at risk
A method of safely raising and supporting the vehicle is required and is not covered in this
document
The suspension system will be partially dismantled and additional care must be taken to
avoid inhaling or coming into contact with brake dust
Do a risk assessment before starting work. If in doubt do not attempt it.
It may not be advisable to work alone under a vehicle.
Before working on the electrical system the battery should be safely disconnected by
removing the earth lead.


Contents
Disclaimer ............................................................................................................................................. 1
Revision history..................................................................................................................................... 1
Safety first ............................................................................................................................................. 1
Contents ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Background ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Cost Benefit Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 4
Tools ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Parts list ................................................................................................................................................ 5
Design decisions.................................................................................................................................... 6
Design decision 1 Tank ................................................................................................................... 6
Design decision 2 Filler type and location ...................................................................................... 6
Procedure ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Mount tank ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Multivalve installation into the tank ............................................................................................... 14
Mount filler ..................................................................................................................................... 15
Rear to front LPG line ...................................................................................................................... 21
Solenoid valve and reducer mounting ............................................................................................ 28
Injector mounting ........................................................................................................................... 30
MAP sensor mounting .................................................................................................................... 33
ECU mounting ................................................................................................................................. 34
Wiring ............................................................................................................................................. 37
Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 37
Permanent live ............................................................................................................................ 39
Permanent earth ......................................................................................................................... 39
Ignition live ................................................................................................................................. 40
RPM feed .................................................................................................................................... 40
LPG injector connectors .............................................................................................................. 41
Petrol injector connectors .......................................................................................................... 41
Lambda sensor wires .................................................................................................................. 43
Reducer temperature sensor ...................................................................................................... 44
Gas pressure sensor .................................................................................................................... 44
Switch / buzzer / fuel gauge unit ................................................................................................ 45
Gas level sender .......................................................................................................................... 45

Solenoid valves ........................................................................................................................... 46
MAP sensor ................................................................................................................................. 47
Interface connector .................................................................................................................... 47
Injector nozzle to manifold fitting. .................................................................................................. 48
MAP ................................................................................................................................................ 50
Reducer to injector solenoid LPG pipe ............................................................................................ 51
Reducer cooling system feed .......................................................................................................... 52
Top reducer hose ........................................................................................................................ 52
Bottom reducer hose .................................................................................................................. 53
Bleeding ...................................................................................................................................... 54
Filler nozzle examples in use ........................................................................................................... 55
Gun type filler ............................................................................................................................. 55
The other filler ............................................................................................................................ 56
Lessons learned .................................................................................................................................. 57
Filler mount..................................................................................................................................... 57
Tank size ......................................................................................................................................... 57
Tank orientation ............................................................................................................................. 57
Injector solenoid mounting ............................................................................................................. 57
Wiring ............................................................................................................................................. 57
Fuel (petrol) injector wiring ........................................................................................................ 57
General wiring ............................................................................................................................. 58
Wiring conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 58



Background
Modern LPG conversions are a good way to retain the performance of a large engine petrol car but
with the equivalent running costs of a diesel or small car.
The basic options are as follows:
Take the vehicle to a specialist for conversion.
o Pro hassle free, no tools required.
o Con requires more money, not necessarily true if you do not have the required
tools or skills.
Purchase LPG equipment and fit, setup and calibrate.
o Pro cheapest option.
o Con requires conventional tools, effort and experience of setting up LPG, laptop
and appropriate interface.
Purchase LPG equipment from a reseller that is prepared to brief you on the equipment and
includes returning the car to them for setup and inspection.
o Pro Medium cost, benefit from professional inspection and setup, and receive
appropriate certificates.
o Con requires conventional tools and more running around. No laptop or interface
required*.
Purchase a vehicle with LPG already fitted.
o Pro Minimum effort and someone else will have borne the brunt of the costs.
o Con LPG is relatively rare so it may be impossible to find your chosen car with it
already fitted.
This document only covers the third option.
*Note: I supplemented the third option with my own laptop and purchased an interface. I also
installed Windows Media Encoder to capture the whole setup process for reference.
Cost Benefit Analysis
I chose LPG based on the following factors:
An expected reduction in fuel costs of approximately 30% - 40%
Break even on the purchase in <8 months
The logical conclusion that the cost of fuel would go up year on year


