Converting a head to unleaded

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jackkelleher
Minor Fan
Posts: 438
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:08 pm
Location: The good ol' US of A...
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Post by jackkelleher »

40? Wow, that's impressive, even for a Minor! I had heard of cars on LPG, but I thought it was a fairly modern thing... For some reason the idea of a classic on LPG never crossed my mind.
That's interesting, though. My brother has a Land Rover Stage One V8 (1981) which gets really poor consumption, might be worth looking into this!
Is rust infectious? My hands are turning red...
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bmcecosse
Minor Maniac
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Post by bmcecosse »

The exhaust valves can be later Mini ones if you want - but you would need the later type collets and caps to go with them ! All valves need grinding in - and all can be refaced. The difference in the newer Mini valves 'hardness' is very slight - if anything! Just pop your valves out and then see what state the seats and valves are in. Chances are - a quick grind-in will be all that's needed.
Petrol (gas!) is so cheap in USA that LPG is not going to be worth it for you. It only works here because of massive TAX load on our liquid fuels, and very much less on LPG. LPG actually has about 10% less calorific value, and so the engine will usually need to burn 11% more fuel to get the same result as on petrol. If the engine is specially adapted to run only on LPG (v high comp ratio and optimised ignition timing) then there can be an efficiency gain which just about offsets the CV loss - but then it can't run on petrol which can be a nuisance at times !
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