Lpg + phev?

This is a really good idea. The thought crossed my mind the other day about a CNG conversion and how efficient it would/wouldn't be.

I'd really like to see more on this.

 

Well, you also have to figure, LPG is a lot cheaper than gasoline (petrol).

We'd need to figure out the cost per mile versus the cost per gallon because they obviously aren't going to be equal.

 

LPG tanks are pretty strong. I once saw a car hit in the rear and the back of the car just bent over the lpg tank. It didnt rupture at all. (It was a donut tank)
If you put lpg on a prius you would need to find someone who would know what there doing. Last thing you want is someone messing with the wiring and end up messing your vehicle up. The installer may have a bit of a chuckle because you want to convert a prius to lpg.
I took a system out of a magna wagon here in aus and put it in an 86 laser once it was a huge tank and i would only fill it once a month lol. But that was then things have changed now.
If you go with this would love to see the install.
Regards

 

Hi.
I have converted my 2004 Prius to lpg.

I used the egas system, that uses a vaporizer.

I must say I am very satisfied with it.
Fuel consumption is 5.8 l/100 km lpg on average.
Power feels the same.
Only price is half that of gasoline.

I used a donut tank in the spare wheel well. The tank is quite big (59 l).
I had to cut off the battery edge that protrudes a little into the spare wheel well.

Absolutely no problems so far. Very satisfied.

 

PICs? Esp, the battery edge cut!

Thx

 

Yes, it's dual fuel. The consumption is calculated.

The car doesn't know it's on lpg, so, what it shows on the MFD is what it thinks the consumption would be if it used gasoline. The only way to know the consumption for lpg is to fill up and divide liters by kilometers (or miles).

I only lost the black plastic canister that sits below the main storage compartment. Not much of a loss, as I didn't use it anyway.

I will come up with some photos as soon as I can.

 

Now I'm very intrigued. I had no clue you could do dual fuel. Is it as simple as Ford's Flex Fuel system?

And yeah, I'd definitely like to see pictures.

 

LPG is gaseous in normal temperatures and atmospheric pressure.
If pressurized to 8-10 bars, it becomes a liquid and that's how it is stored in it's special tank.

When the car burns lpg, the lpg comes from the tank to the vaporizer. The vaporizer is kept hot by engine heat. The lpg becomes a gas.

Then it is injected to each cylinder just like gasoline is, via special lpg injectors.

Injectors are controlled by the lpg ecu, which reads what the petrol ecu is doing and adapts the output to lpg needs. Petrol and lpg are different, and that's why a second ecu is needed.

The car starts on gasoline and starts using lpg when the engine is warm enough to completely vaporize the lpg. I tried starting on lpg and using no gasoline at all but it doesn't work too well when it's cold.

The lpg ecu is connected to the petrol ecu in two ways, at least on my system:
- It intercepts the signal to the petrol injectos and either allows it when we want to use petrol, or adapts it and sends the result to the lpg injectors when we want to use lpg.
- The second connection is via the car's obd port where it constantly reads the lambda sensor output and other parameters to constantly have the correct mixture in the engine.

The petrol ecu always thinks the car is running on petrol.

 

Just curious whats the change over like between lpg and electric? Does it work exactly the same way as petrol and electric and vice versa?
Sounds like a straight forward installation.
Regards

 

I would be interested in lpg but my concern is that with a normal lpg car you start it on petrol and then switch to lpg when the car is warm and carry on running lpg until you switch off. Trouble is, with the Prius the petrol engine is switching on and off all the time. How does this affect the lpg system? If the engine is off for a while, say in heavy traffic, will the engine have cooled too much for the lpg to vapourise correctly?

This would be more of a concern to me as the weather here is colder than both Greece and Australia.

 

Essentially. I believe there are some that are Diesel as well.

 

if your engine is turned off, it means it is warm enough anyway... Prius will not turn of the engine unless it is warm enough... same applies to LPG, even on normal cars, it only needs 10-15 seconds on petrol to heat up properly.

 

I would assume that if the temp in the vaporizer was too low then it would revert to petrol use again until it was warm enough. not sure what sort of temp it needs, but i don't think you'll have a major problem. don't forget the ICE start is pretty easy on the engine anyway because of MG1 bringing it up to speed.

I've also noticed when sat in traffic for a long time in the cold that the engine will start anyway, just to keep itself warm (my SOC is not low, but the cabin temperature is!) so i really think you'd be fine Cabbie. Only problem for you is the loss of your spare....