Propane Conversion

[Domenic Celeste]

Well gas shot up like crazy here in Ontario since the Hurricane.

I filled up @ 94cents per litre my last time and it looks like tomorrow morning I will be paying around $1.30 per litre. That will be around $110 for a fill up that will last be about a week.



I am hearing more about people getting propane conversions and the government grants and rebates that go towards it. Propane is around 49 cents per litre right now.



I have heard numbers concerning conversion costs of around $4K and with the rebates and grants from the government, of $2K to $3K I could pay this cost off in less than a year.



Has anyone here done this type of a conversion to an ST or other Ford vehicle with the same engine as the ST?

 

[Johnny O]

Because I'm old, I remember when Hot Rod magazine would occasionally run an article about some some turbo'd and propaned car built by Ak Miller. The conversion kits at the time came from a company called Impco. Everything on their site looks like carbs, I didn't see anything for EFI engines.

 

[Todd Z]

I knew a guy that ran the conversion on an old mustang,, again as stated above, it was a carburator... A fuel injection car can run on CNG, so i don't see why you cant do it, But the dangers of carrying that bottle may out weigh the savings..

Todd Z

 

[Domenic Celeste]

I may have giotten my alternative fuels mixed up.

It may actually be natural gas.



Many taxis and fleet vehicles around here use it.

Public transit as well. Police cars used to use it a few years back. Talked to a buddy of mine that is a cop and usde to drive them and he says there was a definite loss in power in the converted vehicles.



I know that in parts of Europe they have been doing it for years. My uncle ran propane and had a small gasoline tank as a reserve. If he ever ran out of propane, he would turn a valve in the tank to swithc over to gasoline until he got to the filling station.

 

[Sam Woodson]

Back in the Mid to Late 70's my Grandparents had a 74 Galaxie 500. They were living in the Ozarks of Missouri, Waynesville to be specific, they managed the retirement home there. Anyway, they had a switch and they could run the car (and their motorhome) on propane or gasoline. Several people around there had their vehicles setup to run on propane or gas. It would be pretty nifty. I really doubt they paid very much for this "conversion" back then. I have often wondered why it never caught on, and living in Ohio most of my life, I never heard of it there at all, just in Missouri. I'm sure my grandparents didn't pay big bucks to have it done, I don't think it would be worth $3-4k



Mostly now I have seen Propane injection kits for turbo charged cars, it's cools the intake so you can run more boost and make more power.

 

[Domenic Celeste]

The company that I work for does design and manufacturing of electronic controls.

About 7 or 8 years ago we did some work for a company called Fuel Maker.

They had a device that was about the size of a small dishwasher that you could install in your garage.

You hooked it up to your natural gas line and it would compress it and fill the tank of your vehicle. To keep costs down on the compressing the device it worked rather slowly, and would take a couple of hours to fill your tank. The idea was to re-fill your vehicle overnight, at home and it would be even cheaper than filling up at the Natural Gas Pumps at the gas station. If I recall correctly the pump price back then was in the 40 cent range, and by doing it at home it pushed it down to the 20 cent range.



I always wondered what happened top that company. Well now I know.

They have partnered with Honda, and now honda will be offering a Natural Gas Civic.



I wonder if we still have one of their units kicking around? Hmmm.:huh:

 

[Rich Wavrik]

A few years ago in AZ there was some special incentives to purchase vehicles using alternative fuels. Unfortunately a number of fly-by-night conversion shops opened up. A bad conversion will really run up your mechanical bill in the long run.



There was also a couple instances where the tank connections leaked and caused fires.

 

[Tom Schindler]

A guy at work has a Focus that he has turbocharged and is putting out about 240 HP at the front wheels. Something like 238.9 HP or so. I have seen the dyno slip, I just don't remember the exact numbers.



With that being said, he is running propane injection to help with pinging and it runs MUCH better then it did when he had it dyno'd before the propane. He still run's gasoline, but the propane helps to bring the octane levels up.



During his research for the propane injection, he came across a website, where someone is designing fuel injectors that will work just like the gas ones, but inject propane only. He claims a car would be able to run propane only without any problems. I guess the guy is out of money and is looking for investors to help him finish the project.



That is all he could remember about the website and for the life of him, he doesn't remember what the URL is.





Tom

 

[Phill R]

Something to keep in mind is CNG and LPG conversions are done to lower emissions.

CNG will not give you very much for range and LPG is inherently dangerous and not allowed across most bridges and tunnels without hazmat permits