Cheap gas alternative

Last week I got an LPG-installation in my boattail, for gas prices (98oct.) here are over $ 6.50 per US gallon and LPG is more or less the same as you guys (in the US) are paying for gas (45 eurocents per liter). Got a 100 liter (25 gallon) gastank in the trunk which makes it a problem to take a spare tire with original size (still have to get a smaller tire for the rim). With the under the dash built gauge, I still can switch from regular gas to LPG. Power decreases a bit with the engine running on LPG.

 

How hard was the install. Propane is 60cents a gal near me.

 

What type of mileage does this give you?

 

If I drive nicely 60 miles an hour, and without much opening up the secondaries, I will get 4.5 km out of 1 liter LPG.

That's 17.03 km out of 1 US gallon, so that's 10.57 miles to the gallon.

(But I like to hit the accelerator every now and than, and our motorways are great for doing 200 km/h, so I will get low single figures all the time :3gears: )

My tank has a capacity of 118 liter (31.15 US gallon), for safety reasons there's a switch off function at the filling stations when the tank is 80% full. (94.4 liter or 24.92 US gallon)

And I'm using one of the car's original Roadwheels for a spare, with a 195 low profile 15 inch tyre that will just fit in front of the tank and just clears the boothlid.

When you crank the engine, a relay will open up an electric valve in the tank and an electric valve under the bonnet, just before the convertor.

With the engine running, this relay is closed and switched to another relay, getting power from the pulses from spark plug terminal #1.

If you get into an accident and the motor shuts off, both valves will be closed because there is no longer a pulse coming from the ignition. So no LPG can escape from damaged fuel lines, causing a major fire.

There is also a bypass valve in the tank, opening up when temperatures outside the tank (as in a fire) will get too high. LPG will escape through an extra hose, connected to a hole in the floor of your trunk. This way an LPG tank will never explode, like a normal petrol tank in a fire will do.

I saw a fire in a garage last year, and there were a few LPG cars in there, every now and than you saw a burst of flames coming from one of those cars, when the safety valve opened up to let the pressure off.

Firefighters told me they were more worried about the cars running on petrol, because their tanks could explode any time while they were busy trying to stop the fire.

 

What is this boot and bonnet you speak of?? :grin: j/k
What is the offset between the gas mileage you get with lpg and what you get with gas??

 

I found my photos:

31.15 gallons LPG tank:


Under the cover you can see the electric valve and the wires for the LED's to tell you how much there is left in the tank.
The hose in the lower left corner is for letting the LPG out when the pressure inside the tank gets too high. The hose in the right center is for filling the tank up:


Here's the electric valve:


LED's in the switch, left position is for LPG, right position is for petrol:


It's a tight fit, but it works, 195 low profile tyre on one of my original Roadwheels:


Check the difference in prices between petrol and LPG:
(prices for 1 litre of Super 98 is around 1,44 Euro / US$ 1.82 now at the motorway service stations)


LPG filling nipple:


This is what it looks like when connected:


You have to keep this button pushed in to fill the tank:

 

Found a very nice spare tire today to for a Buick ralley wheel (15/195/50) which fits in the trunk along with the LPG tank....

 

I thought I'd read somewhere that it takes about 3 gallons of LPG to get the same energy generated at 1 gallon of gasoline.

 

That's not true: on a carburated engine you will loose roughly 10% in power and fuel consumption. But with the new LPi systems for injected engines, this decrease is no longer noticeable. And LPG is a very clean fuel, with less wear to internal engine parts.

 

Hmmmmm, that won't fit.
Maybe you're on about a 195/50/15 tyre... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Cool Rob, so I don't have to search for you any longer... :TU:

 

:laugh: :laugh: .... it's in the trunk already ...cheers, mate

 

tire.......trunk.....

Hmmm, your English teachers were into Dallas and Dynasty a wee bit too much.... :laugh:


On the other hand: "Cheers mate" is proper English :TU:

Mate is a good word, because you know what buddy means here in the Netherlands :bglasses:

 

Spend too much time on this board :laugh:

 

Even cheaper gas alternative

I find that Taco Bell has about the cheapest gas around. Lunch is usually only about $1.98 away.

 

Another alternative is frying grease, but of course I like many others don't want our cars smelling like french fries. :laugh:

 

Methane anybody

Propane is typically 2500 BTU/cu. ft. while natural gas has around 900 to 1000 BTU/cu. ft.

So it would take a lot more methane to produce the same energy.