Propane engines....
I was re-reading an old article in Mothorhome Magazine where an engineer was discussing the feasibility of replacing the gas engines in rv's with propane powered engines. Anybody have any recent data...
Forum Discussion
How many of you folks have owned, driven, and maintained a motor vehicle with a dedicated LPG motor fuel engine? With 100,000+ miles of "experience" plus the added at-no-extra-cost bonus of having done all of the conversions myself I am firmly convinced that LPG has "it's place" and is suitable for a small minority of applications as a main motor vehicle fuel source. Almost all of the so-called technical articles I read about LPG motor fuel conversion were biased.
Why did I do "it"?
For decades, gasoline in Mexico was a joke. Seventy or eighty octane at best. Dirty, and the dispensers were rigged. So LPG (butane in the tropics) was a viable option. So I converted. My one-ton had a pair of 83 gallon motor fuel tanks crosswise in the bed vertically stacked.
I had to spend A TON of money having an engine specially built for LPG use. 12.5 to 1 compression, a special camshaft, fuel injection cylinder heads with giant valves, hardened exhaust AND intake valve seat inserts. A huge tubular aluminum intake manifold and 2-1/2" exhaust. It all worked but there were catches - like the four hundred dollar five tube count radiator with 32 fins per inch. The engine oil cooler. The engine STILL ran warm when the weather got hot.
With ALL of the modifications, the engine had a power level similar to that of a standard Chevy 350 engine. It got decent mileage, around 12mpg empty. But I learned LPG fuel engines tend to leak a lot more oil. So I had to tear things down and use a two hundred dollar silicone rubber racing engine gasket kit to stop oil leakage.
With decent gasoline being introduced with MAGNA SIN back in the early 90's, the "need" of my using LPG vanished.
In February 1995 in the midst of a peso devaluation I paid the equivalent of thirteen cents a gallon for butane. Those days are long gone. LPG costs two dollars fifty cents a gallon now.
Why did I do "it"?
For decades, gasoline in Mexico was a joke. Seventy or eighty octane at best. Dirty, and the dispensers were rigged. So LPG (butane in the tropics) was a viable option. So I converted. My one-ton had a pair of 83 gallon motor fuel tanks crosswise in the bed vertically stacked.
I had to spend A TON of money having an engine specially built for LPG use. 12.5 to 1 compression, a special camshaft, fuel injection cylinder heads with giant valves, hardened exhaust AND intake valve seat inserts. A huge tubular aluminum intake manifold and 2-1/2" exhaust. It all worked but there were catches - like the four hundred dollar five tube count radiator with 32 fins per inch. The engine oil cooler. The engine STILL ran warm when the weather got hot.
With ALL of the modifications, the engine had a power level similar to that of a standard Chevy 350 engine. It got decent mileage, around 12mpg empty. But I learned LPG fuel engines tend to leak a lot more oil. So I had to tear things down and use a two hundred dollar silicone rubber racing engine gasket kit to stop oil leakage.
With decent gasoline being introduced with MAGNA SIN back in the early 90's, the "need" of my using LPG vanished.
In February 1995 in the midst of a peso devaluation I paid the equivalent of thirteen cents a gallon for butane. Those days are long gone. LPG costs two dollars fifty cents a gallon now.
