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Date:         Thu, 13 Feb 2003 23:28:56 -0700
Reply-To:     Gary Lee <gary2a@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gary Lee <gary2a@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject:      re. vanagon propane conversion
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> Since the engine is an injected DJ model, Jason had to > disable the petrol injectors when switched over to gas. This > is so because the engine must be started on petrol. (I have > not discovered why this is necessary because on a cold engine > the running is much smoother on gas).

I'd guess it's necessary because, on a cold day, there may not be enough heat available to properly vaporize the propane until the engine is warmed up.

---- reply --------

We can have very cold days where I live and people here with propane vehicles (there are a lot of them) do not have vaporization problems. The engine coolant heats up in time to warm up the LPG converter. In fact, I always put in a valve in to reduce coolant flow through the converter as it gets too hot. Actually, I can't see the propane converter contributing anything significant to the cooling loop because the LPG flow is pretty low.

The easiest way to turn off the petrol injection is to cut the ground to the injectors (have it switchable). I do this at the ECU connector. This keeps the ignition functional. You can shut off the fuel pump if you want.

You should not need to start the engine on gasoline and then switch to propane. If you need to do this, something's wrong with your installation. It could be that the vapor hose is very long and there is no priming circuit. Or a leak. I've actually never bothered to hook up a primer as it has not been needed. All my conversions started fine on propane. There are a lot of conversions which are propane only, not dual fuel, so it is not possible to start on gasoline.

At the moment, propane is $0.44 per liter in Calgary, gasoline is $0.80 per liter. Last year I was paying $0.16 per liter for propane at one point. The vast majority of the time, the spread in price between propane and gasoline favors running on propane. Sometimes by a considerable margin.

Vanagon propane conversion http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/propane/propane.htm BMW propane conversion http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/bmw/bmw.htm

Gary Lee http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/vanagonrack.htm


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