is propane legal in the US. My father had a 74 F100 with propane running thru and it saved lots of money on gas, anyway i heard someone mention something about a bi v10 but i want to know if it is legal to do a conversion in the US.

 

from my experience propane was not cheaper than gas to run in cars mpg was down alot also now that was in the 80's with taxi's (dodge aspens) they didn't dirty the oil with propane ,the oil stayed brand new lookin

 

Propane (or LPG as we call it here) is really popular in Australia, all the taxis use it, as does pretty much every non-diesel commercial vehicle, because its heaps cheaper (no exise!!!).
Expect:
about 10% decrease in performance
about 10% increase in fuel consumption
slight reduction in engine longevity (LPG burns hotter), although this should be minimised as I believe the V10 is LPG compatible.

As for the legality of it I cannot comment, but way up the installation cost, its around US$1400 here, with the price of propane.
How does propane compare to gas prices in the US?

Also I recommend running every 4th tank on gas, to keep all your injectors working correctly.

 

Fourwheeler magazine did an LPG conversion on an old chevy truck and got about 10% better performance out of it. LPG has an octane rating of 110, so I hear, not real certain of that one. Engine longevity should increase because the oil doesn't get contaninated with carbon. Don't know about fuel mileage but LPG powered forklifts run for weeks before needing to refuel, in my experience anyways. In the FourWheeler artical the main reason for the conversion was increased drivability off road. Which makes no difference in a fuel injected truck (the converted truck was carbed). The main problem with LPG here in the states would be refueling. Not 2 many all night AmeriGas stations.

 

I would consider going propane if I could find a outfit to put it on my truck. Propane is.99 cents a gallon at the RV place up the street.

 

I had a 77 F250 with a 460 running on propane. The truck ran silky smooth on LPG but as was said in previous posts the fuel economy was much worse than on gas. It got around 11 on gas and 8 on LPG. The engine temp seemed the same on gas or LPG and the oil did stay clean. I wrecked the truck and pulled the motor to replace a 400 in a 79 F350. It had 270,000 miles and when the mechanics opened the motor up there was zero sludge. The biggest problems was there were some burned valves and the cam bearings seemed to have some odd cracking on the surface. My biggest complaint was trying to find propane while out on the road. I ran LPG exclusively because for the best performance the timing was advanced so much that switching over to gas would make the engine ping like crazy.

 

Is that for RV use or road use ? They put a road tax on it here if it's used as a vehicle fuel.

 

our chevron station here has always had propane for.99 cents a gallon for vehicles. full price for everything else.

 

Don't know if it's used as much today but I grew up in a TX border town (Del Rio TX) in the early 80's, and dual fuel conversions were very popular due to the fact that we would get it for around 10 cents a gallon in Mexico (Ciudad Acuna). It was great, 100 gallon tank in the truck and you filled up for less than 15 bucks, including bridge fees. The propane came from the U.S. anyway so you knew you were getting clean stuff (not at all like Mexico gasoline). All the ranchers used it. There is a performance decrease as, if I recall correctly, propane contains about 10% fewer BTU's per volume and a corresponding decrease in mileage. And yes, if you didn't switch over and run gasoline every so often, your carb seals, etc. were prone to drying out and the truck didn't run so good. Talk about range though, 110 to 150 gallon propane tank with dual gas tanks, even with an old 460 you could drive forever.

 

I have a 2003 F-250 CC and also an Excursion and I am running both on propane and gasoline, the engines did loose some of its power but it only does that when taking off, once you are going at about 65 mph then everything stays the same (as in gasoline). This is what I do for a living here in Mexico (install the propane kits on different cars) so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

I would like to know if there is a kit I could buy?

 

Yes, the kit costs about $1100 and that's not including the tank! I'll try and take some pics of my truck and then post them so you can look at the installation!

 

I'd like to get a number or address where I could find them.Thanx for the info.

 

Would you this installation by yourself? Or would you take it to a pro.? The reason I'm asking is because if you are going to install then I could sell you the kit, and if somebody else is going to do it then I would have to look for one in your area. where are you located?