Finally I took the plunge and got my car converted to propane gas. This was not an easy decision to make because I had gotten many bad review from people who supposedly had talked to other experts on this issue. Then after unable to keep up with the rising prices of fuel, I had decided to do a research on my own. This time I talked to people who had actually done this conversion and were driving these cars 7 days / week for some time. Before I had only listened to opinions of people who had not converted their cars to this system, thus, they were telling me of what they thought of this conversion without having first hand experience. Now that I have converted my camry to this system, I think I am eligible to write a review.
Here is my review:
The installation was clean and very professional. No hanging tubes or pipes, all well fixed into place, almost seemed like a dealership installation. The tank (16 gallon) was installed deep inside my trunk so it robbed like 30% of my space. There is a gauge on the tank which shows the capacity of the gas inside the tank and also there is a 4 LED gauge inside the dashboard of the car which shows how much gas you have in the tank. The tank is hidden behind the carpet in the trunk so no one sees it. I still have enough space in the truck to put my stuff. The intake hose connector is under the car, under the back bumper so there is no need to open up the trunk to put propane gas in the tank.
I put in like around 800 pesos of gas that filled my 16 gallon tank to 80%. This is the maximum capacity of a 16 gallon tank (14 gallons) because the gas expands in hot temperatures so the safety valve doesn?t allow you to put in more then 14 gallon of gas in a 16 gallon tank. This is a safety measure only.
So when the car starts, it always starts in gasoline and then after 2000 RPM( engine revolutions) the car automatically switches to propane gas. You will feel a slight shifting in the car performance. To women, it will be totally unnoticeable but to guys like me, I felt the difference. The performance of the car degraded like maybe 5-8%. No big deal, like I said, 90% of the people won?t even know the difference. I did because I was looking for it. The engine runs fine but not as smooth as with gasoline but it does run smooth enough. The power seems to be at a slight loss when you are going up hill, but nothing to worry about. My car did shut off 2 times when I was at a stop light and then when I tried to accelerate the car, the engine shut off. This only happened twice in 3 days so I think a small adjustment will cure this problem. No big deal.
Now here is the big deal and here is what makes all the difference between choosing this system vs. leaving your car with the original gasoline system.
I filled up the tank (800 pesos) and drove my girlfriend to her house in las Colinas from gurabo, then I came back to my house, got dressed and went to a campo in moca to attend a wedding. This is after the airport and in moca entrance from auto pista Duarte. Then I returned home, A/C on all the time. Then today went to supermercado nacional then to my friend?s house, picked up 2 guys and went to sosua on the mountain road, a/c fully on and going up hill and down hill abusive driving which requires lots of pressing the gas peddle. We then came back from sosua , then I went to a propane gas station to fill up the tank again to see how much I have used up the gas in all this driving.
To my shock, The tank got filled up in just 311 pesos. Yes folks, all this driving in Santiago then to moca and then to sosua and back to Santiago, only set me back 311 pesos. I am sure the gasoline would have set me back 1500 pesos for sure. Minimum 1200 pesos.
So here is the difference in terms of savings. I am so glad I made this conversion. I highly recommend this conversion to anyone who is sick of paying such high price of gasoline. I know people who have had this system installed in their cars for over 5 yrs and they tell me their engines are still running strong.
Now there is a caution:
I have heard Dominican government will prohibit cars to fill up gas after the elections. They claim there is just not enough gas to fulfill the needs of all cars that are being run on propane. They will install chip in transportation cars (conchos, taxis) and only they would be allowed to use propane gas in cars, the rest can just go and bite the bullet. This is the rumor, so if I were you, I would wait till after the elections to see what happens. Maybe they will take off the subsidy and let the rest pay high price for propane. I am not sure which way this will swing. I know I will find a way to get that chip installed in my car and be ok with any changes that will take place.
AZB
Here is my review:
The installation was clean and very professional. No hanging tubes or pipes, all well fixed into place, almost seemed like a dealership installation. The tank (16 gallon) was installed deep inside my trunk so it robbed like 30% of my space. There is a gauge on the tank which shows the capacity of the gas inside the tank and also there is a 4 LED gauge inside the dashboard of the car which shows how much gas you have in the tank. The tank is hidden behind the carpet in the trunk so no one sees it. I still have enough space in the truck to put my stuff. The intake hose connector is under the car, under the back bumper so there is no need to open up the trunk to put propane gas in the tank.
I put in like around 800 pesos of gas that filled my 16 gallon tank to 80%. This is the maximum capacity of a 16 gallon tank (14 gallons) because the gas expands in hot temperatures so the safety valve doesn?t allow you to put in more then 14 gallon of gas in a 16 gallon tank. This is a safety measure only.
So when the car starts, it always starts in gasoline and then after 2000 RPM( engine revolutions) the car automatically switches to propane gas. You will feel a slight shifting in the car performance. To women, it will be totally unnoticeable but to guys like me, I felt the difference. The performance of the car degraded like maybe 5-8%. No big deal, like I said, 90% of the people won?t even know the difference. I did because I was looking for it. The engine runs fine but not as smooth as with gasoline but it does run smooth enough. The power seems to be at a slight loss when you are going up hill, but nothing to worry about. My car did shut off 2 times when I was at a stop light and then when I tried to accelerate the car, the engine shut off. This only happened twice in 3 days so I think a small adjustment will cure this problem. No big deal.
Now here is the big deal and here is what makes all the difference between choosing this system vs. leaving your car with the original gasoline system.
I filled up the tank (800 pesos) and drove my girlfriend to her house in las Colinas from gurabo, then I came back to my house, got dressed and went to a campo in moca to attend a wedding. This is after the airport and in moca entrance from auto pista Duarte. Then I returned home, A/C on all the time. Then today went to supermercado nacional then to my friend?s house, picked up 2 guys and went to sosua on the mountain road, a/c fully on and going up hill and down hill abusive driving which requires lots of pressing the gas peddle. We then came back from sosua , then I went to a propane gas station to fill up the tank again to see how much I have used up the gas in all this driving.
To my shock, The tank got filled up in just 311 pesos. Yes folks, all this driving in Santiago then to moca and then to sosua and back to Santiago, only set me back 311 pesos. I am sure the gasoline would have set me back 1500 pesos for sure. Minimum 1200 pesos.
So here is the difference in terms of savings. I am so glad I made this conversion. I highly recommend this conversion to anyone who is sick of paying such high price of gasoline. I know people who have had this system installed in their cars for over 5 yrs and they tell me their engines are still running strong.
Now there is a caution:
I have heard Dominican government will prohibit cars to fill up gas after the elections. They claim there is just not enough gas to fulfill the needs of all cars that are being run on propane. They will install chip in transportation cars (conchos, taxis) and only they would be allowed to use propane gas in cars, the rest can just go and bite the bullet. This is the rumor, so if I were you, I would wait till after the elections to see what happens. Maybe they will take off the subsidy and let the rest pay high price for propane. I am not sure which way this will swing. I know I will find a way to get that chip installed in my car and be ok with any changes that will take place.
AZB