patooyee

iTrader: (1)

No it doesn't. Propane uses no fuel pumps, no injectors, and the carbs are simple as hell, can be rebuilt with just a phillips head screw driver in 10 minutes flat. (Not that I've ever had one go bad.)

To be honest, the whole LS2 thing was a mistake in the first place. I should have gone BBC. But I'm stuck with the LS2 now and am just trying to work with it.

3pedals

iTrader: (3)

You never mensioned propane before, sounds like a cool project. I still think the MSD is the easier way to do it. However since you have the oem stuff and hp tuners, yes you should be able to make it work.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

I would have to agree, not worrying about a MAF, TPS, MAP, IAT ect ect sensors on a efi system is where it is at. We worry about a cam position and crank position sensor as well as coils. KISS, keep it simple stupid. Just makes drag racing or any racing easier for trouble shooting usually. That's just my experience.

BBC is where I'd be of I wasn't a poor white man.

patooyee

iTrader: (1)

Typically once I do I get a myriad of comments like ...

"Are you dumb, propane is for grills."

"Only an idiot would run propane."

"You won't get as much power out of propane."

... from people who have never once in their life even seen a vehicle that ran on propane. I was trying to avoid that in hopes of a more constructive conversation, which worked. So thank you for that.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

I would love to do a propane powered 4.8. Just have no idea where to start. I assume it would be pretty easy? Pretty efficient I assume?

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Yea the only issue is mounting the tank lol...but I like thinking or of the box..I didn't realize you could run a carb with propane, def intriguing that's for sure...I wanna see where this goes..

Fwiw I've never had any issues with my fuel injected ls1 (even though now i said that im in trouble haha)
oh yea if you don't want that ls2 I have a complete takeout 454 BBC out of an RV with 33k miles if you wanna trade lol

patooyee

iTrader: (1)

Its not quite as efficient or powerful as gas, but some of the power can be made up with compression since it is over 100 octane. 13:1 is no problem at all. You're talking like a 5% power loss mostly in the upper rpm range. There are liquid injection, vapor injection, and carbureted systems available. They all have their pros and cons. The injection systems are probably the most efficient but they have just as many, if not more, electronics and pumps as EFI. Carbs are the simplest as they just rely on regulated pressure from the tank to deliver the fuel and have no electronics. Offroad people run the carb systems for many reasons, but they bolt to a common Holly TB which means they bolt to just about any carbed V8 intake (including the LS carb intakes) without adapters. My last rig had it and they are probably the most reliable fuel systems ever invented by man.

Propane used to be cheaper than gas by far. But then places started charging by the tank instead of gallon and when you pay that way its more expensive than gas. But some places still charge by the gallon and those place are still a little cheaper than gas. I started running propane back when it was under $2/gal. Currently is a little over $3.

patooyee

iTrader: (1)

Offroad rigs just use standard forklift tanks because they draw fuel from the bottom where the liquid is. We just carry a few spare tanks with us to the parks we ride at and swap them out. There's special brackets that unclamp very easily and quickly, they're cheap and universal. My brother use to run standard BBQ bottles but they don't have a pickup tube inside so they have to be run upside down to gravity feed the liquid to the line.

I agree that in a car the forklift bottles probably wouldn't be ideal. Then you get into needing a custom tank which has to be certified to be filled which is a whole new headache. The forklift tanks make it easy for that purpose since they are all certified before sale and none of us drive our rigs on the street. You cuold mount the tanks in your truck, loose your cargo space, and you would still probably have issues from some places if they saw you drive up.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

I assumed the non liquid feed would one up gasoline in mileage.

patooyee

iTrader: (1)

It doesn't matter how you get the propane into the engine, it still requires the same amount to generate the same power. In fact, the term "liquid propane injection" is almost inaccurate since, once the liquid exits the injector, it turns to a gas almost instantly. The way that the fuel is metered is probably what determines efficiency. Carbs are least accurate, so probably the least efficient. I have no personal experience with either liquid or vapor injection. In general, the challenge with liquid injection is to not inject too much and the challenge with vapor injection is to inject enough due to the 240:1 expansion ratio from liquid to gas. The few examples of high performance vapor injection I've found on the internet use 2 injectors/cylinder. The largest vapor injector I've been able to find is rated at about 40 hp.

Propane just has fewer BTU's than gasoline, and therefore less efficiency and power by about 8%. Like I said, you can fudge that power loss a little with compression though. In the offroad world, we don't really care about efficiency.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

I see, that makes the sense. Same with E85 then. Requires more to even catch up basically.

patooyee

iTrader: (1)

Yup. But the loss in economy is negligible considering the gain in reliability, IMO.