Tools
These tools are required:
Comprehensive general tool collection, not limited to:
o Assorted sockets
o Assorted spanners
o Clic/Clic R hose clamp pliers
I purchased 040214231 from Machine Mart
o Large flat blade screwdriver
o Torque wrench(s)
Job specific tools, not limited to:
o Soldering iron, solder, and heat shrink
o Spring compressor
o 5mm Drill bit
o 6mm Tap
o Flexible drill drive
o Grinder
o Welder and consumables / safety equipment
o Steel / Aluminium sheet
o Rivet gun and rivets
Garage equipment for raising and supporting the car
Safety equipment, such as but not limited to:
o Eye protection
o Dust mask
o Gloves
Knowledge base:
o LPG kit parts literature
o Supplier that provides phone or email support
o I personally collected the kit so the supplier could talk me through the parts and how
they fitted together. It is surprisingly simple. As it happened he had a converted 525
on site which was nice to see
Parts list
o LPG Kit
o Steel sheet and optionally Aluminium sheet
o Rivets / Screws
o General wiring consumables.
o Other there are always a load of bits and bobs required, for example I used part of
a Vectra cooling system hose to improvise coolant pipes to the reducer / heat
exchanger.


Design decisions
The pros and cons of some component selections are below. These are laid out to aid in the choices
and also to show how someone else would select different parts depending on their vehicle /
application.
Design decision 1 Tank
Option Pro Con
Cylinder in boot
space
Larger capacity tank easily
accommodated
Full size spare retained in
original location
Increased range
Boot space compromised
Split rear seats may be
obstructed
More complex mounting
More complex connections to
filler
Raises centre of gravity
Toroidal in spare
wheel well
More boot space available
Split rear seats still clear
Simple fitting*
Simple connections
Reduced range
No spare or reduced luggage
space Note some may find a
can of tyre repair an
acceptable mitigation

Based on the above a toroidal tank was chosen and a compromise on boot space achieved with the
purchase of a second user 16 space saver to minimise the amount of boot space used.
*Note: Some later cars may have the fuel tank carbon canister situated under the spare wheel well
which would require re-location or a different design decision outcome.
Design decision 2 Filler type and location
Option Pro Con
Panel mounted Convenient and clean position
Unlikely to be damaged in a
collision
70mm diameter hole required
in panel
Black, cannot be colour coded
More complex mounting
More complex routing to tank
Battery box and exhaust back
box inhibit routing to a toroidal
tank if mounted in either
quarter
Bumper mounted Does not require cutting an
expensive panel
May be damaged in collision
Complicates bumper removal
Requires clearance behind
bumper
Must comply with COP11
clearance from exhausts
Under bumper
central mount
No panels are cut to enable
fitting
May use a pump on either
side of the car
Simple connection to tank
Less likely to be damaged in a
collision
Must comply with COP11
clearance from exhausts
May be inconveniently low

Based on the above an under bumper filler was chosen
Procedure
Mount tank
It should be noted that LPG is a heavy gas and does not easily disperse. The design of the toroidal
tank and its fitments are such that all the bolt holes and screw holes and cover have rubber seals to
ensure that any gas leaked or blown off by the pressure release valve is safely vented under the
vehicle onto the floor where it can disperse. To this end the vent tubes need to be a good fit in the
floor and protrude far enough below the vehicle.
The mount for bolting down the spare wheel would not allow the toroidal tank or its vent tube to be
easily fitted or a good seal. Therefore the sealer was removed from above the seam in the spare
wheel well and the mount twisted anti-clockwise to remove it. Two flats are provided on the
trumpet part to allow this to be easily done with a big enough spanner.
I did consider getting another spare wheel mount to modify and storing the old colour coded one.
However, I decided that the likelihood of removing the kit was low, that another mount could be
acquired in future if required and modifying the existing one reduced expense and effort.


