From: Marty Galyean (marty@heavyreckoning.com)
Date: Fri May 19 2006 - 07:19:20 PDT
ghille@writeme.com wrote:
>Acetone will reduce your MPG. It is great for breaking down varnish gasoline, but it will not help with fuel economy. Sorry, but what about propane conversions?
>
>
>
>
>
That is about what I'd figure. The only thing I've used acetone for is
removing adhesives and cleaning silk screens. It definitely a good solvent.
I looked into 100% propane conversion fairly deeply at one time. If the
tax rebates are still in place they can make a lot of financial sense,
otherwise I'd relegate it to those who simply have a jones to do it.
You have to make sure the engine stays cool as propane doesn't cool as
well as a liquid fuel so more rows in the radiator and other similar
mods might be in order. Your oil lasts longer because the gas/diesel
slipping past the rings tends to break down oil, while propane does not
(iirc). And also your rings and cylinders experience quite a bit less
wear as you don't have a liquid like gas constantly washing the coat of
oil off the cylinder walls (so "they" say).
Propane and turbocharging are a match made in heaven.
As for propane injection to increase mileage, I have my doubts. Propane
costs go up with gas/diesel anyway.
The biggest complication with 100% propane conversion is tank location.
Total propane conversions are easiest on normally aspirated vehicles,
The tanks are pressurized and are cylindrical or spherical and heavy, so
finding a location for the capacity you want can be a trick in smaller
vehicles. They cannot be in the passenger compartment for common sense
and regulatory reasons. I was looking into converting a '72 240z and
tank location, while not unsolvable, was not trivial. I found tanks
that would fit, but to get the capacity I was considering sealing off
the spare tire cavity above the tank so it was no longer part of the
passenger compartment and gaining vertical room in the stock tank
location at the rear of the vehicle.
and get trickier with more modern F/I electronic ignition engines. You
have to advance the spark curve and this is much easier with a
mechanical distributor, but chips are available for most newer trucks,
as well as kits covering the F/I.
And lastly, you want a "fleet" style place to fill up handy. You'd go
broke filling up on 7-11 propane.
Marty
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Jul 18 2006 - 21:45:50 PDT