(Note: I am brand new to this site and originally posted these questions in the wrong section. I am reposting them here in alt fuels they should have been. Please excuse the double posting)

I have the chance Monday, May 12, to buy to buy a 1999 E250 van with a ex-GSA gas/propane dual fuel OEM/GFI (Teleflex) conversion still intact on a 5.4L engine.
It seems that most of what I have read concerning the use of propane, or at least switching back and forth between fuels, is prone to trouble because of valve failures, difficultly in locating EPA certified techs, the cost and availability of parts, etc.
Still, the price of the vehicle is right, a nearly perfect body and it only has 44K miles.
(1) If this van is run only on gasoline, is having the propane system there a problem or just extra parts?
(2) If it is a problem, are the propane parts add-ons that can be removed or were some original stock parts replaced with duel fuel parts? If so, which parts?
(3) It is my understanding that any Ford dealership tech can work on the gas parts, just not the added propane parts. Is this correct?
Thanks!

 

I am going to answer my own questions with what I found out since it may help someone else in the future who faces the same decision.
(1) It is very difficult to find a tech with the required EPA propane certification. My state, for example has noone that can work on these propane systems.
(2) The propane manifold covers the spark plugs. This means to change the plugs requires locating someone who is certified who can remove the manifold. For me, this would mean driving 250 miles to Dallas TX. Removing and replacing the manifold is about a 6 to 8 hour project which translates into about seven hundred bucks for a tune up for these trucks.
(3) The system cannot be removed because it is tied into the electronic computer and provides feedback. The computer would have to be reprogramed back to the original stock specs.
(4) The parts for the propane system are very difficult to locate, sometimes take months to obtain and are very, very expensive.
(5) I talked to a couple of techs who had worked on these trucks and were familar with the dual fuel propane system. Both said to walk away from the purchase. I took their advice.

 

Franz Hofmann, Alternative Fuels

 

Franz, I am looking for a certified tech (who knows what he is doing) in Oklahoma or Texas who will give me a price for removing the system from the van and reprogram the electronics as needed. Do you have any suggestions? I tried contacting BAF but they have not returned my calls.

 

There's definitely a lot of reasons to find a good qualified technician to help work on the vehicle should it need it. I wouldn't worry at all about the spark plugs. Plug on the average last about 100,000 miles. Unless you plan on driving 30,000+ miles a year, it will be about 8-10 years before the spark plugs are an issue. You'll have a lot of other issues to probably need working on in that amount of time. Later... Mike....

 

Well unless the system automaticly switched form LP to gasoline as some Nat gas systems do you should be able to remove most of the LP systems and run it on gasoline only. I am not aware of that brand but I can give you some names in the industry that might be able to give you a step by step. As for the computor as long as you tell it the trucks on gas it will not matter as to the "extra" programing. BTW why would you want to do this? With gas around $4 LP is cheap especialy for a van.

regards

 

I am not Franz, I just bought his book a while back. He might be the best to contact personally. He actually replies on this forum that the link is for.

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