I remember once, a Schwann's (frozen food) truck driver tried to convince me
that his GMC TopKick 6500 ran on propane. Might have convinced me, but I
saw the sticker above the fuel tank -- "DIESEL FUEL ONLY" -- That, and it
sounded like a diesel...wouldn't show me the engine.
I asked him where he fueled up, and he said, we just get in and turn the
key, they're refueled every night after we bring them back to the shop. So,
I figure that someone who knew what he was driving must be the one to
refulee the truck.
I suppose it could have been propane-injected diesel, but you don't usually
see commercially-used rigs undergoing much in the way of mods...
-Jon
"Terrible Tom" <SilverEightynine@aol.com> wrote in message
news:40B273CA.9090101@aol.com...
>
> Michael Maskalans wrote:
> >
> >
> > On May 24, 2004, at 13:52, Norah Bleazard wrote:
> >
> >> Dak Gen 3 CC with a decal on the tailgate that said it was fueled by
> >> propane. Has anyone else seen this? I wonder how difficult the
> >> conversion
> >> would be, how much it would cost to convert, and what kind of mileage
they
> >> got.
> >
> >
> > It would be a bit more work to convert an multiport-injected EFI engine
> > to propane, but moving from a carb is dirt simple: pull the carb and
> > replace with a mixing manifold (I don't recall the proper name).
> > Nothing else needs to be changed, and just about any forktruck shop can
> > tune the "carb" for you. There is slightly less power per unit of
> > propane (fewer BTUs per L versus gasoline) resulting in slight power
> > loss, but the relative equivalency to about 110 octane allows you to up
> > your compression to more than compensate.
> >
> > No more carbon buildup, cleaner oil, and roughly the same mileage are
> > all resultant - though you can't fuel as many places (some places will
> > refuse to fuel in-vehicle tanks, so it's most flexible to run a few
> > removable forktruck tanks) and of course it's not quite so simple to bum
> > a few pounds of propane if you run out versus a few gallons of gasoline.
> >
> > Propane is an especially attractive mod for offroad carbourated vehicles
> > since you're no longer dependent on a float bowl that can get whacked
> > out in off-camber situations.
> >
> > On a modern vehicle, I'm not sure what you might have to do to the
> > computers to get it to run right, or if there is a more complex method
> > of direct propane injection that might be used to more closely mimic a
> > normal MFPI system on a modern computer controlled engine.
> >
> > I'm planning to swap my RamCharger over to propane if it gives me any
> > offroad trouble stalling- or flooding-wise.
> >
> > Peterson's did a breif writup on conversion a couple months ago, but I
> > tossed my read issues when I moved, so I can't quickly look that up.
> > There's also a lot of good info on propane power in the forums at
> > pirate4x4.com (forewarning: put on your thick-skinned suit if you want
> > to join in on any discussions)
> > --
>
>
> I don't know why, but I had the sudden desire to inflate truck tires
> with propane, set them out in the middle of a feild some place - and
> fire off a round into 'em to see what happens.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> ***** Countdown to 2004 DML BBQ (56) Days Left! *****
>
> Terrible Tom -- AIM & Yahoo Name: SilverEightynine
> http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/
>
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