Propane powered DD *Spark Plug, and mounting questions*

[NEK5]

Anyone here running one?

What are you looking at for mileage?

Stock motor?

I've always thought about it, but my buddys is thinking about it too, so I'm just curious.

 

[dfl701]

I'm right there with you. I wanna convert mine I just haven't researched it enough

 

[NEK5]

After doing a little reading on GotPropane.com, it seems as thought it will work on "stock" motors.

I just want to know, if I were to do it, would I have issues on my motor, running vortec heads, mild comp cam, edelbrock vortec eps intake, etc.

 

[dfl701]

I know you can't runfuel injection with their kit. I think muddermilitia said you can piece it together yourself for like 200$. I can't remember tho

 

[clarkjw24]

I've got pane on my "stockish" motor. 72 4 bolt main, stock bore, big comp cam, Edelbrock air gap intake, headers. Nothing fancy about my heads. Runs good. A hot spark would be nice and also new dist curve springs to make the advance kick in sooner.

 

[dfl701]

Did you buy a kit of put it together yourself?

 

[abig84]

they just did the whole show on "trucks" today on spike about changing to propane... they really didnt specify the cost. they said the cost per gallon is cheaper then gas and said they get about 500miles to a full tank. but the tank was huge. had to have been at least a 55 gallon tank. and nothing about the price of the unit either

 

[dfl701]

I meant to watch that but I forgot

 

[clarkjw24]

Did you buy a kit of put it together yourself?

I bought a used kit. Had to rebuild the evaporator and I bought new lines. You can do it for around $300 to $500 thats including tanks.

 

[dfl701]

That's really good. I wanna do the conversion to my truck

 

[ktmoutfront]

My dad did R&D on a 73 3/4ton 454 chevy in 73. The RV industry was worried that gas would hit $1 a gallon and the RV market would go away.

The goal was to get as much HP and MPG as regular gas. He ended up with pop up pistons, cam, head work. I could not tell you how many times he had that engine out. When he was done, he had 2 30 gallon LPG tanks under the bed and a 70 PU gasoline tank behind the seat. Propane was too hard to find.

The truck did not have quite the HP as gas when pulling 16,000lb trailer so he switched to gas for the hills. I bought the truck in 1986 with 145,000 miles on it. No other engine work had been done.

When I towed my boat, I had to switch to propane to get up the hills because gasoline had turned to crap. The oil always looked new at 4,000 mile changes. Finally had a head gasket start leaking at 210,000 miles. Figured a full rebuild was in order.

After going through everything with a mic and GM specs, I replaced all bearings to stock, ball honed the cylinders, new cam and lifters and new gaskets.

The motor now has 310,000+ miles last time I talked to the owner. He took the LPG off. It went in the trash.

If you can find LPG as a motor fuel it is close to $4 a gallon. With gas at $1.55, I do not see the need.

 

[dfl701]

Gas wiki seen be right back to 4$ and oh get a rebate for having a "clean fuel" truck. I priced propane out a couple of months ago when it was cheaper than gas and I could get a tank filled for 2$ half the price of gas. So it's def worth it IMO

 

[ktmoutfront]

Propane aint that cheap here. Its $3.85 plus the state motor fuel tax. Would be worth it.

 

[dfl701]

You should be a break though also if you ran it in your truck. I dot know he much it cost here in Alabama right now

 

[ktmoutfront]

No breaks for propane. I was in Ca. at the time. I had to start smogging the truck in 96. The guy ran his Cadi. because mine did not have enough emissions to read.

 

[Thunder]

You might want to check with your local propane supplier If you are converting because propane is cheaper than gas. Yes its cheaper to fill a portable tank, RV, or Home. But in many states once they hook up the hose to a vehicle for use as fuel. You have to pay all the same taxes as regular motor fuels. Many times it makes the propane cost more than gasoline. Some propane companies wont even fill vehicles for use as motor fuel because they dont want to deal with the extra tax issues and hassles.
Of course if your tank was easy to remove and was taken down to be filled as a portable tank

 

[dfl701]

Ha I thougt about that also. Hmmm but I called and it's cheaper all together than gas. So I guess it depends on your location

 

[6.2Blazer]

You get either slightly less fuel economy and/or slightly less power if you take the exact same engine and compare it between propane and gas. Propane has less BTU's (energy content) than gas, period. So it either takes more propane to get the same power thus resulting in lower fuel economy, or if you use the same amount of propane you will have less power.

Now I'm not saying the difference is huge either way, but it is there.

The biggest thing that would concern me would be refueling. Not like there are places that will refuel a truck on every corner like a gas station (at least around here).

 

[dfl701]

Yea there's only a few places where I live

 

[clarkjw24]

I take mine off the rig and to a propane supplier or in the winter time I can leave it out by my large home propane tank and the guy fills them up. He'll do whatever is out there, grill tanks and fork truck tanks. No questions asked and its added the monthly pane bill.