Marrelli LPG complete *under the bonnet* kit

Who's doing your roof lining and how much $ ? I used a staple gun on my discovery to keep that damned thing up :twisted:

LPG install is sort of complete today - all the hardware is in place anyways and looks pretty good. The car *can* run on lpg and is very quiet compared to other SGI systems I've heard and the installer said he's never heard a kit that quiet either - normal SGI injectors sound a little like a diesel engine clicking away but marelli ones are silent... Installer also seemed to like the software but couldn't use it just yet ...

Unfortunately the diagnostic/programming cable is faulty (dry broken solder joints on the board) and repairing a printed circuit board is a PITA so I'll get a new cable - either from the vendor or I'll fork out the £40 for a new eBay one. Unless I can find out what the DB9 pinouts are meant to be and I'll make my own

Anyways, long story short is that its in and running - but not tuned and running quite lean so I won't be using it on lpg just yet. Don't have the car back yet or I'd post some photos

Junosi:
If you want to save some $$$ and your confident its running on LPG I'll do my order for my Kit now.... and ask the guy to put another cable for you in my kit. We can then meet up and go from there....

Sound Good?

Can you PM/Email me the details of the Courier you used,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BusinessConnected

If you want to save some $$$ and your confident its running on LPG I'll do my order for my Kit now.... and ask the guy to put another cable for you in my kit. We can then meet up and go from there....

---

Thanks for the offer but I'm getting impatient now and want that cable pronto one way or another, should be trivial and quick for him to pop a new one in a bag to me. Sent you an email also

I've always found Courier Quote - Shipment Details to be the best UK freighter.

If Steve from Hytek doesn't want to send overseas then you could contact
EUROPEGAS-[Sequential injection gas systems, LPG, CNG, Samochodowe instalacje gazowe, auto gaz, autogaz, auto-gaz, autogas, auta na plyn, reducers, vaporisers, injectors] which is the actual manufacturer of the kits and they may have distributors

Job is pretty much finished now except a bit of fine tuning in the software. Both Steve the vendor and Steve the installer were very helpful (I won't mention the other Steve, assistant installer to Steve or it'd just get confusing :D)

Its cost about $2750 in total and after government $1750 rebate that means it has cost me about $1000 for what appears to be a very good kit and installation option. The Marelli kit can go on cars up to 350bhp and the gas injectors are super quiet. Photo's follow

Engine bay showing reducer/vaporiser connecting to a filter that splits off into two 4 cylinder distributors that then go to the 8 small injectors. The SGI computer is located in the gap between the battery and the headlight, its quite small.
Attachment 23640

The *magic3* style reducer/vaporiser - nice looking and small footprint. It's attached to a handy bit of chassis that sticks up near the brake master
Attachment 23641

Filler located next to petrol filler
Attachment 23642

I asked for the tank to be located as close to the side as possible, thinking I'd have room for a deep cycle battery in the remaining space. As it turns out with a bit of *persuasion* I managed to get the original polystyrene tools holder back in there with all its bits in place. Initially the wheel well lid wasn't closing quite right as it was colliding with the tank. After a bit of trimming of that sticky outey plastic bit (the technical term) it now sits flush
Attachment 23643

Flush sitting wheel well lid.
Attachment 23644

Edit: thought I should mention spare tyre thoughts. For long trips I'll be taking a tyre with me, probably on the roof. For everything else I swear by the ARB Speedy Seal repair kit - its compact and only takes a couple of minutes to repair all but the worst punctures - cheap insurance at $60/kit. I've got the ever present can of 'tyre weld' type stuff too which I regard as very temporary for small punctures.

Looks good!
Here is my bracket mount for safely carrying the tyre inside...bracket is attatched to the right wall of the tyre well, allows the tyre to be attatched via a 12mm H/T bolt thru the hatch. It is a legal requirement to have an alternate tyre mount AFAIK. Cheers

How is the system working?

and what kind of fuel economy are you getting

thanks

It appears to be working very well. I've got it set to start on petrol and swaps itself to gas after 30secs. I only got the software cable on Monday this week and got did its initial calibration same day - which means collecting petrol and lpg mapping data at idle. I still need to do more data collection under all engine conditions (ie hills or foot to the floor), means I've got to plug the computer in and go for a drive with varied loads - which I'm going to do on Friday. After I've got the data I'll be altering some of the injection durations to provide more power at high revs/load as its a little down in power in those areas compared to petrol right at the moment but I expect it to pick up once the mapping is done.

If the trip computer is to be believed then economy is currently almost identical to petrol (averaging about 16l/100km). I'm still running on the first full tank of gas so can't tell just yet whether the trip computer is accurate. Odo vs refuel will tell the story.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Junosi

If the trip computer is to be believed then economy is currently almost identical to petrol (averaging about 16l/100km). I'm still running on the first full tank of gas so can't tell just yet whether the trip computer is accurate. Odo vs refuel will tell the story.

---

Your trip computer calculates economy based on petrol injector times so won't change its reading significantly on gas.

You need to let someone else drive while you play with the software! Or find a dyno. Mind you, loading up in drive when stationary will get you close.

If you can't get full power find the "petrol addition under load" function in the software. Worked great on the Prado I just did. I add 2ms of petrol when the injector on time exceeds 12ms.

Any further updates oon your experiences?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BusinessConnected

Any further updates oon your experiences?

---

Had two fairly serious gas leaks develop, gas smell and audible hissing, from the two 1-into-4 gas filter splitter/distributor units. Photo below. They're both clearly designed to have something else plugged into them (temp sensor maybe) and without it leaves a hole that was plugged with a plastic cap and covered in 'goo' (black stuff in photo) as delivered to me. Anyways it was a bodge job and leaked gas like a seive. I removed the goo and plastic plug/cap and filled the whole cavity with two part epoxy resin which I'm fairly sure is a permanent fix for the leak. The part manufacturer for the filters is Certools (a polish company) that also sell a part (F-780) that looks much more appropriate for the task at 10euro each, which I may end up buying.

Attachment 24389

Aside from that its smooth sailing. I've gathered all the calibration data and done the tuning myself - the fitter I used seemed to be struggling with it. Diagram below shows my tuning data (ignore the 'not responding and rich lambdas - was unplugged from the ecu when I took the screenshot). The longest gas injection time is still only 9ms at max load and seems to have identical power to petrol now - revs freely up to 5500rpm on gas under load. Unfortunately I don't think the software has a "petrol addition under load" option anywhere that I can find, don't think I need it but I would of liked to have tried the option :)

Attachment 24390

I'm still running on the first real tank of gas, discounted the tank where I had the gas leaks and where I was gathering tuning data. Currently I've done 330kms and still going on my first 70litre tank - hoping to hit 350 km which will put the car on 20l/100kms when on gas, which I'll be quite happy with. My 3.9 discovery was firmly on 25l/100kms as comparison.