The removed spare wheel mount.

Test fitting of bare tank once the spare wheel mount was removed.



Spare wheel mount modifications start here. The original mount is modified to capitalise on its easy
removal and refitting to allow the conversion to be reversed with minimum work if required.
Note: If a welder is not available a circle of 3mm or 4mm steel plate could be used for this purpose.

Pilot hole drilled and trumpet removed with a nibbler.



A grinding disk made a nice template for drawing around, the disk of steel was cut out with tin
snips....

....and then clamped in place. Note that the vent tube is fitted into notches cut in the wheel mount
and new disk that together make a hole. The position and size of which were marked from a cereal
box template of the middle of the LPG tank.
Then the middle was tack welded.



This is the mount placed on the centre of the tank to make sure all the holes are in the right places
before seam welding.

Disk seam welded into the spare wheel mount and the two reinforcing tags provided with the tank
welded to it. These tags are provided to mount the tag to a flat spare wheel well floor.



Two generic self grip wrenches used to twist the mount into place in the floor.

Mount in place ready for the tank.

Note: Before the tank was finally bolted down the filler mount was fitted


Tank loosely bolted into place to check fit. When the tank is properly fitted seals are used under the
coach bolt heads, and O rings under the vent tube and vent tube fixing screws to ensure any gas
vents under the floor and not into the spare wheel well and battery area.

And allow for adjustment of the vent tube length.



Multivalve installation into the tank
Once the tank is securely bolted down the multivalve is fitted. The float is held in line with the fill
level tube and the flexible LPG pick up pipe is held together with them. Avoid the common error of
hooking the LPG pick up pipe over either of the other two.

The multivalve should be installed in line with the manufacturers instructions provided with it. The
bolts in the tank threads are discarded; they are only provided to protect the threads and are not
intended to secure the multivalve. The multivalve packaging contains more bolts. A torque wrench
may be needed here.



Mount filler
If I remember rightly the COP11 regulations specify that the filler mount should be able to withstand
more than 50KG. They do not, however, specify that any panel it is connected to should.
It should also be noted there are two types of pump nozzles, those similar in appearance to the
traditional petrol or diesel nozzle and some where it is more like a firemans hose with an arm that
flips forward and hence requires more panel clearance.
The information I was given for mounting an under bumper filler was that most are mounted at the
bottom of the bumper and that there should be 6 clearance all around. As the bumper curves under
mounting it on the boot floor back edge would not provide 6 clearance all around making these
appear contradictory and exclusive instructions.
I wasted one day thinking about this and finally decided to make a mount that provided 6 clearance
all around from a couple of inches behind the gas bayonet filler and was adjustable without
removing the tank in case I made a mistake.
I purchased approximately 300mm of 50mm by 3mm wall box section.



Various cuts are made to the steel. Cutting at an angle, to make it less likely to get hooked on
anything, and then cutting a wide slot in the remainder of the bottom to allow good access to
tighten the compression joint.

The brass bayonet filler came with a steel L shaped bracket, the short side of the L to allow it to be
screwed or bolted to a suitable place was sawn off and I welded the remains to my bracket.
Shown below with the brass bayonet and plastic trim fitted.



Shown below is the same bracket with bayonet removed and holes drilled to make its positioning
adjustable,

The mounting bolts are spot welded to steel oblongs for two purposes. This spreads the load of
securing the filler bracket to the boot floor making it more secure and able to take a bigger load and
stops the bolts spinning as once the tank is in place they will not be readily accessible if the bracket
is moved.



