Hi There,

I'm new the the forum, I've been lurking for a couple of weeks and searching for info about LPG on 99 TH 3.5 Magnas. At the risk of getting flamed for starting yet another LPG thread.....

I'm interested in hearing from people who've got or had TH 3.5 Magna's running on LPG, specifically did it have any long term effect on engine longevity?

Also can anyone from WA recommend an LPG installer in the Perth or Central/Southern Suburbs area?

More generally can anyone recommend a particular type of LPG system to go for (or for that matter avoid)?

Background info:
99 Magna TH Exec Sedan, completely standard except for towbar.
Bought 6 months ago with 120K, already up to 135K now.
By the way, I was thinking of going to dual fuel not dedicated LPG (better for country trips if LPG a bit scarce)

Thanks
David

Choonga has a 3.5L on LPG, shoot him a PM.

Hi,

I am new to this forum.
I have the same car, TH 99 wagon on LPG. I am planning to do some cleaning for maintainance at my car LPG vaporizer, but a bit scared as some documentations on youtube mentioned to be qulified to do that, especially with the vacuum adjustment. I have a smell of gas out of the engine compartment as well. I thought could do it by my self as to cut down the expenses to bring to the mechanic. btw, no manual for the lpg, just bought online but doesn't come with the lpg section.
Any idea would be appreciated. Thanks

cheers

ryan

I have a Pajero 3.5L dual fuel. It has done 250000 km and I had an issue which required the head to come off (my fault, nothing to do with the car). The valves look perfect. The engine shows no signsd of wear in the bores and generally looks fine.

The 3.5 L engine used in the Pajero is the same as the Magna. Mitsubishi reckoned that the Pajero 3.5 was fully gas compatible and as far as I know, the Magna was also fully LPG compatible. The only issue I have had was with the ignition leads - the Pajero has 5mm dia leads compared to 7 mm dia for the magna. We also had until very recently a TF Magna (also with LPG) and the only issue I had with it was Bosch ignition leads. When I finally got rid of them, the car was fine. It had 250000 km as well. Both cars had mixer and gas ring (not the newer LPG injection system).

We also had until very recently a TF Magna (also with LPG) and the only issue I had with it was Bosch ignition leads. When I finally got rid of them, the car was fine.

get rid of them means you replaced them? how did you do that by yourself?
Thanks

My TH wagon is 6000 short of 400,000 and all but 70,000 of that is on LPG, the old girl is feeling her age but has always been reliable and more than able to get me to and from anywhere I wanted to go.

I had a TH Advance on LPG. I had the Impco mixer system fitted. It's the system that Mitsubishi factory fitted to dual fuel Magnas and the later dedicated gas Magnas. Did about 90K after the system was fitted without any problems. Didn't have the car long enough to know if the gas had any long term effect. I can highly recommend the Impco system if you're thinking of a mixer system. I've currently got this system on my TJII AWD and my wife's KJII Verada.

"get rid of them means you replaced them? how did you do that by yourself?"
Yes - I did replace the leads with Eagle leads and they worked quite well, although Mal from Mitsfix doesn't recommend them - he prefers the OEM leads. NGK leads work well too.

I did the leads replacement by myself. It isn't an easy jpb, but on a Magna is hell of a lot easier than my Pajero. You have to remove the intake manifold to get access to the rear leads. Then you have to work out which lead goes where, but that isn't too bad if yoy do one at a time.

Whilst you are changing the leads, you should consider changing the spark plugs as well. I used NGK Iridium plugs which were one grade colder than that recommended for petrol engines. The plugs worked well for about 40000 km, when the car went as a trade-in on our new Outlander. The Iridium plugs in my Pajero are still in good condition and haven't changed the gap noticeably in 40000 km, so I am quite happy with that as well. With LPG, the recomendation is to close the plug gap by about 0.1 or 0.2 mm compared to the petrol gap. This allows for better spark with the gas, and also allows for the gap to erode with time and still leave the plugs and leads performing as designed after a long time and distance. Both vehicles seemed to have better low speed pulling power with the IRidiums plugs fitted.

I converted my TJ exec to SVi LPG @ 80,000Km in mid 2008, i have done a little over 164,000 now and she is going strong. I had Gaspower in Welshpool do my install, which is a Romano RISn system and a 62L (50L useable) toroidal tank in the wheel well. Sadly now that the incentives are gone most of the installers have shut up shop, but Gaspower was around before the incentives and their head office in north bridge is still trading.

I do have 1 bugbear in my system that has intermittently popped it head up (once or twice a year) , and that is not wanting to switch over, which i have a strong lead on the cause. but that could happen on any system, i've just been the lucky one to get a faulty sensor :)
I am running Ngk Iridiums using the same heat range as with petrol, the same plugs have been in the engine since i bought the car @ 73,000km, a recent inspection of said plugs leads me to beleive that i may get the rated 160,000km (fingers crossed)
according to NGK the LPG magnas run the same Iridium heat rating as the petrol engines.
As above i am running NGK Leads.

