Guest iamjackal Posted December 15, 2000 Share Posted December 15, 2000 Okay stupid ideas in my head.Have you guys ever looked into running propane as fuel.At 107 octane you could run some insane compression in a motor.But now I just wonder if anyone has ever ran nitrous with LPG.Any thoughts on this guys. I have heard there is a 30% power loss due to the lower BTUs produced as compared to gasoline butI am unsure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pauli Posted December 15, 2000 Share Posted December 15, 2000 one problem: iirc, that stuff is HIGHLY explosive. i'm reminded of something my grandfather told me he and some friends determined during the depression: you can run a car on kerosine, but you have to start it on gasoline. how much would propane cost? if it's significantly cheaper than gas, then it might work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted December 15, 2000 Share Posted December 15, 2000 Yes I was very close to running propane. Propane is 110 octane, and it contains about 10% less energy than a similar amount of gasoline. Yes, you can run a pretty high compression ratio on 110 octane, which is going to make up for that 10% loss of fuel economy, and power. Up in canada, you can buy automotive propane for about 75% the cost of low grade gasoline. Cheap. (It used to be that propane cost about 25% of the cost of gasoline, but the government thought they weren't taxing it enough I guess) Propane is LESS explosive and volitile than gasoline is. (thats where the higher octane comes in, and the energy loss) My dad owns a propane truck and has for 15 years now. The only problem I could associate with the propane is that it dries out gaskets a little faster, and it runs a little hotter. We've had the truck with a chev 350 in it for 15 years, we've replaced 2 headgaskets. Other than that, we have had ZERO engine problems. Zero. (Truck does have low miles though) As for the effects with NOS, I don't know. I am sure it can be done though. (I recently saw an 81 toyota 4x4 that was running a 2.8L chev V6, supercharged on propane. The guy said it was around 400hp.... think of the boost you could run with 110 octane) ------------------ "Gimme Fuel, Gimme Fire, Gimme that which I desire" -Metallica Drax240z 1972 240z - L28TURBO transplant on the way! http://members.xoom.com/r_lewis/datsun.html http://members.home.net/drax77/newpage.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted December 16, 2000 Share Posted December 16, 2000 Engine wear is very much reduced because of no dilution of the engine oil. Combustion chambers are generally very clean using it. On Propane (LPG), compression ratios can indeed be really high, but as was pointed out less energy in the fuel. Also, not sure what they're fuel tanks are like these days, they used to be cylindrical and were more suited to trucks, but I don't know as I havn't researched that much. Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted December 16, 2000 Share Posted December 16, 2000 Good point with the oil. We can go with oil for 3000miles in the truck and when you take it out its PERFECTLY clean. No blackness, nothing. All the tanks you will find will be cylindrical, the shape makes a very good pressure vessel. You can get thin "twin" tanks that don't take up a lot of room. The toyota 4x4 I mentioned had 4 small tanks, all mounted between the frame rails, and below the box and cab. Basically you can get tanks any size and shape you want if you have the money. ------------------ "Gimme Fuel, Gimme Fire, Gimme that which I desire" -Metallica Drax240z 1972 240z - L28TURBO transplant on the way! http://members.xoom.com/r_lewis/datsun.html http://members.home.net/drax77/newpage.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.