Hey guys, first off its been awhile since i last posted here and i could not log into my old account so i made a new one.

Like most of us ive come here with a problem and some of you guys know your fords pretty well so i might aswell pitch my problem at you guys and see if i can get some help .

i have a 98 model EL falcon , runs on duel fuel however i never run the petrol i allways use gas , Yesterday i was driving along at about 90/kph and the engine started to cut out when i gave it some gas , it happend more often and then it came to a stop . I got out and then opened the hood and saw that the GAS converter (i think thats what it is) was competely FROZEN , when i say FROZEN i mean it was hard white cold ICE. I looked at the car engine and im saying to myself that the car is running at normal temperature but this part of the car is completely frozen?? anyway i was shocked at what i saw , so i called NRMA road side assistance , the dude came and saw that i had no water in the car , i had NO idea after checking it about 4-5 days earlyer when it was full.

The NRMA guy said " You had no water, so no hot water was not warming up the gas and it froze, not to mention that your engine overheated "

i never knew that hot water warms the gas , and i thought when your engine heats the temperature gauge goes up, My car didnt show it was overheating at all. it was completely normal .

1. Car had no water (somehow lost all its water)
2. Gas thingy froze
3. Car temp was allways at normal level (but engine apparently overheated)

thats all i know atm , i sent my car to my mech but i wanted to know if any of you could piece together what might have happend, and ill compare it to what the mech will say.

Thanks in advanced.

the gas is really really cold when it's compressed into a liquid (which is the form it's kept in in the gas tank). This is because 1 particle of liquid lpg is 200 times smalled than when it is in gas form!

the hot engine water/coolant runs to the converter to keep it warm and stop it from freezing. without the water/coolant keeping the converter warm it'd freeze (as yours did). This is why some people find there lpg is nasty to run when the car is cold.

Your engine may not of overheated (he may of just assumed that) or your gauge may be dodgy. Anyways, make sure you get the cooling system checked aswell - there must be a leak or something there...

Your engine 'temp' is measured by your Coolant Temperature Sensor. If you have no coolant, how can it give an accurate measure of the temp? The temp reading you would be getting would be from the heated thermostat housing and probably some steam and water still circulating around.

twrcx's theory on why it froze isn't quite accurate, and I don't know it well enough to explain it accurately either, but its more to do with the liquid -> vapour conversion and pressure drop causing super cold temperatures, which of course why your engine coolant runs through your LPG converter - to keep it warm

I learned the same way as you did a couple of years ago when I bought my first LPG car. Fuzion was in the car with me and i'm like "OMG - the converter is WHITE!" hehe. Its the only way to learn!

haha yer, but what im worried about now is.....

If i had no water to warm the converter, and the car was NOT overheating, i could have burnt the engine without even knowing!!!

Assuming it's a factory LPG converter, there is a coolant chamber that has coolant running though. It's separated form the rest of the gas chambers by a rubber coated diaphragm. If the diaphagm has a hole in it, coolant can leak through the converter and eventually into the engine.

Most people don't notice this sort of problem until they have to keep topping up coolant but don't see a leak.

Waggin was on track, when the LPG vapourises from Liquid, the change in pressure causes a drop in temp. Like when you spray a heap of aerosol (like deodorant) onto your hand.

It's a fair chance that your converter and stepper motor (the black unit bolted to the converter) are gone. Unbolt the stepper motor and peek into the converter. See any coolant? Previously had red coolant? (!!!)

The engine should be OK - at least with the poor vapourisation you would have had, you would have been getting a way too rich mixture which would keep combustion temps down

ps. I don't have a smelly hand

I had this problem with my last converter, even though the hole was only small, when coolant went into the engine it caused the car to stall.

Thanks for your explination , and thanks to the other guys for the input.

ive had so many problems with cars and just when you THINK you have had every problem spaning from gearboxes to fuel , to body damage to suspension and braking , something like this comes and bites you on the a***.. It never sleeps i tell ya. i want friken sharks with friken laser beams attached to their heads....

I not going to add anything more, the other guys have explained your problem well.

Just one point when refilling your car with coolant, your converter is likely to be the highest part of the cooling system, this is where air bubbles can get trapped. you need to ensure that all air is out of the system, some converters have bleeders on them to get air out. If it doesn't you will need to try and get all the air out by running the engine at a fast idle with the radiator cap off until the thermostat is open. You will know the thermostat is open when the coolant in the header tank is hot.

quick question, has it happened whilst yoru aircon was on?

and would be advised to install a low level coolant switch and connect it up to the dash (quite easy to do) so least u know when u run out of water.

either its getting blocked or you have a slight slit or split on your hoses, my advice is to take off the hoses each end and feed water through and see if it comes through alright

if problem still keeps happening take it to someone local who does lpg (in SYd, try crescent motors) .. but everyone else explained it pretty well

Ok , the situation has changed.

It seems that i was loosing water from the headgasket. We did a presure test and water was leaking from the headgasket on the manifolds side. however i dont know how it lost that much water that quick. no water means the gas compressor froze. and may have also made the hole in the gasket larger.

So i guess i need to change the headgasket and check that the head is not cracked.

What would be the best thing to do, keep driving it till its completly fuked , or replace it while its still in the shop?

or should i trash the ford and buy something else?

Aircon was off ,

In order of what happend.

1. Checked water level 4 days before event.
2. Drove car twice after checking water , then left it over night.
3. Started car drove for about 5 min and the first cut outs happend.
4. Car shut off itself about 10 min from starting. ( did not overheat according to the water temp)
5. Open bonnet and find that the gas converter is frozen
6. call NRMA
7. NRMA finds that there is no coolent in the system.
8. Me <----------- WTF???
9. Tow to mech
10. Mech tells me that the headgasket is leaking .

So thats the way s**t happens.

Blardy leaking head gaskets, cant they find some new technology that will abolish headgaskets??????????

I'd be fixing it now, not waiting until its "completly fuked" if you continue it will only get worse, causing more damage and ultimately costing you more.

Yeah, I told my mechanic to go through with fixing the problem
Bout 500-600 for the headgasket and if the head is cracked an extra 250 or something like that.

thats a good price, I just picked mine up cost me $715. That included pressure test and machining of head, new valve stem seals, genuine gaskets etc and new head bolts.

take it down to crescent motors... or if youre looking for a cheap option, i'm sure one of the local sydney members will look after you ( I wont name any names, I'll let them offer)

hehe