LPG manifold tank install Brisbane

[Utemad]

Hi guys,

Has anyone had their Disco1 update or any other Land Rover converted to LPG in Brisbane?

I'm after an installer to call that has done these vehicles before.

I had the number for an installer who apparently owned a Disco1 and fitted a manifold tank in the back along with the LPG filler behind the fuel door (dual fuel). Would like to talk to him again but lost his number.

Also if anyone has the manifold tanks in the back of their Disco1 could you post up photos of the install. Just wanting to know measurements of the height of the false floor and exactly where the tank sits etc.
I have cargo drawers at the moment so I'm used to a higher floor. Although I have found that I keep mostly useless crap in them so they aren't as handy as I thought they would be.

I searched for info but came up with no answers to these particular questions.

[UncleHo]

G'day Utemad :)

I suggest you give Mike Bushnell at Duel Fuel in Caboolture a call, he is pretty good with all LPG and fuel injection as well as Vaccuum advances:)

cheers.

[GrahamH]

Hi Utemad. I'm in Adelaide so I can't help you with an installer in Brizzy but I have just posted detailed photos of the LPG install in my SI Disco (1996) for you in the gallery at http://www.aulro.com/app/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=11676. Hopefully these will give you some ideas about how you might want to have your system arranged (or, perhaps, not arranged).

The filler is in the rear side panel just in front of the rear bumper wraparound (way below the petrol filler cover) - there might be room to fit it in with the petrol filler but I have lots of hoses in that area due to long range tanks and a side tank and it was impractical to do that.

The manifold tank is an APA one built in Melbourne which I had in my '88 Rangie previously. When I put this system in about 12 months ago APA were so busy building standard round tanks and unable to keep up with demand that they had stopped building special tanks like this (and the donut tank for the P38a Rangie). That may or may not still be the case - if it is you might have to look for a second-hand tank from a wrecker. If it's getting near 10 years old you might as well have it retested and certified before you install it to save you having to take it out in a few years for testing.

The tank cover (false floor) raises the floor level by 270mm in my vehicle.

In the SI Disco, as you'll see from the photos, there is only just enough room to fit the tank between the rear seat and the rear door. The tank was designed to fit the wheel well in a Falcon station wagon and we had to cut the mounting legs short to fit the tank in. The tank bolts through the floor with substantial rectangular steel plates underneath as required by law.

I have subsequently had my Milford cargo barrier modified by an Adelaide installer to accommodate the tanks - it needed 300mm or so cut off the bottom and the bottom mountings now go onto the rear wheel well humps.

The only slightly tricky bit was in modifying the top cover of the air-cleaner box - I had to swing the outlet neck across towards the passenger-side guard by a few degrees to fit the mixer ring in at the plenum chamber. I cut a vee out of the side at the exit point from the cover and got a plastic repair specialist to "weld" it back together in the new position - he used the plastic vee I cut out as the filler rod as it apparently isn't a common plastic and he had no filler rod. This brought the MAF across by about 30mm which was enough to give me the space to fit the mixer ring in. There are various types of mixer rings but this one has a double wall and vents the gas into the air intake with minimal restriction, using multiple holes in the inner wall.

I initially installed the system with a standard manually adjustable power valve in the gas line but I have since fitted an Oxygen sensor in the exhaust (at the last 2 into 1 in front of the front muffler) and fitted a stepper motor type power valve with a small controller which sits beside the windscreen washer bottle. This works extremely well and I can't really tell the difference in performance between running on LPG and on petrol with this system.

The system was installed by a registered installer, and I provided some of the labour under supervision; it meets all legal requirements and is certified.

Good luck with your install. If you'd like any more details or some physical measurements feel free to PM me.

[rangieman]

These tanks are also known as scuba tanks that might help others to know what your talking about:cool:

[Utemad]

Thanks Graham. That is a great help.

My current cargo drawers raise the floor 190mm above the factory carpet.
The bottom of the interior light is 220mm above the carpet.
In your photos it looks like the tanks sit about level with the bottom of the light but your false floor is higher than this (270mm) to accomodate your shovel.
If I was to do this I was thinking of making a drawer on the left but you would fit more in by making lift up covers. Just means you wouldn't be able to access the gear in them if the car was packed. Unless you had a removeable front cover as well.

So you have a long range petrol tank as well as a side panel petrol tank and the cargo area LPG tanks. That must give you pretty good range.

I do 200kms each week at the moment for work. This is suburban driving. Sometimes in heavy traffic and never more than 70 km/h. So the range of 200-250kms isn't much of a worry when I can keep my standard size petrol tank. So that would give me a range of about 750kms on a highway trip.

In regards to the availability of manifold tanks I was also told that APA had stopped making them when I called them about 10ish months ago. I'll find out tomorrow what the go is when I start ringing around.

I'll call Mike Bushnell as well as Rick's and find out who he reccomends.

Thanks guys. If you've got any more info then keep it coming :)

[GrahamH]

Yes, my false floor obscures about the bottom 20% of the loadspace light - not a great inconvenience. If I need real light I have a 12V fluoro mounted above the door. The new floor height allowed my German Shepherd to sit up comfortably with his head not quite touching the roof - well it was an important consideration at the time!

A lift-up cover on the LHS of the false floor would be a good idea for when you have no load but I find I can slide the gear out from under the false floor OK when the back is loaded up with gear although a handle on the end of my toolkit to haul it by would be very helpful.

When I bought the vehicle it was already fitted with a Long Ranger main tank, a side tank in the RH rear guard (30Lt I think) and 2 sill tanks. It holds about 200Lt of petrol and around 50Lt of LPG. I count on 200Km of range from the LPG tank on town running and about 220Km on the highway.

I don't think that the demand for LPG kits has slowed much so I won't be surprised to hear that APA are still not making the scuba tanks, but it's worth ringing them - my understanding was that they would be resuming manufacture if they could start keeping up with supply on the simple tanks. There's just too much manufacturing time in the manifold tanks and consequently they're not cheap. I believe there may be another manufacturer but I don't have a name, I'm sorry.

Good luck with the quest. I'll be interested to hear how you get on, and I'll gladly take more photos if you need them later if it helps (or if anyone else would like more info). (I'm in Brizzy this week for work and separated from the vehicle until Saturday.)