Holden Calais Engine Problems

I am assuming the engine was a second-hand one and there was no guarantee on it or the work done by the mechanic. If that is the case you are relying on the goodwill of the mechanic to do the 'right' thing and have little other claim. The best thing to do would be to talk to the mechanic about your expectations and try to reach an agreement on the cost to carry out the subsequent repairs. If you can't reach a satisfactory agreement you could try your consumer affairs people, or take the mechanic to your small claims tribunal. If there was a guarantee on the engine or the work make a claim on that.

The backfire you are hearing is the gas igniting in the intake manifold, which is quite common with cars running on LPG. A random spark usually causes it, and the plug leads usually cause that. It's not the LPG. I'd take it back to the installer and get his help.

It's best to choose a reputable brand, one that has been on the market for some time, and it should be a sequential injection system. Holden uses an Impco system, and that's certainly one to consider, but there are others as well. To find an installer go to the LPG system manufacturers' websites and get the list of their accredited people. It's always a good idea to talk to other people who have made the same conversion you are planning, and get their recommendations on systems and installers.

There was a problem with the early Calais and there was a software fix developed to take care of it. It wouldn't have been a sudden loss of battery charge, but a steady drain that would ultimately mean there wasn't sufficient charge to start the car. I would have expected the fix to be automatically installed in your car when it went to the dealer for its regular servicing. It certainly should have been if you had complained about the previous times the battery went flat.

It's a little higher than I would expect, but roof racks and bikes carriers would have an adverse effect of the fuel consumption, and it would be even more affected by carrying bikes.

I believe Orbital supplies the HSV system and I can't think of any reason that you couldn't fit an Orbital system to your car. It would have to be tuned differently, of course, because your engine is different to the HSV one. There are other liquid-injection systems available, as well as some very well developed vapour-injection systems. One you could check out is the Impco system. The beauty of injection systems is that you can tune them to produce the same performance on LPG and on petrol. Without being exact you could expect to recover the cost of installing a system in around 18 months.

You don't say by how much it has crept up and whether it's been a gradual increase or a sudden jump, but Holden's claim for town running was 15.0 L/100 km for a 1999 VT V8 and 13.5 L/100 km for a later VX V8. If it's running well and still packs a powerful punch you should look at those items that might affect the tuning of the engine. Replace the spark plugs, the plug leads, the air filter, perhaps clean the throttle body and give it a good run to blow out any carbon build-up.

THE Australian LPG Warehouse has a kit available for your car, so give it a call on 9770 2287.

HOLDEN couldn't tell me how much improvement you get going from unleaded to premium, but they did tell me the fuel economy figure they quote is achieved on premium and is the best they could achieve from their testing. They didn't have the actual performance figures either, but their engineers say the improvement is in the order of a few per cent. From that you'd think it isn't a lot and would lead me to think it isn't worth the extra few cents premium costs.