Propane for fuel in flattie

[krackerjack1951]

has the idea really been perfected...any comments welcome..i entertained the idea about 20 years ago..not enough interest when fuel was buck a gallon...is there a few that succeeded?? TIA!

[ford1]

you see a lot of them on fork lifts in enclosed buildings, have seen them on construction trucks and farm tractors, propane is almost as expensive as gas now, its hard to just go anywhere and find a place that carries propane, inconvient as hell, and the carbs have a tendency to freeze uo in cold climates un less you get the real expensive set up with the de-icer, and i dont like driving around with a presserised bomb in my car, so yes they have been perfected, but are they safe? not in my opinion

[Scott De Shields]

Had propane set up in 40 coupe that my grandfather installed in the late fifties. He was running SBC engine and was duel fuel for a while. Tank took up too much trunk space and found out that steel plate needed to be installed between tank in trunk and passenger area. Car does not idle well until water is up to running temperature because regulatlor is water heated to converted propane from liquid to gas. Since I inherited it that way I drove it for about 20 years until I decided to go back to a flatty engine. Yes it can be inconvient at times but can be quite a conversion getter.

[ford38v8]

Propane may become our only way to stay on the road if the greenies succeed in their efforts to outlaw low tech gasoline engines. We'll start seeing conversions before too long, I think.

[Scott De Shields]

Instead of propane how about natural gas conversions?

[Krylon32]

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For several years there was a 40 coupe in our area that had a turbocharged flathead running propane.

[rotorwrench]

When I was still up in natural gas country, we ran all the irrigation engines on it. The power level is a little lower like alcohol is but the stuff is still pretty cheep. It's just that no one is willing to develop the stuff for major automobile use. I can guarantee however that it will be all we have when everything else gets too expensive. Oil companies don't want to develop it. They have a market for it heating homes & powering industry where it is available and don't want to go big time with it yet. If a good fuel cell is ever developed, it will likely be the fuel to use in the future. All the others will be more expensive to produce

Kerby

[BIG MIKE]

I got it! cut a hole in your floorboards and go Fred Flintstone style

[biggeorge]

Propane is 4.25 a unit (gal) and gas is $3,65 Here in the north eastern part of Mass. I just don't see the benefit.

[ford38v8]

The benefit will be self apparent when they outlaw low tech gasoline engines. It's coming, one day we'll have to go alternative to keep our cars on the road.

[48-710]

Down here in Australia most,if not all taxi cabs, run on propane through EFI engines. But just to confuse things a little we call it gas because we use petrol instead of what you call gas . You can buy gas (propane) from most service stations out of a bowser. It's approx half the price of petrol,which is at approx A$ 1.35 per litre, at the moment . In my town there are a few street rods that run on gas (propane) due to registration factors. Emmisions etc .Gas tanks have a use by date which helps with the safety factor. The fitting of gas units,which comes with a government rebate,is done by state registered fitters and is highly policed.

[40 Deluxe]

As far as a natural gas conversion, Don't! It's been done by Ford, GM and Chrysler, most about 10-12 years ago, as I recall. There are a lot of F-150's, Cavaliers and unknown (to me) Dodge models that were built to run on either natural gas (CNG) or gasoline. Ford sold CNG-only Crown Vics to some police departments. The Cavaliers had a big high pressure (3600 PSI) tank taking up trunk space and had a hiway range of about75-80 miles before switching to gasoline-just what you need in rural Arizona! F-150's had a bigger tank taking up almost a fourth of the bed space and could maybe go 90-100 miles. The CNG only posice cars were notorious for runniing out of fuel long before the shift was over or during a pursuit- "Hey, bad guy! Pull over and wait. I've got to go get more CNG." Power is down also. To completely refill a CNG tank, it takes several hours of slow pumping. Trying to fast fill results in too much heat buildup (compressing a gas causes heat, which increases pressure in the tank. The tank is full at 3600 PSI but after cooling down the pressure drops, so now the tank is no longer full). A fast fill (15 min.) is common, biut the bad guy still gets away as range is even less. We still have a bunch af these in the AZ state fleet, but very few have ever been run on CNG. Check around: see how many places sell CNG for automotive fuel!
You also need a hotter ignition system; much hotter than any flathead ever had! The above-mentioned vehicles all have computer controlled fuel systems, complete with bugs.

