The SVS light is otherwise known as the Service Vehicle Soon light. It indicates that there’s something wrong with the car’s engine management (in the case of your Statesman). In this make and model, it’s often triggered by a faulty oil-pressure sensor which is relatively cheap and easy to replace.

But that shouldn’t cause the misfire. Which means you need to look further and that would start by giving the car an electronic scan. It’s worth knowing that these engines used spark plugs that required replacement at 80,000km intervals. These won’t cause the computer to log a fault code, but they do fail remarkably reliably at this mileage, and a misfire is the first symptom.

OPINION varies on the suitability of the Alloytec V6 for conversion to LPG. Holden is adamant that the engine needs the hardened valves and valve seats it fits to its LPG-compatible 175kW engine. Reports suggest that heads require rebuilds as low as 50,000km when you run the standard Alloytec engine on LPG. Some converters will tell you there is no problem, and that they have successfully converted a number of Commodores. The best policy would be to have hardened valves and valve seats fitted and a sequential-injection LPG system fitted.

LIKE all carmakers, Holden advises against converting their cars to LPG unless the engine has been modified by the factory. But there are plenty of LPG specialists who will convert your car to dual-fuel. Impco has an excellent dual-fuel system for the 5.7-litre V8 using Sequential Gas Injection.