e-gas system, switching to gas earlier

[jonathan_d]

I have a Saab 9-3 which I got cheaply and which has the obscure and I should think obsolete e-gas lpg system.

Believe it or not it generally works well with one niggle, it won’t switch to gas from cold until you’ve covered the better part of two miles (it also does won’t switch over when up to what it deems an acceptable temperature until the engine drops from above to below 2000rpm then it will run perfectly).

The car is a beater but if this is something that might be changeable I would invest in an interface cable (if I can find one!)

The engines thermostat is fine incidentally.

[Brian_H]

Try getting hold of the software, most will let you see what can be adjusted even without an ecu to connect to. I might have a copy of the software at home, but it looks like it can be found at https://projekt-tech.com/diagnostic-programs-pm-23.html

Of course it may also be the temp sensor isn't giving the right reading, though around 2 minutes doesn't sound too far out for 40 degree changeover.

[LPGC]

Be careful with Egas software, it is a bit buggy. If I had an Egas ECU, pressure sensor, switch and loom on my car and I didn't already have the Egas interface cable I might be tempted instead of buying the more expensive Egas interface cable to buy a different ECU, loom, switch and cheaper interface cable. As it happens I have cables for all systems including Egas and I might not change what isn't broken, but something even as trivial as this might otherwise make me make a different decision.

[Gilbertd]

I had an Egas system on a 4.0 litre Range Rover and that would change over to gas no problem at all after less than a mile when the coolant was up to about 40 degrees. But only after I'd repaired the connection to the temperature sensor. What annoyed me about it most was when starting from hot. There is obviously a time setting of, I suspect 60 seconds, so even though it was fully up to temperature it insisted on running on petrol for a minute before changing over. I never bought the proper cable for it but tried using a UART and managed to get something like a connection after trying about 6 different versions of the software but was never able to see anything useful. I removed the system and put it in a cardboard box (where it still lives) and sold the car with plugs in the manifold. Had I decided to install it on something else I would have kept the Matrix injectors and used a different ECU.

[jonathan_d]

Many thanks guys. It sounds like as it’s generally working well it would be best left alone! I might change the temperature sensor however if it’s available and cheap just in case that sorts it