Paint applied. You may be able to see a 5mm hole drilled in the bottom right corner of the filler
bracket.

Various articles on the web spoke of allowing a coil of pipe to allow slack in case the filler is damaged
in an accident so as to protect against damaging other components so I allowed a loop as this would
also accommodate if the filler bracket was moved fore or aft later.



The rubber sleeve is stripped from the pipe at both ends and olives used where it connects to the
multi-valve and brass filler. This is basically a compression fitting for those familiar with plumbing.

A hole was also drilled in the filler cap and two zip ties used to create a tether to stop it being lost



The finished filler and cap are shown in place. Note the lugs on the bayonet are East and West not
North and South.

Multivalve shown with the filler pipe on the left and the front to rear pipe on the right.
Note: I wasted about a half a day trying to bend these pipes to line up with the multivalve. In the
end I bought a Clarke CHT264 from Machine Mart which allowed me to get the pipes near enough to
apply some adjusting force by hand to finally fit them.



Rear to front LPG line
The COP11 rules state that pipes should be secured not more than 60cm apart under the vehicle. As
I was not going to strip the whole interior out I slid some brake pipe down the drill to make sure it
went just through the bodywork without going far enough inside to cause damage to trim etc.

I removed the near side rear spring to allow access to route the front to rear pipe and make sure it
would clear the suspension throughout the full range of movement. I lost about a day due to a
stripped locking wheel nut.



Heat shield mount doubled as pipe securing bolt. The front to rear pipe left the multivalve, out of
the vent tube, and up the side of the spare wheel well................



..........then around the outside of the subframe mount but above the anti-roll bar mount

.....and up the inside of the chassis box section.......



........ because I had found that when the car is on the bump stops if it was on the bottom of the box
section it would be crushed.

The pipe then has to come across to the outside to go around the petrol tank..........



...........and above the rear trailing arm. Clearance still exists with the car sitting on the bump stop

The plastic shield is removed from the corner near the tank to allow the pipe to be routed and
secured.



And trimmed..........

........and refitted.



A simple screw replaces the sheared stud and nut that fixed the shield in place.

And the pipe bender came in handy again as the LPG pipe joins the run parallel to the brake and fuel
lines.



And continues along the floor behind the fuel filter cover and up into the engine bay closely
following the line of the fuel pipes until it deviates to connect to a solenoid mounted with the
reducer.

Solenoid valve and reducer mounting
I assembled the front solenoid and reducer onto a bracket and piped them together.



The complete assembly was them bolted to what would be the battery mount on a 1.8. The open
fitting on the left of the solenoid is where the front to rear LPG pipe will connect.





Injector mounting
Note: these are essentially solenoid valves if my understanding is correct.
Mounting of the injector blocks depends on the type you have. The chosen location complicates
changing coils or spark plugs and is not ideal. However, the injector blocks lift away after undoing 4
nuts so it is a minor inconvenience.
A bracket location was chosen and marked on the cam cover trim.

I am not a fan of using this thin plastic as a mount so a plate was also fitted on the inside to spread
the load and ensure the mount was rigid.



A view of the inside of the cam cover trim showing the reinforcing plate.

Cam cover trim refitted to the car. This would not be the only time it was removed and refitted.



Here you see the solenoids mounted on the bracket. Note the wires for the pressure sensor near the
oil filler cap.

Each block is capable of fuelling 4 cylinders, so two are used and two solenoids will be left unused. I
must point out that various solenoids are available in singles and threes as well. However, four is
likely to be the cheapest and most readily available and I choose to see having two spares built in
as a bonus
Each block is mounted on two rubber bobbin type mounts that screw into the base plate and are
then bolted to the bracket.



In this picture you can see the short length of LPG pipe and hose clips securing the two together in
series.


MAP sensor mounting
With the fuse box lid removed the relay cover was lifted away and the MAP sensor mounted with a
self drilling self tapping screw. Obviously this relies on a relay location being free. However, this is a
small sensor easily mounted elsewhere.




