Anyone running propane on one of these old trucks? Please tell me the pros and cons.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

25 years ago, a lot of the local pickups burned propane. The giveaway was the propane tank on the bed, of course.
I haven't seen a propane burner for quite awhile, with the exception of the guy who delivers propane to my house. He's got a factory setup on his truck.

Quite a few years ago I was the mechanic for a factory that had about 25 propane burning forklifts. They are not that hard to work on, although I suspect that some of the parts are now subject to some emission compliant rules. Imco (or is it Impco?) makes a lot of parts.

At the time, the only real drawback was parking one of the forklifts outside when it got cold out. Thanks to the vaporizer freezing up, they really didn't run properly until the thermostat opened up.

 

I run mine on only LPG. I bought the components cheap-luckily. If you have to get everything new, cost may not be worth it.
The biggest cost I had was to get the distributor re-curved, and it was worth it. About $125 for me.
Theres alot to consider, what is your engine size?
Compression ratio (at least 9-1, for any engine, depending on load)
Driving habits, etc.
If you have a tired ol V8, or I6, not much to be gained other than longevity. There is info on a 390 shortblock with 750,000 miles on LPG.
Now, if you built your engine to 10-1, or 12-1(gonna be a red headed step child-but it will work) engine, with a decent cam, it will make power and last.
There's alot to consider, try some propane engine searches.
The biggest thing about propane is that it will need hardened exhaust seats to last-pre 72 engines get only 20-30 thousand miles, before the exhaust valves wear out, and the head/s. Newer heads are inductioned hardened on the seats-which kinda works.
Research Propane.
I had/have (used to be 11-1) 429 on lpg, it was cammed, intake, headers, and worked very well, until the valves recessed bad-and put on some smogger heads to keep her going.
Now its smogged heads, mebbe 9-1, with a big cam, but it still fires up good, and the cylinder bores are fine. It is a comprimise.
I could go on and on, but its a learning curve-so research it. I would love to have a low compression twin turbo 460! $$$
Yes you can slap on an lpg system on to any engine, and it will be a dog, and lose mpg. It will live longer, but if you tweak the mill to use the properties of lpg, it will live'n up, and pull.

 

Propane Conversion Kits

These guys make conversion kits and are a 4x4 oriented shop. (just noticed that they are a few miles from my house!) They have regular propane kits as well as a dual fuel kit that allows you to switch between gas and propane. One of the four wheeler magazines had an article about it not long ago.

 

A few other interesting site...

. : : PPI : : .

SEMA 2007: 1,000 HP ProPane Chevelle by Mothers - Autoblog

 

1000 HP Propane Chevelle.

 

I looked into this awhile back to save gas $$... Not the case I quickly learned... here in central CA propane was at the time only 10 cents/gal cheaper than gas... nowhere near worth doing a conversion... (my latest great idea to save gas $$ is an HHO generator, but that's not panning out either..)