LPG in 3.2JTS
greets from Berlin
am Alfa freak for years now, always discussing with my German colleagues and trying to explain them that having an Alfa is better than having an Beamer (had it, been there and never more for my own money, maybe if company pays)
at the moment having my 4th and 5th Alfa in life
started with 146 1.3 Boxer, then 156 1.6TS, then 159SW 2.2JTS, now having 3.2JTS Q4 Ti SW and (back to the roots) recently saved one only 53k km 146 1.6 Boxer.
had installed BRC LPG on first 3 cars (trying to afford this life-style), only one giving me a problems was the 2.2JTS engine (problem with overheating). find out that afterwards BRC stopped offering the equipment for JTS engines. Similar with the Landi Renzo, Viale, Prince.
It seams that JTS engines have few minor problems with gas:
- since having FCOC (fuel cooled oil cooler) if mostly running on LPG, oil does not contribute enough in cooling engine and overheat happens
- LPG has bigger energy value than petrol, therefore by burning developing more heat
- JTS engines run on so called "lean burn" principle, which means higher temps (even with the petrol) then the normal TSs and other engines
- am not sure if the fuel is used in engine head for cooling valve seats (like on, for example, Ford Z engines), any clue?
All this indicates that something special with the extra cooling has to be done.
Company Viale is having the solution to similar lean burn direct petrol injection engines from VW group (TSFI), but they still do not have dedicated solution for the JTS (unfortunately, JTS itself is not produced any more and ARs are definitly not manufactured as bloody VWs, so not great business case). But it seams that they have sorted out the problems.
I have started slowly to research more on this topic. It seams that LPG gives some 10% more heat energy (in total, meaning simply speaking that we need to improve the overall cooling for min 10%). Since most affected is the oil (due to FCOC principle), need to find out how to calculate what is the cooling loss due to reduced fuel flow. Also, need to find out where could make of-take for feeding extra ACOC (air cooled oil cooler) and the scavenge line back in the oil system.
My dealership in Berlin told me that they still offer BRC system with pre-warning that there are some troubles to expect (over-heating) and that they do not recommend it.
As you can see, am interested in converting my 3.2JTS since only thing that hurts me with it is the consumption (which I knew ahead, BUT with the prices and all of the technical benefits that LPG brings, still makes quite an improvement opportunity).
Hope that this explains a bit the problems and could ignite some brainstorming here how to sort this out.
Additional option is to start "molesting" VIALE with requests, maybe they decide to help us.
Best regards from Berlin
Preddy
