Our life depends on gasoline. But not now. Our beloved Alpina was transferred to gas and now its consumption, along with our costs, has sharply reduced. Given how much we paid for fuel this month, it is equivalent to the fact that we went on gasoline with an average consumption of 8. 3 l/100 km. Simply put, by going to gas, we managed to halve the consumption in comparison with gasoline. We already managed to calculate that, having passed 2450 km, we will fully pay for the installation of gas equipment with the money that would go to gasoline. It is amazing how easy it is to travel to the limit with a powerful V8 under the hood, but at the same time pay for the ridiculous amounts of bills for fuel. We embellish? This is us? Back!
The CLS Dual Fuel, which is in Ginor, next to the derby,. For all work on installing gas equipment, CLS guys spent only three days. Given the luggage department of our Alpina, we had several options for installing the tank for explosive fuel: there was an option to install the cylinder in place of the spare wheel, and the tank would resemble the tank in the shape. The plus of this option is that the car does not lose at all a gasoline in the capacity of the trunk. There was also an option to install a full-fledged 80-liter cylinder, which would be located right behind the backs of the rear passenger seats and occupied the lion’s share of the luggage compartment. It was on this option that we stopped. Let it take up a lot of space — because it is precisely what we did not take the station wagon. In addition, such a cylinder leaves a “spare wheel”, and a larger volume of the tank for blue fuel, compared to the “bagel”, increases the stroke reserve.
Of course, in addition to the bannal installation of the cylinder, it was necessary to make other changes that are very difficult, as it seems at first glance. Along with a rather simple installation of new equipment in the trunk, new fuel elements, a gas reducer, as well as special gas nozzles were installed. The standard electronic unit was “reflash”, because the standard ECU from Alpina is not adapted to work with gas. All this pleasure cost us ‡ 2408 — a lot, you must agree, but given that this equipment was installed in a large sedan with a large engine, we are sure that when reselling, if it takes place, we will not lose at all, but vice versa. Having analyzed the market, we realized that with the installed equipment for gas work, we will be able to significantly “inflate” the price of Alpina when selling — the win will be about ‡ 6800 — a significant amount, given how much we will save during the “blue fuel” trips themselves.
By installing the system on Alpina and having a first test drive, we did not feel the difference between what the engine consumes. Turning the key, start-absolutely no difference: it is not clear whether the car is driven by gas, or 98th gasoline v Power. The engine makes the same sound — the bass growl of a powerful V8 with deep bottoms.
The work algorithm is as follows — at the start, the engine first consumes gasoline. After a couple of minutes, when the motor warms up, if you listen, you can hear a click of solenoid — this means that the car switched to more economical fuel. The automatic switch is engaged in this, so we did not have to remember a new ritual of handling the machine. You can identify the inclusion of a new regime in a different way-looking at the exhaust pipe. When you notice a short interruption of the outgoing pair, then know that the fuel mode LPG, that is, gas turned on. If you yourself want to turn on another mode, say, switch from gas to gasoline, then it will be enough for you to click on a small green button near the gearbox lever. If the button is illuminated in red, then you are on gasoline, if pleasant green, it was not easy to guess: on gas. Four lights next to the button signal how the tank is filled. Damn it, how simple everything!!!
At the moment, the average gas consumption is 16 l/100 km. Recall that on gasoline fuel consumption was about 13 l/100 km on average, but thanks to the cheapness of gas (the lowest price we found — 53 pence) we spend on every one and a half kilometers of only 14 pence — this is about 8 pence less It was before. The average supply of one full refueling is 420 km. Of course, the gas stations have significantly more frequent, but if you refue both tanks — gas and gas — then the margin will increase to 1000 km. Not bad, especially if you need to go for a long time and quickly.
So far, the new type of fuel has not caused us any problems. The main gas stations at which you can refuel gas are already in the database of the Tom Tom navigator and in the databases of other navigation systems (in particular, this is Garmin and Navman). The process of refueling with new fuel did not cause any hostility or difficulties — we are quickly used to hissing gas at the gas station and its rather pungent smell. The payment process, fortunately, has not undergone any changes. We begin to guess — why all motorists do not go to gas.