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Propane = LP?

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Old 10-21-2004 | 08:37 PM
  #16  
j-fox's Avatar
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Just a little info. Back in the early 80's I ran several vehicles on lp. One was a 77 dodge van with the 400 engine.
I could change the oil and drive it 5,000 miles, change it again and put a sample in a glass jar and see thru it!!! Hated to dispose of that oil. Engine started easier, ran smoother and was snappier with LP. Was down a little on power depending on the rpm. Low rpm no loss. A good fuel for the gas engine crowd.
Old 10-21-2004 | 11:02 PM
  #17  
Rammer64's Avatar
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From: Windsor Ontario Canada
j-fox and tempforce.
You're both absolutely right. Propane and CNG both can get the same MPG and power as gasoline but tank volumes and availabitiy are their major downfalls. 2500 PSI of CNG worked out to the equivilent of 5.5 to 8 gallons of fuel on a what they call 50 litre tank and 70 litre tank respectively. So even if your car was getting 20 MPG....... Thats still only 110 extra mile range on a 50 litre tank filled to 2500 PSI on CNG. LPG did better on tank volumes but still didn't have the reliability of gasoline. LPG is more tempermental than gasoline and requires more maintenance. It's cheaper fuel than gasoline, but the sometimes the maintenance/breakdown costs overshadowed the savings.
There were also too many people (as far as I'm concerned) that would convert a vehicle to an alternative fuel that didn't need to be. I had one guy that converted his Hyundai Pony to CNG that was already getting 25+MPG and he rarely drove it. If you calculate the cost of the conversion minus goverment grants and rebates, the cost was still fairly high.
That means you had to drive a vehicle alot of miles or had a vehicle that had low MPG to compensate for the conversion costs and extra maintenance expenses. You would only save money if you refilled alot. Either by alot of miles or by poor MPG.
The newer engines I found were hard starting, backfired alot and did damage to alot of BHAF boxes.
That's because there's not many alternative fuel manufacturers that worked directly with the auto manufacturers to design and alternative fuel system specifically for a vehicle. Actually Dodge did alot of R&D and produced some good running vehicles withe fuel injected LPG/CNG systems in the early 90's but the injectors made the gasoline engines sound like diesels. Very noisy.
We had alot of design problems because of LONG TUNED intake runners and plastic air boxes. An engine wouldn't start until the fuel reached the cylinders and it had to get there from the LPG converter, to the mixer (CARBURETOR), through the throttle body, through the long intake runners and plenum and then to the valves into the cylinders.
And then you had this HUGE long LPG/CNG and intake system charged with highly combustionable fuel ready to explode like a bomb when you got any spark from the plugs. They used to backfire and blow the intake, tubes/plenums and hoses to pieces, especially the 5.8L Crown Vic cop cars with the plastic intake plenum.
I used to pressure test the systems after conversions with nitrogen at 3500 PSI and test for leaks over night on the high pressure side of the CNG system.
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