Re: [ihc] Cheaper fuel for IH's

[David Raistrick <keen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 13 May 2004, Rocky Lear wrote:

> gasoline. They take the place of the carb and bolt right to a 4v intake.
> I'm thinking about putting one back into service. Does anyone have any
> experience with propane as a fuel for their vehicle? I think it burns
> cooler and there may be a power loss too but if a gallon of propane goes
> twice as far...it would be a lot more economical. I know there has been
> some interest in propane in some of the 4x4 mags but probably for a
> different reason.

An otherwise-unmodified conversion to propane will produce less power, and
if memory serves milage should decrease.  Of course, as you say..with the
price of gasoline, it might still work out cheaper, particularly for daily
driving.  Increasing the compression ratio should enable to regain a lot
of the extra power...but will prevent a dual-fuel setup.

My understanding is that propane will get you about 80% of the power from
gas...and about 50% of the miles per gallon.  The trick is to carry much
larger tanks (which at least with our trucks isn't much of a
problem...plenty of room!)


Bob Hoover did massive amounts of research about propane power on
aircooled VWs (and then later I heard he'd moved on to propane on subaru
engines)...and posted a lot of it to some of the VW lists I was on...but I
think some of that was lost in history.

...david



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