propane power

[samuel good]

Last night I finally got around to viewing the latest show from Extreme 4x4s from my Tivo. It leaves me with a question, does anyone here on this board use or know of anyone using propane for their musclcars fuel system?

[neki67]

There is extensive knowledge of Propane powered (muscle)cars incl. digital EFI setups here in the Netherlands, but also in Italy and in Canada.

It's my intention to run a dual quad set up and eventually evolve to an EFI set up. There's another Dutchman (Martin71RS) on this board who's also gonna run Propane and ordered himself a very nice Canadian Propane carb. You can see it on his site www.pro-touring.nl on the last page of his updates. I believe Martin is planning on running a Propane Turbo set up.

Propane and turbo's are, more or less, natural partner's to eachother, mainly due to the high octane number of propane. Mind you in a lot of racingclasses Propane in combination with turbocharging was banned b/c of the 'unfair' advantage. I'm not home right now (will be home by the end of next week) but do have more info about the subject.

[EFI69Cam]

There is extensive knowledge of Propane powered (muscle)cars incl. digital EFI setups here in the Netherlands, but also in Italy and in Canada.

It's my intention to run a dual quad set up and eventually evolve to an EFI set up. There's another Dutchman (Martin71RS) on this board who's also gonna run Propane and ordered himself a very nice Canadian Propane carb. You can see it on his site www.pro-touring.nl on the last page of his updates. I believe Martin is planning on running a Propane Turbo set up.

Propane and turbo's are, more or less, natural partner's to eachother, mainly due to the high octane number of propane. Mind you in a lot of racingclasses Propane in combination with turbocharging was banned b/c of the 'unfair' advantage. I'm not home right now (will be home by the end of next week) but do have more info about the subject.

Not just the high octane equivalence of propane, but the heat required to vaporize it would provide a cooling effect on the charge.

Does the propane have enough pressure to be injected after the turbo?

[Martin71RS]

yes it does...it is stored under high pressure in a tank as a liquid.
A vapourizer (liquid passes cooling fluid from the radiator) transforms the liquid to gas. gas is then fed to a mixer..

when you "boost reference" the vapourizer it will feed gas at a higher pressure.

but just for the record: I will not be using the turbo on this engine....

there is indeed some more info on my page (pages 16 and 34)
Martin

[samuel good]

thanx for the info neki, wonder why it has'nt caught on here in the u.s.?

[6'9"Witha69]

thanx for the info neki, wonder why it has'nt caught on here in the u.s.?

PITA to fill up. Trying to find a place is next to impossible. When my grandfather had the '62 FORD in the 70s it was Propane powered, but he had issues filling it up in the early to mid 80s. He changed back. Every now and then I look for places selling propane, and they are few and far between.

I was at a machine shop in Long Beach in 1999 and saw a guy with a 65 Elky. He had converted to propane and used a diesel turbo for forced induction. He said it was incredible the power you could get from a Turbo and Propane. Looks like he was a pioneer from my perspective.

[neki67]

PITA to fill up. Trying to find a place is next to impossible.

Readily available here in the Netherlands (still).

[Jim Nilsen]

Depending on how you store the propane in the car and the legality of it? I see no reason why you couldn't group tanks for a barb-q grill and get them at Walmart or any other place that exchanges them. Many gas stations have an exchange for them also,along with the larger truck stops that carry it for the refrig units.

I would look into it a bit more and see if you have more of it around than you think, you just might find it in places you haven't looked yet and never go by but yet they are close.

Goodluck looking and don't give up, you may be giving us all lessons in the future on how to do it!

[neki67]

Propane is about the third of the price of gas 'round here in the Netherlands and as long as your car or bike (yes there are even propane bikes) is older than 25 years you don't have to pay extra (road) taxes.

René