ECU mounting
The ECU provided can be mounted anywhere dry in the engine bay, preferably with the wiring
connector at the bottom. However, due to various options a good mounting space was not as easy
to find as expected so it was decided that it would be piggy backed in the standard ECU space.
Note: This space is already occupied by an ECU for the gearbox in automatic transmission models
Sound proofing is removed then 5 screws are undone to remove the cover panel to expose the
standard ECU.

With the wiring disconnected the ECU slides out.



There are a few pictures missing here but the steps are as follows:
The ECU mounting bracket was removed, to do this I had to cut a spanner in half for
clearance
Once removed the mounting bracket looks something like part 6 in this image. The top and
half the height of the nearside were removed.
An aluminium plate was cut to size and then riveted to it at half height
The LPG ECU was then screwed to it.
Part 11 in the image was trimmed to allow the wiring to exit into the heater area.
The ECU mounting bracket was refitted to the car with the LPG ECU already attached
o Note that there is a round grommet in the back of the ECU space. This was used to
pass the wiring for the LPG gauge and on / off switch into the interior of the car
entering the passenger compartment behind the glove box.

Here you can see the wiring passing through the cut out in part 11 and back in to the engine bay.
Cable armour is added.


Here is another view showing the wiring leaving the ECU compartment and curving around into the
engine bay. The black fuse block is just visible.

Note: The fuse in the wiring loom is not ideally placed as it is now in the heater box area on the bend
before it enters the engine bay.


Wiring
Overview
A brief description of the wiring and its connectors will help before going further. A wiring diagram
can be found here.
Here is a brief summary in my words:
Permanent live
o Has a convenient ring terminal, which may have been changed for a larger size, and
was attached to the large live connection in the side of the fuse box
Permanent earth
o Has a convenient ring terminal and was bolted down under the earth pin near the
nearside turret
Ignition live
o There are obviously a load of places this could be picked up. I chose Pin 16 of the
X6002 connector the old style diagnostic socket on the offside turret
RPM feed
o This was taken from coil number 2 on advice of the supplier of the kit.
o There are three wires to each coil, two of them are the same colour on every coil,
and the different one is the one required. This was traced back to the connector
under the diagnostic socket and the new wire wired into the car side of the
connector so that the coil wiring could still be unclipped if required
LPG injector connectors
o 6 multi plugs, each with 2 wires in and numbered 1 to 6
o These can connect to any socket on the injector block but the LPG pipe from the
injector to the manifold has to feed the cylinder with the corresponding number
Petrol injector connectors
o These are numbered 1 to 6
o Each has a male and female injector type socket
o The cars loom connector is unclipped from petrol injector number 1 and the male
connector of the number 1 pair connected to it.
o The female connector of the number 1 pair is then connected to the cylinder 1fuel
injector
o Repeat for the other 5 injectors making sure the numbers always align
Lambda sensor wires
o These are optional
o Two are provided which is exactly the right number for a 328
Reducer temperature sensor
o Two wires on reducer
Gas pressure sensor
o Two wires on the end of the injector block nearest the oil filler cap
Switch / buzzer / fuel gauge unit
o 5 wires all colour matched

o Ran inside car to a convenient place, in my case the unit is fitted into a switch blank
by the cigar lighter
Gas level sender
o 2 wires
Solenoid valves
o Two wires from the ECU loom
o Connected to two solenoids, one front and one rear wired in parallel
MAP sensor
o Nice and easy, there is a connector block on the wire to fit it
Interface connector
o Used only during setup
o Tucked away into the ECU compartment when not in use


Permanent live
The fuse box lid is removed, then the permanent live can be bolted down. The original ring terminal
was cut off and a bigger one used.

Permanent earth
A suitable existing earth point was used to bolt down the permanent earth ring terminal.



