Considering the price of gas, and the fact that it's probably not going to go down any time soon, I've been toying with the idea of converting my 4.6L to run on dual fuel (either LPG or gasoline). I'm wanting to know if there's anyone on this site, or elsewhere, that has done this, and their opinions on it. Thanks!

 

Nope, but where abouts in arkansas are you from?

 

Right outside of Mountain Home, in Elizabeth. My house sits 500 feet from Lake Norfork...I got a sweet deal on my uncle's house 2 years ago.

 

don't do it.

there is a reason why Ford uses the 5.4 as a dual fuel prepped engine... propane puts out less power than gasoline. You know how much pep your 4.6 has... now imagine lopping off 2 cyl. Thats what it would feel like. Same with natural gas.

 

let me just add a few facts.

fact one- propane is 104 octane compared to 97 for gas

Fact two - in a liquid fuel injected engine the air mix for propane is 15.7 to 1 and for gas it's 14.7 to 1

Fact three - inorder for the liquid propane for convert to a gas in the engine it has to use heat from the air coming into the engine. This simply means it runs cooler.

Yes you are right about gas vs propane on a engine with carbs, but not an engine with fuel injection and electronic fuel management.

just my 2 cents

 

Fact: All that stuff above doesn't matter when propane has a lower energy content. Propane contains about 84,000 Btu/gallon and regular gasoline averages 114,000 Btu/gallon.

Soooo let's see... at least $2,000 to convert... trying to find refueling stations, paying about the same if not more for propane and you have to have a larger tank to match the range of your gas tank. With that larger tank and extra weight, you just use even more energy to move around & lose payload.

Yeah, propane is a GREAT way to go...

Another fact: Yes, propane powered vehicles have extremely similar performance to their gas counterparts. Whooptie-doo!

 

while all of this may be true, I have driven bi-fuel and propane only trucks and I tell you they are weaker than gasoline power.

 

We have a bunch of natural gas vehicles at work. IMHO, there are more negatives than positives. On the pickups (all F150s BTW), the fuel tanks take up nearly half of the bed of the truck, the trucks get about 150 miles at the most to empty, and it takes probably 20 minutes to fill the tanks. If you run out of fuel, you might as well call a wrecker because filling stations are almost non-existant. They are clean burning and I'm sure are good for the environment, but not very practical.

 

Try this site.

http://www.welshtec.com

 

J-150

The dual fuel trucks you drove. Where they a liquid propane injection or vapor propane injection. I would bet that they were vapor injection.

 

I have a 2000 Expedition 5.4 with a propane conversion that was installed by the dealer. Right now I can buy propane for $1.65. That sounds good but I get 3-4 mpg less than gas. And the others are correct... less power. Arizona had a rebate for bi-fuel vehicles. I received a 30% rebate from new sticker price. I had to burn 50% propane for 3 years. Any time I took a trip or was pulling my trailer I not only did not burn propane but I had to remove the injector collar because I restricted the air intake. No air..no power!!!. Don't do it it is not worth the cost.

 

LEW673

Sounds like you had the gas injection system installed on your truck. These system will produce less mpg and hp unless a turbo or blower is used.

A liquid propane injection is completely different. It is more expensive than the vapor gas injection system. The only one I've found here in the US that is a liquid injection system is BI-Phase. At this time they don't have an aftermarket unit for sale.

 

so it sounds like the only real option is the vapour injection which is inferior to gasoline in performance.

I think that answers the question of whether to get a propane conversion or not.