Any of you guys ever made any power with propane? I know it's cold, and has a good octane number, but aside from that nothing else.

I like the idea of just swapping a propane tank after a pass, and I can't help but think it would be an easy thing to regulate, but I'm sure there's some very good reasons why it's not popular at the track, I just don't know why. Anyone know the reasons?

Can't tune propane carbs(mixers) worth a crap. They do not run at ideal a/f ratios at full throttle. A propane injection system would be the way to go, but propane injectors are not cheap.

Propane has a lot of octane but produces less BTUs of energy than gasoline when burned. So you build to a higher compression ratio to use the extra octane, but produce no more power on the dyno because of the lower btu rating.

Some people are making great power on propane, but for most, the cost and headache of it all is just not worth the trouble. I calculated it out, and back when gas prices were high, it was not THAT much cheaper to run on propane than gas. You would have to be a delivery driver or do a ton of driving to make that investment back.

Just thinking more about potential power than cost. Thats a bummer to hear about the a/f stuff. Any idea who makes the best injectors? Thanks man

I have had two vehicles, one car hauler a one ton Dodge truck with a 318 Poly motor and a class A motorhome. I added the propane dual fuel conversion to the car hauler in the late 1970s due to the gas crunch, not being able to buy gasoline in some towns at night and the propane tank held 82 gallons of fuel. Propane does not have as much latent energy that gasoline does so you have to use more propane to make the same HP, just like alcholol The motor home was a pig on propane so I switch it back to gasoline only, the truck burnt two exhaust valves shortly after the conversion so it was not as good as I had hope for There was a 1968 or 1969 Charger that ran at the Winternationals around 1973-76 as a exhibition car on Saturdays severl years in a row, but it was not a class car and didn't really run very fast, high 11 s to mid 11s if I remember correctly. I'm sure it was Hemi powered, it may have been a school car project for one of the SO CA junior colleges Maybe someone with a better memory or someone that was involved with the car will chime in I have heard that some of the deisel truck guys use propane injection for a power adder , or maybe to cool the inlet air down

http://autoparts.rasoenterprises.com/

Those guys sell the propane injectors. I hear they are great quality pieces, though cost around 100 bucks each. Plus you need an efi controller of some type to run them.

Thanks man, it maybe a project at some point to busy myself with for no good reason.

I know diesel guys use it to get a better burn of their fuel.
Not sure there would be any advantage to gasoline.

Doesn't NHRA have a rule against high pressure fuels ie propane natural gas butane etc.?

To get the max power potential out of propane would require turbo or supercharging IMHO.

Kevin

I've done a lot of coversions it's great for fleet trucks.I did i of our parts trucks with a 12.1 turo 454 parts truck.They called my department toys r us.But it lacks btu to make power.

BTU's Per gallon:

Regualr Gasoline = 114,100
Ethanol (E85) = 81,800
Propane = 91,600

Well it looks like it has more btu's than E85, for what that's worth. NHRA having a rule against it does make it less interesting. I don't think it poses any greater danger of fire than a good old nitrous fire mixed with tranny fluid, or a fuel pump still feeding the fire.

That turbo idea is interesting. Do people inject propane in gasoline turbo applications? Seems like it would allow you to run around on pump gas and really run the boost up when you used propane without having all the inter cooler clutter and having to pack ice in them.

Shwep, I think your sourse of informatin is in error, the charts I have seen show LNG around 58000 BTU, Propane around 57000 BTU and Butane at 55000 BTU, way less than any type of alcholol. Edit, I'm not sure of how much propane in liquid form turns into as a gas but as I already said that old Dodge truck averaged right at 7.5 MPG on the cheap regualr gasoline and 6.0 MPG on propane. Propane was way cheaper per gallon than gasoline then so it was a little cheaper to run for the same distance as gasoline so it was a advantage except for killing the exhaust valves.

It's very popular in Australia.... Many,many people use it in daily drivers as a stand alone or dual fuel system (along with both carb and EFI systems), and a bunch of people doing it in higher output situations too (not sure about all out stuff like you might be shooting for though off hand)
Might see if any of the Aussie members chime in, or try some of the Oz companies that deal in it alot...

I know a few guys with it in supercharged setups.
Here is a friends '67 Camaro with a blown big block on LPG..

I think BTU per pound of fuel will give a better comparison. Alcohol has less BTU per gallon than gas, but has more BTU per pound because a gallon of alky is a lot lighter than a gallon of gas.

Propane won't do as well NA because you can't get enough of it in the engine vaporized and mixed with air(BIG expansion ratio from liquid to gas)to make serious power. One of those pesky laws of physics or thermal dynamics or Murphy's Law I'm not sure which, I'm not a lawyer.

With a turbo however you can compress the charge and make it denser, and because the fuel is a gas that mixes with air, you can compress a bunch of it. The more properly mixed air/fuel the more power. The potential I think borders on scary assuming the hardware could stand the strain.

Kevin

Its also avery slow burning fuel as i recollect. Great for fleet trucks , fork lifts and some diesel assists. But not great for high rpm perfomance apps. Also less btu,s as already stated. mike

Thanks a bunch guys, all good reasons not to waste time with it. It would be nice to have a really clean yet powerful fuel one day. When I'm around race fuel and methanol burning cars I feel the effects of breathing the fumes. I'm sure the life long hard core racers lives are shorter as a result of breathing them. Maybe one day they'll be something better.

Hydrogen??

Kevin

Hydrogen burns fast and hot. Its present in high concentrations in certain bio digester fuels. Possible to burn in an IC engine but not ideal.

it works great with a pinch of added O2
ive done it.