Ignition live
The rubber boot was peeled back and some insulation carefully stripped from the wire attached to
Pin 16 of the X6002 connector. The RPM wire was slid under the existing wiring boot so no
additional holes are required. The RPM wire was wrapped around this wire and the two soldered.
Electrical insulation tape was applied and the rubber boot replaced. Cutting the wire in the car loom
or dismantling the socket to slide heat shrink on was deemed too big a use of effort for the extra
return in quality.

RPM feed
Of the three wires that are connected to coil no2, the one whose colour is not present on any other
coil, was traced through to the multiplug and traced across into the car side of the loom. A wire was
then attached to using the same method as described in the paragraph above.



LPG injector connectors
These are simple 2 Pin push on connectors, numbered 1 to 6. Be sure to connect number 1 to the
injector solenoid that feeds cylinder1 and so on. Note the solenoids have been rotated 180 degrees
in relation to the base so the wiring can come from a better angle.


Petrol injector connectors
The standard wiring connections that push on to the 6 petrol injectors are the typical two pin
connections. However, they are pushed into a plastic conduit from below and held in place by a
square section rubber band and then wired from above. The same conduit contains the lambda and
vanos wiring.



This is the only location where the LPG kit interferes with the operation of the standard fuel
injection. Therefore I chose not to modify the standard car wiring to the detriment of appearance
but to allow the LPG to be easily unplugged if required in the future for whatever reason i.e. to
eliminate it during fault finding or transfer it to another car as just two reasons.
The vanos wiring was disconnected from the front end of the conduit and the clips, which are very
awkward, released to allow the conduit, with injector connectors in it, to be lifted up. The conduit
was cut away to leave only the connectors.

Note: I could have de-pinned the connectors, however, I figured that I would not be reusing the
conduit and that with 12 pins there would be a chance of introducing a fault.
The LPG wiring for the fuel injectors consists of 6 pairs of male and female connectors. Simply put
the standard wiring, 1, comes off an injector and connects to the LPG loom, 2, the other terminal on
the LPG loom, 3, pushed onto the injector. The LPG injector wiring pairs are numbered 1 through 6
and line up with the appropriate cylinder number.



Lambda sensor wires
Two wires are provided for monitoring the lambda sensors. I was told connection of these is
optional.
One wire was connected to the black <check> wire from each lambda. They were connected in the
same manner as the RPM and ignition live wires were.
Front sensor wire.

Rear sensor wire.



Reducer temperature sensor
The temperature sensor wires are shown here taped to the reducer to avoid them being pulled in
installation.
Connection to the LPG wiring loom was a straight forward process. This was a case of stripping the
sleeve off all four wire ends, tinning them, sliding the heat shrink back on two of the wires, sweating
the joints together then sliding the heat shink down and heating it to shrink it in place.
A good picture of a similarly constructed joint is that below in the gas pressure sensor section.


Gas pressure sensor
If I remember rightly I had to cut a connector off the Orange / Black wires. Barring that this was a
straight forward task using the method described in the section above


Switch / buzzer / fuel gauge unit
Glove box was temporarily removed to access the grommet on the rear of the ECU space and route
the wire bundle to the gear lever area. A hole was made in one of the switch blanks to allow the
switch wiring to be passed through it and the switch mounted. All wires are married up colour to
colour with a minor deviation for the buzzer that indicated gas out

Gas level sender
The level sender is held in place by two screws. I was advised to use the top left and bottom right
mounting holes. The provided wire then clips in and follows the rear to front LPG pipe to the engine
bay, zip tied regularly to secure it. However, securing it at the same time as the wire from the rear
solenoid will save some time, effort and zip ties.



Solenoid valves
The front, engine bay mounted, and rear, tank mounted, solenoids are wired in parallel and
connected to the two wires provided on the ECU loom. I hope the stylised image below makes this
clear. Note the red and black wires shown are not representative colours.

