anyone have the 6.2L with the additional propane conversion???? thinking about getting it done......any insight would be awesome...thx

 

I haven't heard much about this at all. I was wondering if the "Hardened Engine Intake Valves and Valve Seats" would have any benefit when just using REGULAR fuel..?

 

I ordered my truck with the cng-propane prep option. installation costs still seem to be high, but down the road maybe. Wonder how many have ordered the option. Delivery of my truck should be toward the end of the month.

 

Traditionally it is mostly a fleet option nowadays.

Back in the day (27 years ago or so) my uncles (all 4000 or so of them) converted all the 4/5 ton grain trucks to Propane on the farm but one. Since one uncle was the tri-county preferred mechanic for farm machinery and medium duty trucks, they already had a lot of history on things like time to overhaul with the old straight 6 motors. Propane moved the 1960's tech from about 1800 hours between overhauls to about 2200 hours. Fuel economy sucked by comparison BUT back then fuel prices made it slightly cheaper to run propane.

Outside of CNG (make your own at home!), with modern fuel prices and fuel injection technology, I have a hard time seeing gaseous fuels being viable in the US unless you are the LPG provider or have emissions reasons to do it.

 

We have three propane-powered 5.4s where I work and they're junk. They get awful mileage, break down all the time, and are difficult to get serviced. I would never buy one for myself.

 

Remember that propane does not provide the same amount of energy (measured in Btu) as gasoline. For example: 1 gallon of diesel has 113% of the energy as regular gasoline (116,090 Btu). Propane (84,250 Btu) has 73% of the energy of one gallon of gasoline. What this translates to in operating performance, is you can expect to lose roughly 30% engine output (H.P. and torque) over running gasoline.

 

Propane has 91500 Btu per gallon. But that being said I work in the LP industry and do not run Propane, I have in the past but not now. Unless you have a fleet or lawn care business its really not economically feasible to convert and run LP.

 

Honestly, this is not really true anymore. Modern engine management cannot overcome the lower or higher energy content of fuel when is comes to fuel efficiency but it can overcome much (or all) of output deficit...you just add more fuel (oversimplification).

An exceptional example of this is E85 verses 87 octane E10. Fuel economy is lower with the former but engine output is equal or higher (equal on most unmodified engines). The energy density of E85 is 81,800 BTU/gallon.

 

I have out over 100k miles on different liquified propane gas (LPG) powered vehicles when I lived in Europe, my Lincoln Town car already had it when I bought it and my Firebird and my Grand Cherokee I converted myself. It's a common thing there due to the significant price difference to gasoline with LPG available at nearly all gas stations. LPG uses 20% more fuel, but typically costs over 70% less than gasoline there.


I've driven different systems, from Venturi (cheapest, works like a carburator) to sequential (like a modern fuel injection system) to LPI (liquid propae injection).


They all have one thing in common: When done correctly you don't notice a difference to gasoline and it's beneficial to your engine, e.g. no more black deposits in the oil... But for it to be done correctly that's the hard part because it takes time and effort not only to install a complete second fuel system from tank to injectors, but also needs the time and experience for setting up an adaptation mapping in the propane systems egine control computer.


In Germany, if you have someone do it on a V8, a top-notch conversion will cost you around 4500EUR or $5000. If you do it yourself, you will spend $2000+ on parts, $500 on certification and it will take 3 weekends, at least.


Chris


PS: usually it's not 100% propane, it's a mixture of propane and butane.