Propane question

[93 Krawler]

I am planning on running propane on my rig and was curious about the usage on a v8 engine. Need to know if I need a 2 tank setup or 1. How much do you guys running propane on v8's use? Any regrets switching to propane?

[twiztedzuki]

2 tanks period! or you will be pain in the ass needing sumone to run to tow rig and get another tank! I run the 10 gallon tanks and run 1 out in 5-6hrs perdy eazy if hammering on it

[mckeddie]

My 22re was a pita with just 1 tank. You really never have much of a clue how much is in them.

[blazerbrad]

A friend with a 460 in a fullsize typically runs out one tank and goes to the second in a day, assuming the first is full to start out with. He carries three so he can start out on a partial tank but still has two full ones.

He really likes propane but was also coming from a carb. Obviously the propane doesn't hiccup on hills like the carb and has a little better throttle response, but don't know anybody that went from fuel injection to propane.

The downsides are he lost a little bit of upper end power on the moderately built 460 (350 HP, 500 FT-LBs) because the single mixer simply isn't big enough, but it's not bad. The other is the convenience of getting fuel. Not like you can just pull into the closest gas station on Sunday afternoon down in BFE Kentucky and top off the tanks. When going on a 2 day trailride out of state my friend makes sure the three tanks on the rig are full and carries three more in the tow rig. Probably overkill though.

[93 Krawler]

Thanks for the input.

I know it sounds kinda dumb to go to propane from EFI, but I can't get it to run right. After I put a new cam in "nothing drastic" it runs rich. Edelbrock swears this cam will run fine with the stock EFI. I've replaced all the sensors, distributer, entire throttle bodies, and it still runs rich and bogs down under a load. I don't think the new cam is working well with the EFI. I don't want to pay the money to try and tune the OBD1 system. So I either swap in a newer engine "5.3" , or keep what I have and go propane. I already have the intake and a HEI distributer for the pane. I would like the extra power from the 5.3, but what a pita to swap it in. I really like the simplicity of the propane. I'll run through the EFI one more time to make sure I didn't miss something.

[blazerbrad]

Originally Posted by Waffle

Anyones input with experience should include what size tanks they used. There's 2 I know of. Small 7.5 gallon and the larger 10 gallon. Just thought it might help Kevin make a comparison.

Good point. Just checked and he said the tanks were about 8 gallons and verified he has never gone through 2 full tanks in one day of riding, though the 2nd was getting light a few times.

[93 Krawler]

From what people are saying, the propane usage is close to the gas usage, gallon to gallon. I use about 12-13 gallons of gas a day at Harlan. Maybe a little more on a real long day. That would be about 1 1/2 33 lb tanks. 2 - 33 lb tanks should give me about the same capacity as my 16 gal fuel cell does.

[blazerbrad]

The guy I'm talking about above used what seemed like about the same gallons of propane as gallons of gas, but it's hard to be exact since it's kinda' like apples to oranges as you don't know exactly how many gallons came out of the propane tanks. I think there were two reasons for this.

1. He could use more finesse and less throttle with the propane. The carb required more throttle input in most situations to compensate for the burping and to avoid stalling.

2. The 700-800 cfm Quadrajet (yes, adapted to the Ford 460) could simply pure a lot more gas down the intake whenever he went past about 1/2 throttle. The 425 cfm mixer would use less propane even if he used more throttle input the entire run.

[twiztedzuki]

i can get 10 gallon lp tanks filled fir 20$ each by Hillsboro, earlier this year so it was way cheaper than gas. American cylinder exchange, or sumthing like that is company name

[93 Krawler]

Originally Posted by twiztedzuki

i can get 10 gallon lp tanks filled fir 20$ each by Hillsboro, earlier this year so it was way cheaper than gas. American cylinder exchange, or sumthing like that is company name

That's a good price. Tractor supply is selling LP for $2.29 a gallon. There's a u-haul down by work that fills tanks, I'll have to see how much they are.

[JustToynAround]

Originally Posted by mckeddie

My 22re was a pita with just 1 tank. You really never have much of a clue how much is in them.

been talking to guys at work and i might be able to get ahold of tanks that have gauges built into them. so if i can, i'll let ya all know

Jeremy

[twiztedzuki]

Originally Posted by 93 Krawler

That's a good price. Tractor supply is selling LP for $2.29 a gallon. There's a u-haul down by work that fills tanks, I'll have to see how much they are.

i got 7 tanks so I wait till they all perdy much empty and make a trip and get them filled cause it like a 30 minute drive. they local blue flame propane service wanted 34$ a tank so I head to American cylinder exchange fir 20$ a tank.

[Hope Springs Hauler]

Kevin, Definately 2 tanks for your rig. You remember pulling my sami back to camp after I ran it out in 1 day at Big Rock

[93 Krawler]

Originally Posted by Hope Springs Hauler

Kevin, Definately 2 tanks for your rig. You remember pulling my sami back to camp after I ran it out in 1 day at Big Rock

Yeah, and at the Badlands too. Definitely gonna run 2 tanks.

[93 Krawler]

Ok, so my rig runs rich. It smells rich, and the plugs say the same. It ran better before the cam and multi-port swap. I went through the EFI a few weeks ago and swapped out some parts with spares I had. Nothing really seemed to help. I had a scanner hooked up to see how everything was running. I noticed it took a long time for the system to show closed loop, and only did when I gave it some gas. Then it would go to open loop again after a few minutes. It was real cold out that day. I know running headers and free flowing exhaust can make the O2 sensor read cold, but will a colder thermostat make it even worse. The rig always runs cold because of the massive radiator and the 180 t stat I run. Stock is 195 degrees. It makes sense that a 195 t stat would make the exhaust gasses a little hotter. I'm going to put a 195 stat back in it to see if it helps. If not, I'll have to use a heated 4 wire O2 sensor instead of the 2 wire stock one.

I use stock AC plugs. They have one ride on them. Before the hangover run, I took them out and cleaned them so I could see if it was running better. They are still black. Not terrible, but not good. I'm thinking about going a step up in heat range to see if that helps. I think the cam was a mistake, and is the cause of my headache. If none of this works, then I'll be putting on propane.

[blazerbrad]

If it keeps going into open loop that could definitely cause it to run rich...basically like having the choke on. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and do the 4 wire heated O2 sensor also.

Do you know what type of fuel pressure you are getting?

[Runoveru2]

Kevin I would put a hotter Thermostat in it, sounds like computer thinks it's not warm enough so it's running rich.

[93 Krawler]

Originally Posted by blazerbrad

If it keeps going into open loop that could definitely cause it to run rich...basically like having the choke on. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and do the 4 wire heated O2 sensor also.

Do you know what type of fuel pressure you are getting?

I don't remember the numbers, but they were within Edelbrocks specs.

Originally Posted by Runoveru2

Kevin I would put a hotter Thermostat in it, sounds like computer thinks it's not warm enough so it's running rich.

Edelbrock says to use a 195 stat for best performance. Maybe the multi-port is pickier than the TBI was. The TBI ran ok with the 180 in it.