thinking about propane powered fester...

[honestvinnie]

Hi, I have a 89 fester i'm thinking about converting to propane,
has anyone else tried this?

[Movin]

Check your state container laws , and know how you will be filling the tank before you start. The rest is easy.

[Bert]

Check your state container laws , and know how you will be filling the tank before you start. The rest is easy.

Movin, you're still alive! Whoo hoo. I'm not here much anymore either. My 3 Festys are all gone (to good homes I hope) and I've gone to a red 05 5 speed Echo as of 4 months ago, and I love it. No more habitual poking around in the Mazda area of the local U-Pull looking for prizes, and the OEM 1.5 twin cam in the Toyota goes like Jack the bear. Plus tach/pulse wipers/underseat tray/door pockets/rear wiper/cargo lamp/cloth seats etc are standard fare. And the little bugger got 58 miles per gallon (Imperial gallon; 4.546 litres, guys) on the highway just this past week. No 5 speed EFI Festy I owned ever even got close to that number.
If I know you're still here I'll check in once a month or so.

By the way to respond to the initial post; propane only has 2/3 the energy of gasoline so either you're gonna have to burn 1/3 more (in order to stay even) or suffer a 1/3 loss in power. No brainer for me with regard to B3s! That and having to jury-rig a 40 lb cylinder somewhere in or on to the car would seal the deal. Spend your time better and track down, and import, a Mazda turbo diesel from Europe. At very least you'll then have a stump puller that also happens to get good mileage.

[Movin]

Bert, good to hear from you too. OP didn't offer much info but out here diesel is over 4 bucks and propane is 2.30 . Gas is just under 3.80 so a propane or electric conversion would make good sense for in town no full power needed.
I still have the festies and a car lot full of other vehicles. I had to turn the shop over to my son for awhile while the doc's put me on disability. As you remember my wife has been disabled for many years so I didn't want to go at all. I have 3 doc friends that told me I was running out of time and disability
would at least keep me going. I could see how the obama care - medi-care was going downhill for my wife and in the middle of all my kicking and screaming I stumbled across a cushy state job that looked impossible to get. Some how I won out against a pile of other mechanics and landed me a nice state office and a motor pool of everything imaginable to take care of. The insurance is way better than disability so my wife and I are both getting the help we need. This coming week I start additional treatment.
Enough of that, I have propane, electric, diesel, 2 cycle, all kinds of stuff to take care of. Maybe OP can fill us in if he is buying a kit, a car all done or getting parts and putting his own thing together.

[sc72]

Movin, glad to hear things are on the upswing for you and your family, now about the Propane, I checked with a shop in D.M. about a kit he was selling, installed it was 5k and if you wanted your own filling station at home it was another 5k but filling your tank at home brought the price per gallon down to around .17 per gallon. Honestvinnie let us know what you are thinking.

[Pu241]

$0.17/gal seems too cheap.
Propane with your own tank for home use, currently runs about $2/gal in Virginia.

[Bert]

Movin I'm very happy to hear that things are looking up for you. Governments need to seek out more employees endowed with common sense and many years of real life experience. It's good that we live in the West where life is not deemed frivolous and expendable such as in the Middle East and many banana republics.

If a calculator indicates that propane is a viable and economical alternative to gasoline for movement from A to B then I'd say go for it. But be forewarned that you'll be frustrated with the power loss. Propane was real big here for fleet and taxi use in the mid 70s (immediately after the Arab oil embargo of 73) and was subsidized and encouraged by all levels of government. But the entire movement petered out within a few years when users/owners discovered they had to upgrade to bigger engines in order to keep up with the traffic. Propane and natural gas burn clean, which was a real bonus back when gasoline was still leaded, but not so much today. Introduction of unleaded gas in the mid to late 70s was a major revolution towards not having to clean or change spark plugs all the time.

[Movin]

I had some natural gas customers until my son took over, I hope he still does too. The Ford pickups are pretty good with natural gas, they don't hold up traffic and do fine on 100 mile trips out of town. But natural gas is not as cheap to install. Propane is fine power wise if you have the mind set that you are saving money. I used to get more power than gasoline because i was removing non computer factory extra rich carbs and installing computer tuned propane. Now days fuel injection is spot on and propane will show about a 10% loss in power. BUT is has 112 octane so if you have a turbo or a high compression engine you will get more power than gasoline because gasoline only has 87 octane or maybe a little more and you cannot tune gasoline very far with such poor specs. What does a drum of race gas cost and how much octane does it have?

[Spike]

Assuming the prices aren't jacked too much (Motorsports website), 110 octane racing fuel is $8.50/gal.

[villageidiot]

My local speed shop, 110 leaded, $9/gal. Not for street use. Have to sign a waiver etc.

[Movin]

If you build the engine for propane to get the power and cheap fuel, then decide it isn't for you that race fuel would be the only alternative besides natural gas. If you just want cheap fuel then you can run propane and go back, or install dual fuel because no mods to the engine are needed. It isn't something you would try to do in one weekend to your only car. Once you get your mind around it though it can be fun to play with and save a little as well. A BBQ that swings out so that the rear hatch can open comes to mind..good excuse for the tank! Lets, a table could fold out in the other direction, heck a whole galley off the receiver hitch! Probably wouldn't win any car shows...

[n5554t]

Anyone try the local airport? Av gas is 100 octane and not sure what the price is now since I sold my Cessna about a year ago.