1989 Discovery V8
01/01/00
This was my first V8, and first LPG conversion. I bought the vehicle in late 1999 and converted it in early 2000. Back then, LPG was this strange stuff no-one had heard of and so V8 Land Rovers & Range Rovers took a beating on their values due to the running costs - as a result, I recon I saved about £1200 by getting this V8 instead of a similar Tdi. Since the conversion kit cost about £700, and the running costs after that were similar, this seemed a good deal at the time (and still does).
You can see what few picture I have in this photo page, note that I lost precisely ZERO boot space from this conversion since the tank was mounted underneath.
About the tanks: As you will see from the photos, they aren’t very visible ! I did some measuring up and figured that as I didn’t need to carry 20 gallons of expensive petrol around, I could re-use some of the vast space taken by the tank. I chose a 50l cylinder with my kit, and mounted it across between the chassis rails, and then fabricated the stainless steel petrol tank you can see to fit in the space that remained.
However, only 40l of usable gas was a bit limiting on range, and I later added a pair of sill tanks which took my range (on gas alone) up to about 250 miles. If that wasn’t enough then I could take a cylinder and hand pump with me, or use the 8 gallon petrol tank.