Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 23:26:28 -0500
Reply-To: Marshall Ruskin <mruskin@PANGEA.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marshall Ruskin <mruskin@PANGEA.CA>
Subject: Re: Natural gas
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I asked the list about this a while back - except my interest was using
propane - because in Canada there's a national supply infrastructure for it.
It must be cheaper to run them - because all the taxicabs here are converted
to it - and they wouldn't do it for any other reason. FWIW: Most taxi's here
are very large American "Family" sedans.
The few people who discussed the topic with me were generally not supportive
of it. Some questioned the safety of the large propane tank, others
mentioned power issues.
The safety issue can, of course be dealt with, and IMHO, those that
mentioned power problems were just mis-informed.
Marshall Ruskin
84 Westy "iron Igloo"
>I wish there was a little more interest in this subject. We men, usually
if we
>don't know something, will just keep quiet. So it seems to me that there
is not a
>lot of knowledge spread around on this matter. I could be terribly wrong
of
>course.
>Zoltan
>
>John Rodgers wrote:
>
>> Irvin, you have raised a question that has been in my mind for some time
now. I
>> have seen this done, but not on a vanagon. The natural gas company there
in
>> Soldotna used to sell the setup to convert your car/truck to natural gas.
It
>> took a special carburetor as I recall or maybe it was a conversion kit.
If you
>> ran out of natural gas( called LNG in a lot of places) a throw of the
lever
>> would put you back on gasoline. . They had most of their trucks converted
to
>> natural gas. Don't know if that is still true or not.
>>
>> Would be interesting to know if it could be done on a vanagon. One
problem that
>> arises is gas mileage or the lack thereof. Natural gas does not have the
>> calories or btu's per gallon (or is it pound) that gasoline has. So you
could
>> find yourself using more gallons of natural gas for a given distance than
you
>> would with gasoline.
>>
>> Maybe the membership of the list has more knowlidge about this.
>>
>> John Rodgers
>> "88 GL Driver with a leaky windsheild <|:<(
>>
>> Christopher Irvin wrote:
>>
>> > Okay I know this may sound dumb, but has any one ever heard of a
natural gas
>> > conversion for a Vanagon? My engine is toast, and I have to develop
some
>> > ideas on rebuild or replacment before my better half calls the junk
yard and
>> > has my baby towed off to a fate worse than death. I'm not enven a
shade
>> > tree mechanic, butlearning little by little. Anyone in Eagle River or
>> > Anchorage Alaksa interested in a project might also consider contacting
me
>> > via P-mail if you have offers on a reasonably sound (other than the
motor)
>> > '84 weekender.
>> >
>> > Christopher Irvn
>> > Eagle River, Alaska
>
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