So after fueling up the WarPig F250 last night at $3.99 a gallon and $65 dollars less in the wallet for 1/2 a tank o' fuel, I started thinking about alternative fuels. I am not a "tree hugger" or the "lets be green" kind of guy I am purely thinking about my bank account and keeping my big blocked beauty rolling. So began the hunt for LPG conversion installers and kits, neither of wich is easy to find. After two hours of google searches and alot of european sites, and a phone call to U-haul which sells propane. I have come to the conclusion that LPG is not really worth it, but I wanted to put it out there for other FTE's to weigh in.

Here is what I have conclude:
LPG gets you less mileage, small almost negligable loss of HP, can damage internal components, NO Dealers or installers in USA for conversions, Not avaliable in all 50 states convienently for refill, and most important is it costs the same as regular unleaded at $3.99 a gallon. So I would be better off working another job just to pay for my gas to get to my jobs...LOL...Only cost effective if you live in Europe or India and walk to work.

Let me know if you think I am off base or missing some info.

 

IMO, You came up with the correct decision in the end. But a couple comments, from what I've heard the LPG conversions do drop performance noticably. LPG has higher octane but lower BTU/Gallon than gasoline, so to make best use of the fuel to restore performance you need to bump up compression about 1 full point, like going from 8.8:1 to 9.8-10:1. Also adjustments to ignition timing are required too. Engine maintenance is reduced with LPG, motor oil stays cleaner longer, better cold starts, plugs stay cleaner longer.

MPG will be less with LPG because of the lower BTU/Gal. I paid $2.00/Gal for LP to heat my house all winter, was over $2/gal a year ago. Add some road use tax to that price and you get real close to what regular no-lead costs. Finding a place to get LPG for motor fuel can be a challange, most companies that use LPG fueled vehicles are fleet vehicles like small trucking companies, like LPG delivery companies, taxi companies, or utility co's, etc, and they buy their fuel in bulk and have the hoses & equipment to transfer from the 500 or 1000 gal bulk tanks to the vehicles and pay the road use taxes themselves direct to the state. The LPG has to be stored in the large round pressure tanks, not easy to mount in pickups unless you mount them in the box. And forget about carrying five gallons of LP to dump in your truck if you ever run out.

There are a couple companies that covert industrial equipment from gasoline to LPG, seems like the one's I've heard of were in the south-central part of the US. Because LPG is a gaseous fuel as it's introduced into the intake air the engine burns, the engines idle smooth, as with any gas engine, hardened valves & valve seats are a bonus for durability, which most industrial engines already have, but your 460 may not.

You'd have to check local suppliers of LPG, but some of them may sell you motor fuel. I was at my local U-Haul a couple days ago, I know they sell LPG but they didn't have a price posted, I suspect it was not a bargain as you found out. Some hardware or lawn/garden stores also sell LPG, for barbque grills but doubt they sell as a motor fuel.

Just like with electric cars, LPG, Compressed Natual Gas, the infrastructure needed to make them a viable motor fuel comparable to gasoline or diesel fuel isn't in place yet. Once it is there may be some cost advantage to switching fuel types but not yet.

 

I didn't see anything about increasing compression, most of the setups I found were albet a few modifications to your intake almost plug and play using gas to start and warm up the engine block before switching over to LPG. I figured using propane would probably mean having a few gas grill cylinders and a switching regulator like on a camper installed in the bed of my truck. So when I needed a re-fill just unhook the tanks and gas on over to u-haul...lol...But as a whole not a cost effective option for the Big Block challenged.

 

The conversions that let you run on both gasoline & LPG are always compromises, the engine can't be tuned to run best on either fuel, but at least you can dump five gal of gasoline in to get home.

Years ago when ag equipment co's made tractors with gasoline, LPG, diesel, and some kerosene burning engines the LPG always had higher compression than the gasoline, and the kerosene less than the gasoline. The LPG fueled engines always burned about 20-25% more fuel than the gasoline engines. The diesel engines always burned about 20-25% LESS fuel than the gas engines.

I can well imagine a couple small 20 pound LPG cylinders wouldn't run a 460-powered truck very far. Each cylinder would be about like 3 gallons of gasoline.

 

Hi Guys,

I live in the old world (Germany) and we have here lots of gas stations selling LPG. Germany was the last country in Europe which started with LPG. Other countries like The Netherlands or Italy doing that already for more than 50 years.

One of my Fords is a E 150 Econoline with 351, auto overdrive and LPG. I bought it from a guy from The Netherlands. So this van did not run on fuel at all. It ran only on LPG.
The tank is underneth at the place of the spare tire. This van runs great and fast. We have those Autobahn (kinda like expressway) and I drove as fast as the van could go and it needed only 30 liters of LPG on 100 kilometers. The minimum was 20 liters. I couldn´t notice any less power. Ohand the price for a liter LPG is about 53 Euro-Cents.
But compared to the price of gasoline of 1.35 Euro (E 10) per liter it is really very cheap. The costs to drive my van 100 kilometers is the same like if I would drive a Golf, which means it is about 8 liters of gasoline. That is cheap, isn´t it?

Meanwhile I fixed the fuel issue by changing the fuel pump and now I can drive with gasoline or LPG.

If you drive a Chevy or Dodge then you shoudn`t use LPG. I have seen lots of these vehicles with damaged engines. But I have never heard of a broken Ford engine.

If you can affort such a huge tank at your home, to fill up your LPG-tank in yiour car then it is fine. Some BBQ-stuff won´t really work. If I go to the gas station to get some LPG then it is preesed with about 16 bar of pressure in the tank. Besides of that, you need to be careful otherwise your ride ends up in the Ford-Truck-Heaven.
There is no need to change any settings of the ignition etc.

I love LPG, because it´s a lot cheaper compared to gasoline.

And now I can lean back and see you guys do what I usually have to do......calculating gal to liters, cui to cm3 etc.

Over here you can get all the necessary equipment and you can inbstall it on your own. Only the fine adjustment should be done by a professional.

If you need any help or parts from Germany then feel free to let me know. And to prevent huge shipping costs.......well, if you know some G.I.s over
here in cities like Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Boeblingen etc. then everything can be shipped by the good old US military. As far as I know
they get here every fortnight a delivery.

See you....

Ronny