As you can see the picture below does not really help too much due to the angle and clutter.
However, in reality this was one of the easiest wiring tasks.
The wires from the rear solenoid, zip tied to the LPG line, enter the engine bay here. The one from
the + rear terminal is twisted together with the + for this purpose in the LPG loom and then both
together are slid into a female spade terminal and crimped into it. This is slid onto the + terminal of
the front solenoid. Repeat for the wires for the terminals.



MAP sensor
MAP sensor wiring consists of a single three pin connector pushed straight on.

Interface connector
Unless setting up the car yourself the only real requirement here is for the connector to be safe,
clean, dry etc and to know how to access it.



Injector nozzle to manifold fitting.
I decided to fit the nozzles into the manifold without removing it. This be may frowned on due to the
possibility of swarf getting into the engine. However, its a plastic manifold not steel or alloy and
quite soft. Plus drilling with constant pressure means the plastic was removed as two complete
swirls so Im happy enough. Warning foreign matter in the inlet manifold may damage the
engine.
If I remember rightly I drilled the manifold 5mm and tapped it 6mm. To get access to drill with the
manifold in place I bought a flexible drive. Note the use of some pipe on the drill to stop the drill
going in too far.

A tap was wedged into an extension to be able to reach the holes drilled in the manifold



All the nozzles were fitted at the same point in the inlet, front three pointing one way and rear three
the other. The centre two are slightly offset on angle to make sure the pipes arent bent to any
restrictive angles.
The nozzles must not be over tightened or the soft plastic threads with strip.

The pipes are cut to the same length and armoured where they may rub on anything. They are
secured with the clips provided with the injector solenoids.
It goes without saying but, the solenoid connected to the no 1 wire is piped to the nozzle in the no 1
cylinder runner.



MAP
The map sensor has one wiring connector and two pipe connectors. The wiring was covered earlier
Purple represents the LPG gas pressure pipe from injectors to MAP sensor. Green represents the
vacuum pipe from inlet manifold to MAP and reducer via a Tee piece.
Bottom left shows the outlet on the second set of injector solenoids blanked off with a short length
of pipe with a bolt inserted in the end.



Reducer to injector solenoid LPG pipe
The dotted purple line shows the path of the large bore LPG pipe from the reducer to the injector
solenoids. The pipe is armoured anywhere it may rub and passes under the heater / wiper area.
The inset shows detail of the LPG filter and reducer connections.
Note: The LPG filter is marked as directional.



Reducer cooling system feed
Top reducer hose
In spite of having some coolant hose supplied I used some sections from this old Vectra hose. The
reason for this is simple, generic hose is straight and can only do sweeping bends without kinking. I
needed to be able to introduce a 90 degree bend in a confined space near the twin heater valves.

There are no good pictured for this so a description will have to do.
The hose from the back of the head to the two heater valve solenoids was cut. About a of tube
was removed and another Tee piece inserted with the extra outlet pointing down. A piece of Vectra
hose 8 long with a 90 degree bend on the end was cut. The bend on the end was fitted to the tee so
that the long end pointed under the heater valves towards the reducer. 3 of copper pipe and two
hose clips were used along with some more of the new coolant hose to extend this to the reducer.

Bottom reducer hose
Simplest of the two hoses, the bottom hose is routed in one piece, using sweeping bends, from the
reducer to a Tee piece inserted in to a cut made in the original hose from block to radiator.
The hose length and cut in the original hose was all carefully done so that the hose will not rub on
any sharp edges and at rest or in movement it does not touch anything hot or sharp. If it had
touched anything that can damage it I would have added armour.





Bleeding
By plugging the ends of the heater hoses while working on the system I lost less than a litre of
coolant. With the car topped up, heater on and front of the car raised (my sloping drive helped) the
system was bled through the bleed screw in the top of the radiator.


Filler nozzle examples in use
Note: Read the specific instructions on the pump. However, the basic processes are as below. Be
aware that failure to follow all safety precautions could easily result in freeze burns.

