propane

isn't that a diesel only thing? or atleast thats what i thought.

i was also under the impression it was only for diesels too...

I will provide the setup for it. and heck you can even come over to my house to install. I just want to see what happens? I seriously don't think it will do a damn thing for you unless you have the high compression of a deisel. But who knows I will have the BBQ unhooked before youget here.

anybody else know any info? im veryyyyy interested in hearing some more about this topic

Put propane in a diesel and its boost. put it in a gasoline engine and its slow. propane goes in alot of trucks and suvs for an alternative fuel (You generaly get better MPG and the fuel is usally cheaper. here in AZ you get a special lane on the freeway and my license plate went from about 900 a year to like 100 for two years!) i have it in my truck and having 60gallons of fuel in the back plus 25gallons of gas is nice for a smoother ride (weight) and for road trips. if it can be done to my truck im sure it can be done to car. i got a 6.0L V8 that is kinda quick considering weight, but when i flip the switch to propane its time to turn up stereo and cruise cause it gets SLOW!

frmus3 said:

Put propane in a diesel and its boost. put it in a gasoline engine and its slow. propane goes in alot of trucks and suvs for an alternative fuel (You generaly get better MPG and the fuel is usally cheaper. here in AZ you get a special lane on the freeway and my license plate went from about 900 a year to like 100 for two years!) i have it in my truck and having 60gallons of fuel in the back plus 25gallons of gas is nice for a smoother ride (weight) and for road trips. if it can be done to my truck im sure it can be done to car. i got a 6.0L V8 that is kinda quick considering weight, but when i flip the switch to propane its time to turn up stereo and cruise cause it gets SLOW!

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Why would you get a special lane for using propane? 60 gallons...what do you drive, a semi? Good grief. What does using propane have to do w/ the price of your license plates?

Shttystang - there's no particular benefit to injecting propane like you would nitrous. Nitrous works because it is oxygen-rich. You get more oxygen in the cylinder without having to flow more air. With more oxygen, and the fuel to burn with it, you get more power.

Propane is just another carbon based fuel like gasoline or natural gas. And it has a much lower specific energy content than gasoline. So if you take two identical engines, and run one on gasoline and one on propane, the propane powered engine will make 20-30% less power than the gasoline engine. It does have a higher octane than gasoline - so if you built a propane-specific engine, you could run very high compression ratios -- that would return some of the power/efficiency compared to gasoline. Of course if you did that, you wouldn't be able to run pump gasoline in the car because the CR would be too high.

All injecting propane is gonna do on a naturally aspirated engine is richen your mixture which will likely cause you to loose power. Now on your supercharged motor - injecting higher octane propane to both richen the mixture and cool the chamber may allow you to run more boost/timing without fear of detonation. Talk to the turbo guys that are injecting methanol/water to cool the chamber -- they might be able to guide you.

With turbo diesels - people inject propane as a way to richen the mixture and cool off the chamber - allowing more boost to be added. It's like using methanol injection on a gasoline powered, turbocharged engine. No useful benefit for that on most naturally aspirated motors built to run on pump gas.

Many areas allow alternative fuel (propane is an alt fuel) vehicles and to use the HOV (high occupancy vehicles) with only one person in the car; most HOV lanes require 2 or 3 people in the car. It's their way of providing an incentive in large congested cities for people to drive less poluting vehicles. Properly tuned, propane and natural gas powered vehicles put out less polutants than their comparable gasoline counterparts.

TheUser said:

Why would you get a special lane for using propane? 60 gallons...what do you drive, a semi? Good grief. What does using propane have to do w/ the price of your license plates?

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Because it burns cleaner and some states offer a discount because of that. Propane in a Mustang??? Not for this kid. The power differences Michael mentions in his post are real. It's not a performance fuel, it's and environmentally friendly one. Propane is actually a by-product of refining both natural gas and oil refining. The BTU for propane is higher per cubic foot than natural gas and condenses really well (somewhere around 14:1 when pressurized and liquified). Makes it easy enough to use as an alternate fuel but still does not have near the BTU per volume of gasoline.

I see alot of power strokes filling up tanks at the local lp station but I think that it's only a diesel thing.

I have seen a school bus that runs only on LP though.
Just get a NOS system unless u drive a diesel.

we have fork lifts and man lifts at work that run off of propane for inside cause it is cleaner not because of more power. i dont think it would work on a diesel unless you mixed it with diesel....because diesel doesnt use spark only high pressure to heat up the fuel and cause it to combust but on the other hand propane needs a fat spark like gas vapor.

Propane ignites in the diesel chamber quite well. Once the diesel starts burning spontaneously because of compression ignition - it will ignite the propane. Burning diesel fuel provides more "spark" than any electric-based ignition system ever could. The propane and natural gas only school buses can be spark ignited or compression ignited. Some are simply gasoline engine conversions to alternative fuel. There are some diesel conversions that run 20% diesel/80% natural gas or propane. The diesel fuel is ignited by compression and it sets off the rest of the fuel. These are 'old school' (no pun) conversions however; 'green diesel' technology and tougher emissions standards are causing the diesel engine manufacturers to be able to produce engines that run as cleanly as gasoline/propane powered engines provided low sulphur diesel fuel and particulate traps are available. I consult with International Truck and Engine - it's amazing what's coming with diesel engines. I suspect we might be seeing LOTS of small diesel-engine powered electric hybrids before it's all over. Our kids kids will be modding electric motors for more power.

....and you're absolutely right - most fork lifts run on natural gas or propane because they usually spend at least some time in enclosed spaces; and they run much cleaner than gasoline engines do.