Date:         Sun, 21 Sep 2003 13:19:15 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Propane Fueled Turbo Diesel Injection
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Just watched a program on the tube called "Trucks". Featured this week
was a modification of a Chevy diesel engine to accept propane fuel.

Didn't catch the whole thing, but this is what I did get.

Chevy diesel engine was dyno'ed at 190 BHP. A bolt-on propane injection
kit was added and the engine dyno'ed at 400 BHP, ran totally clean, and
specific fuel consumption was reduced, equating to improved mileage per
gallon.

The injection kit supplied liquid propane to a heating element heated by
hot water to convert it to gaseous propane - and ensure absolutely no
liquid present - and the gaseous propane was injected into the air
stream going into the cylinders.

This setup really intrigued me. Could this be the future of the
diesel??? It produced virtually no emissions other than water and carbon
dioxide.  I wonder if such a setup could be put on our diesel Vanagon
conversions. Increased horsepower, increased mileage, and lowered
emissions. What a deal.

Propane bleeding from a propane tank depends on evaporation from the
liquid surface to produce enough pressure to bleed out through a
pressure regulator. A system such as this one, may not require that, but
may accept liquid propane directly to the pre-heater. If this is true,
it would really be a boon to using propane as an automotive fuel in cold
climates. When I was in Alaska I used propane a lot in my shop, and on
super cold days, unless the tank had a goodly amount of propane in it,
the vapor pressure would get so low as to not feed the regulator. Same
is true here when doing raku pottery with propane. The use of the
propane drops the pressure, dropping the temperature dramatically which
in turn drops the pressure due to cold. Often we have to set the tank in
a tub of warm water to continue firing. Someone came out with a
Dip-stick pickup tube that can be installed that sucks up the liquid
propane and puts the liquid through a hose/tube to a burner that
preheats the liquid to a gas before it goes through the burner port to
be burned. This allows all the propane to be sucked out of the tank,
leaving virtually no residual.  Such a system on a vehicle would be
great for propane burning purposes.

The propane injection system might be modified to use LNG but that was
not mentioned. LNG does not have as great a specific heat as does
propane, so a horsepower increase may not be there.

Opinion????

Thanks,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver - polluting with gasoline