Gun type filler
More like the traditional petrol pump from back in the day when you could click the trigger back
and leave your car fuelling until the automatic cut off kicked in.
These have a barrel that has a cut out end to align with the two bayonet notches on the filler on the
car. Slide on, twist clock wise, pull back the trigger and then push down the little clip to lock it in
place. Then retreat to the pump to push down the big button to fill.

Removal is not quite a reversal of the fitting process. Do not touch the barrel. Squeeze and release
the trigger, there will usually be a spurt of gas, this is normal. After this rotate the barrel and remove
the filler nozzle.


The other filler
This type the handle is raised at 90 degrees to the nozzle centre line and held vertical. The nozzle
slides on the cars bayonet, handle is rotated 90 degrees clockwise on the axis of the nozzle then
pulled back. The position of the handle when vertical is 1 behind the bumper. It is primarily for this
type that my filler is extended slightly back from under the car.

Removal is not quite a reversal of the fitting process. Do not touch the barrel. Flip the handle
forward, there will usually be a spurt of gas, this is normal. After this rotate the handle upwards until
vertical and remove the filler nozzle.


Lessons learned
Filler mount
The filler mount could maybe have protruded 1 less and if I only ever used the gun type filler, which
is the case 90% of the time, it could have been tucked further under.
The central filler saves time waiting for a free spot to fill time and again, as often there are only one
or two LPG pumps on a station and they share lanes with petrol and diesel pumps. Being able to fill
on either side is a benefit.
Tank size
When I originally planned the conversion I passes an LPG station on the way to and from work each
day, so I merely chose the largest that would fit entirely in the spare wheel well. Range is 185 to 225
miles, typically around 200 miles. Having changed employment to a round trip of 104 miles a day I
now find the tank covers 2 days. A 20% larger tank would have raised the boot carpet by approx 1
but not have allowed me to complete a third days trip without refuelling so while a bigger tank
looks appealing, at least at present this one is best fit.
Tank orientation
I fitted the tank with the valves at the front as the boot floor slopes forward. The inspector pointed
out that I may get more miles on the flat that way but be more prone to fuel surge when
accelerating hard. He was correct, however this is only noticeable if I have less than 20 or 30 miles
left in the tank and I could always switch to petrol if anticipating dramatic acceleration.
Injector solenoid mounting
Mounting the solenoids further towards the middle of the cam cover and / or fabricating a custom
bracket would allow me to tilt the injector pipes down towards where they cross the edge of the
cam cover. Along with slightly shorter and tighter curved pipes this would allow the injector plastic
trim to be refitted with only slight trimming to the side. However, as much as I would like to
improve the cosmetics the pareto principle prevents me from revisiting this.
Part of me would like brackets TIG welded to the cam cover and the plastic trim cut back to ease
access of the coil packs and plugs. However, that is not an option for the reasons already mentioned.
Wiring
Fuel (petrol) injector wiring
It occurs to me that I could have cut the side out of the plastic that previously mounted the fuel
injector electrical connections and slip the LPG loom connectors in so as to keep the petrol fuel rail
wiring tidier.
However, it also occurs to me that had I not wished to keep the kit transportable, that because the
ECU is next to the cars DME, the fuel injector wiring could have been cut into by the ECU
dramatically reducing the bulk of wires across the front of the heater area and preserving the
original wiring and its plastic ducting on the fuel rail.


General wiring
A logical extension of the point made above, about the proximity of LPG ECU to DME is that the
ignition live, RPM feed, main live and earth connections could all have been handled within the DME
area reducing external wiring.
It would have been unnecessary extra effort, but the interface connector could have been re-routed
to the glove box for increased ease of access.
Wiring conclusion
Based on my level of experience, and desire to be able to easily bypass the kit at the roadside / keep
it transportable to another vehicle the existing wiring arrangements were the correct choices made
with the information available at the time.