Liquid propane injection

Posted By: ProSport

Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:04 PM

I caught the tail end of HotRod TV yesterday. They had a Chevelle with Liquid Propane Injection.

They said as it goes through a tube it expands big time at a really fast rate and practically creates 3-5 pounds of 'boost'??

I couldn't even afford the custom fabbed and 5 chambered propane tank in the car but I was just curious if anyone has ever tried this.

Posted By: Gumbydammit

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:08 PM

If it's the one I'm thinking about, the Mothers Chevelle runs on Propane. It was built as an "alternative fuel" vehicle. It isn't using Propane as a power adder like one would with nitrous.

Posted By: dthemi

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:12 PM

Man,,, I was wondering about the same thing regarding propane the other day. What hotrod tv show was it?

Posted By: NTOLERANCE

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:33 PM

Ive got a propane regulator that ran a BBF engine sitting in the garage....

I've got some parts to convert a /6 engine saved up. Forklifts used propane alot, pretty simple stuff to work with, and yes the regulator does drop the high tank pressure down to a useable level, and it varies dependingon the application, but it doesnt increase incoming air pressure, least not that I have ever seen.

Posted By: ProSport

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:40 PM

Yes it's the Mothers propane chevelle but they converted it to liquid propane injection and it made more power the way they had it setup. I know it's not a power adder but the way they were talking it almost acted like boost.

DT, I'm not sure what episode it was, it was on sometime yesterday. I'll have to watch for it again. They said it was cheap to run, made more power, and was better for the environment.

Posted By: Jesse_Lackman

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:43 PM

http://www.voltranlpg.com/sgilpgkits.htm

http://www.voltranlpg.com/vsgilpgkits.htm

Posted By: ProSport

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 10:56 PM

DT, I just noticed you already have a thread about propane on the 4th page. I'd like to say great minds think alike but I don't have a great mind.

Posted By: dartman366

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 11:10 PM

If I remember correctly, part of the added power is because propane has a reasonably high octane rating and you can crank up the timing.

Posted By: Sport440

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/27/08 11:26 PM

I didnt see the show but for propane to act like boost it would have to be injected as a liquid under pressure. Which is what they obviously were using. Vs the other way propane is normally used in forklifts and such consumed as a Vapor

Propane is in liquid form under pressure. Once relesed it expands x%

Propane in Vapor form has never been a good high performance fuel.

But Liquid propane injection, thats something to keep an eye on, mike

Posted By: 451Mopar

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 01:27 AM

Liquid propane vaporizes at (I think) -43 degrees so you get the cooling charge effect, not boost.
I seen the Trucks TV show where they did a liquid propane injection system on a truck. I though it was a kit from Rousch racing or something like that, but I checked the cost and it was around $10,000! for the conversion

Posted By: fasteddie

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 03:07 AM

I saw that Hot Rod TV show yesterday. The guy from Mothers said the 3-5 lbs. of boost came from liquid propane that expands 400% after injection. He didn't say, but wouldn't it have to be injected directly into the combustion chamber?

Posted By: Sport440

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 03:42 AM

Quote:

I saw that Hot Rod TV show yesterday. The guy from Mothers said the 3-5 lbs. of boost came from liquid propane that expands 400% after injection. He didn't say, but wouldn't it have to be injected directly into the combustion chamber?

That would be the question?

But if the liquid propane was sprayed into heads port at a angle from the intake manifold.

The cylinders could injest the propane as a liquid/proportion of that into the cylnder before it had time to fully expand xxx% after the intake valve slams shut and traps it all in. There by giving a boost reaction.

I dont know how much time it takes for the liquid propane to expand once its released from its pressure. That time frame is probably Fixed as long as the temp remains near the same.

The good thing about that if its true!. Is that the more RPM the motor turns the more liquid propane the cly should capture thus allowing more vapor expansion to happen within the Cly and less in the intake port. And if its expanding less in the port then more air/oxygen can also be injested to help burn the extra portion of liquid propane

This is just some of my thoughts on this subject, mike

Posted By: Jesse_Lackman

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 06:44 PM

Think about the mass of liquid propane injected in ratio to the air mass, I can't see any way that amount of liqid propane expanding will create a 3-5 psi boost effect, should do the math on it I suppose.

The newer Schwan's food delivery trucks have multipoint sequential liquid propane injection, that technology is owned by a company that is owned by Schwan's. On the engine it looks very very similar to a factory gasoline EFI system.

http://www.bi-phase.com/index.html

Posted By: 66er

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 07:34 PM

I'm A gas man by trade and have thought about propane injection for years. I have always thought that it whould be a great enrichment fuel for NOS. All you would have to do is get a fork lift or flore buffer tank(they come in aluminum and have liquid ports), And a solinoid. You no longer need a exotic fuel system. You would have to figure out the orifice size. Propane works like NO it sets in the tank as liquid and makes its own pressure. When With a boiling point of -44 it would add to the cooling effect of the nitous. I'm not sure that you can inject enought into the cylinder without nitrous to achieve those boost numbers, but the cooling effect (44 degrees below zero) could be exploited for some exta HP. All we need now is a willing test subject

Posted By: dartman366

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 07:39 PM

Ask the diesel truck guy's,, they have been using LPG for year's as an enhancement.

Posted By: 340RICK

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/28/08 11:10 PM

Does anyone remember the.... I think it was a hemi challenger or cuda that was white or a really light colored tan.

That was propane powered.

It was tubbed and ran 9's or 10's on the stuff way back in the late 80's or early 90's at Norwalk

It was a really cool car

Posted By: 383duster

Re: Liquid propane injection - 12/29/08 03:24 PM

Here in the Netherlands about 50%-70% of the American cars (oldtimers and new) use propane for feul, also lots of car with bigger gas engines use it. With using a regulater and a "mixer" on top of the carb is the easyest and cheapest but with LPI (liquid propane injection) you got as much or even more power then on normal gas.
but a LPI system is computer controlled and therefore difficult and expensiver on old carburated engines.

for example, higher octane pump-gas for our older engines is around $7.60 for a gallon and propane around $2.66 a gallon so you understand that it is populair here to convert to propane