Propane Fuel Injection

[Darrell Norquay]

Todd Ratke writes:

> Zirconium-Oxide.  Propane tends to burn a lot hotter than gasoline
> engines, furthermore many people run higher compression ratios to gain
> some of the horsepower lost from a propane conversion.  This usually
> results in decreased engine life.  By using a ceramic coating, the heat

I have to disagree with you there, Todd.  Propane engines tend to last a
LOT longer than gasoline engines (all else being equal).  Higher compression
ratio does not shorten engine life appreciably per se, it's just that it 
tends to be used in high performance applications which demand more from
an engine.  The other advantages which propane shows over gasoline tend to 
more than balance out the added stresses that propane may impart on the
combustion chamber.  When was the last time you saw a gasoline powered engine
run 500,000 miles between rebuilds - something that propane powered Taxis 
do on a regular basis...

> normally transferred out the piston top and cylinder head is greatly
> reduced resulting in cooler oil and coolant temperatures.  An added bonus
> is increased engine efficiency and a cleaner tail-pipe. 

Not to mention added thermodynamic efficiency which tends to extract more 
useable power per BTU of fuel...

> One project I have on the go right now is a propane conversion on a 1996
> Chrysler minivan. It is a competition among major universities accross
> North America sponsored in part by the SAE, called the LPGV challenge
> (Liquified Petroleum Gas Vehicle).  One of the fuel systems we are working
> on is direct liquid propane injection and ceramic coated pistons and
> cylinder heads.  Should prove to be an interesting project.  

I would be most interested if you kept me posted on this.  I haven't heard
of this competition before, but I am very interested in fuel injection for 
propane.  Besides, you're just down the road a piece...

> PS: if any of
> you have tried this before, I would appreciate any information you could
> give me, we are all novices with direct injection and would sure like some
> insight into some solutions for this most difficult engineering problem. 

I started a thread on this list a couple of months ago on propane EFI,
and got some interesting replies...  One was from an Aussie company who
were developing a dual fuel port injection system.  I could forward you
some of the pertinent messages if you're interested...

regards
dn


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 Darrell A. Norquay              Internet: dn at dlogtech.cuc.ab.ca     
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