Go LPG! Research

Go LPG Research - Maserati Maserati 2.8 V6 Bi - Turbo ..........on GAS! John Murphy of Bristol contacted us with an unusual conversion request - The Maserati Bi (twin) Turbo V6 2.8 litre 430 Saloon, 350 BHP's of pure race bred muscle. The car accelerates like a catapult and can best be described as savage. Torque is massive when the twin tubos 'kick in'. Would this be a car that could be successfuly converted to run on LPG? Most of the other companies he approached said 'No!', and some turned and ran.....! We thought it was worth a shot for the research value alone. Steve discussed it with John and the decision was made to work on the car in the quiet periods only, and that it might take some time.... Much experimentation followed and many mock - up conversions were performed, using a portable tank and twin balanced vaporisers. This brought some success, but one thing bothered us. The car had a propensity for backfiring on petrol, and it was also evident that at some time in the past it had blown both its air filter box and intercoolers apart - NOT a good place to be starting from when performing an LPG conversion! The risk that John could be left with a car disabled by a huge blowback on LPG (it would not then run on petrol or gas) was too great and we advised him of this. The decision was made to carry on but change tack a little, and use multi-point sequential gas injection, reducing the blowback risks to the same level as he already ran, i.e. on petrol. The injection equipment received much careful fitting, with very special attention being paid to the injectors themselves. The RPM signal was too weak to run the system and an amplifier was made up to suit the twin coil and twin spark ignition. It worked. After much mapping (modifying the supporting software that controls the injection) the car was ready for the road.... What would the results be? Staggering! The engine performed just as it did on petrol, acceleration was blistering and no nasties at all. That wasn't enough. A day was spent with someone driving the car in all types of traffic situation whilst Steve polished and adjusted the map on the laptop, real time. John came to pick the car up, and remarked that Go LPG had had the car longer than he had actually owned it..... But when he drove it, he agreed that it was worth the wait! Here are some pictures of John's Maserati conversion - The petrol filler on the Maserati is nicely placed high in the offside rear wing. The cover is held closed by a catch which is released by a touching a switch on the dashboard. The Maserati stylist decided that the car would benefit if the high filler flap were 'mirrored' by placing a dummy filler on the nearside wing (nice bit of symmetry!). This was done by using the same aluminum bezel as used on the offside, and a dummy filler flap. The centre mounted Maserati 'M' finished the job. This presented us with a wonderful opportunity to hide the LPG filler underneath the dummy flap and place it at a nice comfortable height. A lever judiciously prized off the dummy flap, and a couple of hours later the LPG filler was installed in an ideal position. To finish off, the dummy flap was bonded to the standard LPG filler dust cap. To fill up, the combined filler / flap assembly is turned with friction on the palm of the hand, and there it is...( you don't even have to bend down!) John now fills with petrol on the right and LPG on the left.........Guess which side is his favourite........? And now to the business end..... Here is the V6 beast. The two large bore chrome pipes are the turbo boosted air inlets from the intercoolers. The LPG injection vaporiser is ringed in red. Three of the six injectors are shown ringed in this picture, positioned very close to the petrol injectors and mounted directly on the fuel rail. Nowadays, its a dual fuel rail. Latest news .......... Since having his car converted, John has carefully checked his fuel consumption for mixed urban, rural and Motorway driving - Petrol = 17.6 MPG LPG = 16.5 MPG Not bad! John has joined 'Countrywide', a scheme that provides its members with LPG at .30p per litre, along with a credit card style pass that allows one to use their pumps 24 Hrs a day. When we get full details of how to join this scheme, Go LPG! will be joining and we'll put the details on the website for you too. Anyone that wants to contact John may do so on his E mail address [email protected] but please don't spam!

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