[Fe26]

As 48-710 says Taxis run on it over here without any problems at all, and you oughta see how taxi drivers drive in Sydney.

It's cheaper, cleaner in the engine, for flatties you don't even have to change the valve seats, better for the environment (so you can look your kids in the eye and get that warm fuzzy feeling that somehow your doing your wee bit).

As flatties are so small in cubes it's fairly easy to take the LPG system of a forklift and transfer it over to your car. The only downside is the size of the tank. I've been toying with the idea of making a tank that would replace the existing petrol tank.

This is the way of the near future. When the US government finally removes your massive fuel subsidy and drivers have to pay what fuel really costs plus tax (like the rest of the world, am I jealous, hell yes), you will find the cheap way to go will be gas.

[coupe5w36]

Most of the flattie powered Fords that I'm aware of running lpg do so in the context of alternating "dual fuel" ie one tank of petrol, two tanks of lpg, one tank of petrol etc. The only one I'm aware of that ran straight lpg (a '46 Mercury coupe with an 8BA Merc motor) totally self destructed about 12 months after being put on the road. Lpg is a "dry" fuel. The same Merc is now running a fresh 8BA on straight petrol.

[Ray With]

Originally Posted by biggeorge

Propane is 4.25 a unit (gal) and gas is $3,65 Here in the north eastern part of Mass. I just don't see the benefit.

Hard to believe there is that much difference in fuel cost. Right now our gas here is $3.31 a gallon and under contract I pay $1.90 for propane. A few of the stations are still at $3.51 a gallon on gas but that about as high as I have seen in lately.

[ken1939]

Originally Posted by biggeorge

Propane is 4.25 a unit (gal) and gas is $3,65 Here in the north eastern part of Mass. I just don't see the benefit.

The cost savings is equated to when you purchase volume of LPG at one time. So if you filled up a 30 Gal tank, it would be less than $4.25 a gallon.

[ken1939]

The things to remember about running LPG are the following:

Lower BTU Ratings mean that you will use more fuel to go the same distance with gasoline. Say 30% less mileage than gas.

Second is where do you refuel if you go on a long trip. Our friends in Australia have this available, as they run straight LPG, Dual Fuel (both petrol and lpg) and just Petrol. Find your Uhauls along your route.

The larger the tank the better. Size matters. Since you have less mileage, you want to make up for it in capacity. Fit what size tank you can, however, you may give up trunk space. I like a 30 Gal tank to start. Here is a link that may be helpful:

http://www.rasoenterprises.com/index...rers&Itemid=48

I have nothing against using LPG. Its much easier to set up on a carbureted engine, and can be done on fuel injected engines like my 05 Focus, but you have to cut into your wire harness. I think you would be best served doing one or the other. Dual fuel is a tad more work.

I would like to do a car down the road with LPG actually. I may import a Aussie BA Falcon Ute down the road and want to look at a LPG version.

One of the other benefits is the engine takes less of a beating with LPG than gasoline.

I would stay away from Natural Gas, more work, more expensive.

[G.M.]

Don't forget when compareing fuels that there is a high tax on road fuels. Is LPG or NG less expensive when tax is added?? G.M.

[Krylon32]

Road taxed propane in this area is about 60/70 cents cheaper than gas. Also I used to run several propane irrigation engines and we used a OH valve lubricator suce as Marvel Mystery Oil to lube the valves because the propane was such a dry fuel!

[krackerjack1951]

are any aussies running LPG in flattie applications,sibsidised by gov???..i would like contact on suppliers of set up for flattie..i might give it a whirl. might catch on in USA until the gov.uncle sap and friends ban it ! TIA!