A few more things of note is that i have an LPG ready engine (option N01), and i also installed a flash lube kit (which is probably overkill but it was free to RAC members when i got the lpg system installed)

If its in your budget then i'd recommend a VSi over the old Fumigation system, you wont look back.

I would not be concerned on running the 6G series engines on lpg. They perform beautifully with lpg gas. These engines were factory fitted with lpg in the TL/TW models and only very slight modifications were done to them to work well with gas. I've heard a few installers hold these engines in high regard for their suitability for lpg.

I've had my system for about 40,000kms and had no real issues other than regular maintenance such as cleaning out the throttle body & isc, replacing leads and spark plugs.
My system is a SprintGas mixer system (like a carburator) but it's a closed loop which means it uses a computer to control the air/fuel mixture. The system starts the engine on petrol, and switches promptly over to lpg. It means that my car starts, first time, everytime!
I've had little issues with it, apart from some early teething issues with stalling from the idle rev being too low. Also, switching from petrol to lpg requires the revs to be above 1000rpm or else it will stall. These issues are minor, compared to that which some people in other cars have had. I'm happy with its performance, getting around 115kw of power at the wheels on lpg. This is only a 30% loss from the flywheel to the wheels, which is quite a low amount.

In my car, I've replaced my spark plugs with NGK iridium IX's that were one degree colder and 0.2mm shorter than the standard magna ones, as per NGK's recommendations. I've also replaced my leads with NGK branded ones. Together they work a charm, and the car performs better than when it had the genuine leads and standard magna plugs. Unfortunately, I do believe this setup is causing me some slight losses in power on petrol.

I personally think the SVI system is a waste of money, when the car runs well on a mixer system. Lpg is no longer that cheap compared to petrol, and an SVI system will still use more than petrol per 100km (albiet less than a mixer system) so the savings you make diminishes quite a bit. It takes years before the money starts coming back to you and the car is already 14 years old. Up to you, but mixer is a viable option in my opinion.

"

I did the leads replacement by myself. It isn't an easy jpb, but on a Magna is hell of a lot easier than my Pajero. You have to remove the intake manifold to get access to the rear leads. Then you have to work out which lead goes where, but that isn't too bad if yoy do one at a time.



when you replaced them, did you cut the lpg supply line (for safety) and afterwards, did you have vacuum adjusment for the lpg line? I want to do it by my self as well, but someone told me that i need to qualify to do vacuum adjustment, as I would remove the output line hose from the vaporiser. thanks for sharing

Ryann2k1:
I replaced the high tension leads in both the Magna and Pajero several times. Removing the gas hose from the converter is no big deal - it is a worm drive hose clamp. I had to remove it from the mixer ring in order to remove the air intake hose to get access to the manifold. I didn't "cut the LPG supply line" at any time, although if you wanted to, you could close off the supply valve at the tank. I only did that when I was removing the LPG converter to access the timing belt.

The only time I touched the adjustments on the gas system was when I was having trouble with the Magna - it wouldn't idle and was performing terribly. It took a while - replacing spark plugs and all sorts of things (but not the HT leads (because they were Bosch and they were new!), but eventually I turned out the lights in the garage one night and started the engine. I could then see that my beautiful Bosch leads were like Sydney harbour Bridge on New Years Eve. SParks everywhere. A new set of leads and eveything was fine.

Ryann2k1:
I replaced the high tension leads in both the Magna and Pajero several times. Removing the gas hose from the converter is no big deal - it is a worm drive hose clamp. I had to remove it from the mixer ring in order to remove the air intake hose to get access to the manifold. I didn't "cut the LPG supply line" at any time, although if you wanted to, you could close off the supply valve at the tank. I only did that when I was removing the LPG converter to access the timing belt.

The only time I touched the adjustments on the gas system was when I was having trouble with the Magna - it wouldn't idle and was performing terribly. It took a while - replacing spark plugs and all sorts of things (but not the HT leads (because they were Bosch and they were new!), but eventually I turned out the lights in the garage one night and started the engine. I could then see that my beautiful Bosch leads were like Sydney harbour Bridge on New Years Eve. SParks everywhere. A new set of leads and eveything was fine.

wow.. Thank you for sharing your experience, especially with the fireworks. That would make me scared working on my car lpg line :(
Btw, when you removed the gas hose from the converter, no gas come out from the hose as that's the output of the converter? sorry to ask too many, I am just a novice, need to be really cautious.
Thanks erad.

Minor update on my Pajero valves. The exhaust valves are bent in one cylinder - hence 2 new valves on order. The others are in good ocndition - no signs of wear, gumming up or other problems. Valve seats etc are OK, The reason the valves are bent is entirely my fault (IDIOT!!!) but there is no damage elsewhere to the engine and everything else looks fine. This is after just on 250000 km, most of it running on gas. So I think that the engines are well suited to operation with gas. The only issues I have had bave been the ignition leads and spark plugs, but I have them sorted now and until stupid got to the engine, it was running really well.

thanks for sharing.