Just wondered... what of LPG? It's becoming very popular round here.

Is there any special problems with converting rotary engines... and what of the ECU? Does it need to be remapped or not?

Don't think I'd do it... at least not right away, but it's somthing to think about anyway.

i really don't recognize that acronym... what does it stand for??

Originally posted by wakeech
i really don't recognize that acronym... what does it stand for??

He must be talking about Liquid Propane Gas that some countires use as fuel along with gasoline and diesel. But I don't know of any vehicles that use it here in the US.

Liquid Petrolium Gas... Basiclly propane...

Is sold along with Petrol and Diesel in a growing number of filling stations here... somthing like 30% now. It's less than half the price of unleaded and conversions are about £1000... you retain your regular fuel tank and gain an additional LPG tank and a switch on the dash...

Most petrol cars can be converted with a fairly simple kit, and most don't even need an ECU change as far as I know..... You get 90-95% performance for less than half the cost... My Landrover 110 3.5 Litre V8 costs about the same to run on LPG as a petrol car that does 40Mpg...

All the american car clubs here do conversions, especially V8 trucks... because it's so much cheaper.

I just wondered if there was any special issues with the rotary...

Propane is actually very well suited to a rotary, especially if turbocharged. Oh, and if you live in California, it doesn't even require a cat because there are very few emissions. It's perfect!

OK so just for fun I want to revive this thread and see were we are at 7 years later.

Here what I found and it looks interesting. But I am still learning on the difference between a rotary and a piston engines.

So lets hear everyones input.

http://autoparts.rasoenterprises.com/product_info.php?osCsid=c426050851166d054e0f40f919 9ef4c1&currency=USD&cPath=3_56_38_49&products_id=137&osCsid=c426050851166d054e0f40f9199ef4c1

seems pretty interesting...IDK if we'll ever see it mass produced but possibly

So I have done a little more research and it looks like with our cars. If you drive only 30 miles a day, It would take more than a year to recover the cost of putting the conversion in your car.

But I also read that with LP it give you a octane of 110 and release no carbon into the combustion chamber when burned. So it should produce more HP.

Any thoughts?

http://www.cngprices.com/cng_links.php

^well there would be no need for 110 octane unless we're running crazy amounts of boost! however the NO CARBON idea I like alot...maybe this would be a breakthrough to bring the reliability up for the rotary...

My opinion would be that if I could get 300k or more miles out of my motor with LP then even me driving about 20 miles a day at least if would be worth it because that fact that I could keep my car for 10 yrs and not have to worry about it....same aspect of a diesel most ppl that buy those new keep them for 250k or more and can easily go 500k on the motor!

Maybe thisin the 16x from the factory? haha

Seems interesting


Edit:

Looking at other cars' setups.. I don't know where the heck you could fit the giant explosive tanks in an RX8..

Well a 40 lb tank would fit under the rear deck in the trunk. It is the equivalent to 10 gallons.

I have also read that there is anywhere from zero lost in mpg to 10%.

LP is selling for about $1.30 per gallon.

On a 13 gallon fill up that is about $1.60 per gallon savings. If you use 13 gallons per week you save $20.80 a week. Times that by 52 weeks a year and you get a savings of $1081.60

So it would take about a year and half to recover the invesment of the set up to go to an LP bi-fuel system.

It would be ideal if you were FI. When the gas expands it gets cold. You could eliminate the intercooler.

Well a 40 lb tank would fit under the rear deck in the trunk. It is the equivalent to 10 gallons.

I have also read that there is anywhere from zero lost in mpg to 10%.

LP is selling for about $1.30 per gallon.

On a 13 gallon fill up that is about $1.60 per gallon savings. If you use 13 gallons per week you save $20.80 a week. Times that by 52 weeks a year and you get a savings of $1081.60

So it would take about a year and half to recover the invesment of the set up to go to an LP bi-fuel system.

With the added benefits of no carbon to worry about, no emissions (cat will never fail, or just don't run a cat), and a much lower chance of flooding (unless you somehow completely displace all the oxygen).

Also, gas near me is $3.09 now, so that's about twice as much the cost of LP for me =\

^yeah unfortunately gas is on the rise again....i was liking it around the 2 dollar mark....A yr and a half to pay for the system wouldn't b bad at all.....I mean half the price of gas I use about 50 bucks a week or so in gas so that's be about 25 a week...I'd b happy with that!

^yeah unfortunately gas is on the rise again....i was liking it around the 2 dollar mark....A yr and a half to pay for the system wouldn't b bad at all.....I mean half the price of gas I use about 50 bucks a week or so in gas so that's be about 25 a week...I'd b happy with that!

Only issues I could see is lubrication of the seals. We can't pre-mix with this modification =p

Only issues I could see is lubrication of the seals. We can't pre-mix with this modification =p

Well remember this is a bi-fuel system so you could run gas every once in a while and LP the other times.

I think it is interesting.

I don't know if I would have the guts to do it. So how putting a turbo on a car seems natural, but putting something other than gasoline in it seems strange. The only real draw back I have seen is there is not an LP station on every corner to fill up at. To always save money.

Well remember this is a bi-fuel system so you could run gas every once in a while and LP the other times.

I think it is interesting.

I don't know if I would have the guts to do it. So how putting a turbo on a car seems natural, but putting something other than gasoline in it seems strange. The only real draw back I have seen is there is not an LP station on every corner to fill up at. To always save money.

That would be the major issue I'd have with it, the lack of fuel stations. I'm not willing to buy propane tanks just to fuel the car, no matter how much cheaper. It's not entirely fun to handle 40lb tanks of propane, let alone making sure I don't leak one in my garage.