So last weekend I picked up a new-to-me 1976 4x4 dent-side. It definitely needs a bit of work, but I've seen worse. Truck is an F100 4x4 on propane - Supposedly the motor is a 390, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the standard 360. (Valve cover factory sticker indicates 390, but who knows.)

It has the usual rust in the wheel wells and cab corners. The front sway bar had a bushing rotted out. Front of the box is dented up against the cab. Tailgate is stiff to open. But for a truck that's 40 years old, I guess I shouldn't be too picky.

Drive-train is a 390, with a T18 behind it, attached to an NP205. The coolest part is this thing came with headers and dual exhaust. From what I've read here, that is one of the best mods you can do with these FE motors, so that is a great start.

The only wildcard here is it IS a propane truck. The tanks are mounted under the bed between the frame, so I still have full use of the bed. But I can't decide if I should keep propane vs converting it back to gas. I'm an accountant by trade, so I ran some calcs using the average price of gas vs propane for the last 5 years, plus accounting for the decreased "power" that comes with running propane vs gas, certification costs, and things like that. Long story short, the cost savings is $0.05/km running propane vs gas. Based on the amount of km I would put on this thing, the annual cost savings would be around $275/yr sticking with propane.

Anyway I'm making this build thread to keep track of the progress on the thing. Here's some quick pictures I snapped the day I picked the truck up. Will have some better ones this weekend I hope.

 

Nice looking truck! I don't know much about propane except from what I have read. The engines are generally much cleaner and run longer than gasoline for different reasons. The biggest is the gasoline does not wash out the cylinder walls.


What special certifications are required to run propane in Canada and how plentiful are the fill stations?

 

Well that's actually the problem: I have no real idea about what is required when it comes to propane haha.

What I found out this morning was it will cost $150 for just an inspection, and $50 for the "All-OK" sticker (Assuming they find no problems with the system). Then you're good for 5 years. My worry is that the truck may not have been certified in a while, and might have "expired" parts. I have no idea if the fuel tanks have a mandatory lifespan, where after "X" amount of years you have to get new tanks regardless. If I'm hit with that, then this becomes an expensive proposition.

Fill stations are another problem. The Flying J's and the Co-op grocery stores up here carry the stuff. I think the UFA would too. The trouble is they aren't a 24/7 thing as far as I know. So basically you need to fill your truck during business hours. If you don't do that, you're probably stranded til the next day.

 

The tanks usually do have a life span, but it's like 15 years if I am remembering correctly.

You could look into a dual fuel system. My boss had a propane/gas system in his truck and it was pretty slick. Wouldn't be too hard to do since you already have the difficult to install half

 

Well this weekend was good and bad.

Left work early on Friday to find a junkyard tank for my rig, and got extremely lucky in the world of truck tanks - A custom 42 gallon tank sitting in a junkyard scrapped 76 F250! Jackpot! Also picked up an old carb (no idea what the make is, only that it was on a 1970s Ford car of some sort.





I took them home for a better look





First order of business was that the dual exhaust tubes were routed right where this tank needs to live, so they got cut back to mid-chassis, and will reconfigure once the tank is done.



Next I had to remove the original propane system on the truck. This was actually a pretty big job, and took most of the day.



Then I hit a snag. One of the rear cross-members was in the wrong place. I guess the F250 donor must have had some custom work done to get that tank to fit. So I spent the next little while cutting out rivets to move the cross-member. Worked fine, so go on to fitting the tank

Then disaster. The tank is too long. When the rear diff articulates, it hits the tank. One option was to move the bumper assembly and rear-rear crossmember a couple inches rear-ward, and that would have worked. But you have to reconfigure wiring and all sorts of extra headaches. So I decided to sleep on it.

The next morning I figured screw it, I have nothing to lose.



I decided I would cut 4" out of the tank, and rivet/epoxy an end-cap back on to the tank. If it didn't work, I wasn't out anything. I wanted to weld it back together, but was concerned about blowing myself up in the process. So I settled on rivets and epoxy, thinking that if airplane fuel tanks were fabricated using epoxies, there's no reason why it shouldn't work on a truck fuel tank.



So the rest of the day was spent drilling, riveting, epoxying, and waiting. The tank now has 6 tubes of Seal-All covering the inside/outside of the end-cap, and has been curing since last night. I will probably add a few more layers of epoxy, and then test it out in the next couple days if I can find time between work.