What comments do you guys have on propane injection?

I made my own and use it reguraly on short steep hills while towing my trailer. Those hills that would normaly slow me down well below road speed or cause a down shift. I control the propane from a switch mounted on the center console by my right hand.


If you are going for "All Out" I would say get a production system because there are some built in protections that may keep you from over doing it.


If you just want that little boost to get over the top go ahead and build your own for about $100.00 for a regulator, selinoid, hose, and needle valve.


The limiting factors are do not apply propane at rpms below 1200 because the propane may cause the engine to attempt to reverse itself due to pre ignition. When setting up a system do not apply a propane flow rate that starts to produce excess diesel rattle. This excess rattle will in time hammer the rist pin bushings.


Take a look at my site for pics.

Howie,


Has anyone ever told you that the blue flames shooting out your tailpipe really look sharp?!

I made my own system too and without a trailer it is darn hard to notice a difference. I wasn't too impressed and took it off as a matter of fact. I am going to try water injection next as that will at least lower my egt's and maybe make some more power.








Tony

TonyB


Discribe your system, I am interested in why you saw no diffrance. I can't imagine you saw no differance without a trialer. I feel mine in the seat of my pants even with the trailer.

What I had was a barbque propane tank with a 10 psi regulator on it. Its rated for like 120,000 btu so flow was not a problem. Then it traveled thru a hose 1/4" to the air filter (AFE cone). There it had a solenoid to control it on or off. The solenoid output had a brass barb x threaded end on it so it was a wide open port. When I am holding my foot on the throttle to produce an elevated rpm and turn the propane on- it would raise my rpm by about 500-700 rpm. At idle it would not run correctly, it would make the engine huff and puff some as the pressure was probably too high for the rpm. However under operating conditions I could not for the life of me tell moderate difference. I played with the pressure regulator- from almost off to all the way up. It seemed that at 5/8 open and more it ran with a noticable difference. However it wasn't very noticable at all. Especially for the hiss of propane going thru the lines.


Tony

I made my own system too and without a trailer it is darn hard to notice a difference. I wasn't too impressed and took it off as a matter of fact. I am going to try water injection next as that will at least lower my egt's and maybe make some more power.








Tony





That's wierd man, I'm surprised you can't feel 30 hp at the flick of a switch. I know that at 3000rpm it's not too noticable, but at 1500rpm and about 5lbs of boost, you should feel the thing surge pretty hard. Mine will build up to 18lbs of boost before the wastegate opens. If you can't feel that, you should check your pulse, and call a doctorhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Wink.gif.

I am wondering if my fuel output is low. I installed the manual boost controller and did a PMD remote last weekend. When I did my truck made huge gains in performance. However I never have any black smoke at all. I have the wastegate control set to open at 14 psi. Whether floored or part throttle it does not smoke any at all. The EGT's run read good about 750 post turbo was the highest it got racing the truck down a road--probably got close to 100 mph before letting off.





When I run with propane it feels the same- no quicker acceleration. The only time I noticed a difference is when I am cruising at 65-70 mph with propane on I barely have to touch the throttle to maintain speed.


I raced a friend's 01 duramax crew cab dually and the two times we raced we were about the same- with propane and without propane. By the way when we raced we were neck and neck till about 55-60 then he slowly pulled out to a 1.5 truck length lead that very very slowly grew till into the triple digits. I was hoping to take him with the propane but it seemed to help nill. That made me wonder about my fuel levels- if the pump is puttin out enough fuel as I never see black or any smoke for that fact.


Are you supposed to see black smoke???





Thanks,


Tony

I already have homade propane injection . It works great, but I also have many mods. I was wondering If others were haveing good results. Im also getting 23.5 miles to a gallon at 70 mph with the propane.

I already have homade propane injection . It works great, but I also have many mods. I was wondering If others were haveing good results. Im also getting 23.5 miles to a gallon at 70 mph with the propane.





I hope that doesn't mean you are feeding it a gallon of LP for every 23.5 miles you drive.http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Ouch.gif

Do you have any problems with heat the guy I bought my truck from said he had it installed but took it off because the truck would heat up real fast.

Ruben,


23.5 MPG! I think I'm missing something.

Running a diesel truck at a sustained speed with the aid of a secondary fuel such as propane and caluclating the MPG without taking into effect the fuel value of the propane is not quit cricket. Yes I do not dispute the fact that you may be getting 23+ MPG when only considering the diesel used but unless you are getting the propane for free that's not a true figure.

Today ran truck copletly out of fuel. I put one gallon exactlyback in. I ran the truck from my house, I live on flat out county road. I got up to 70 mph, I also reset trip to 0. I went 21.8 miles before iran out. So i was mistaken. Im not 23.5mpg, but 21 one is good enough for me. Sorry for the misinformation. Also this was with propane. Also I dont think I used a gallon of propane.Edited by: Ruben

You guys with propane did you inject before or after the turbo? I am injecting into intake. Any thoughts?

The propane HAS to go in before the turbo, at the air filter, because the regulator pressure is lower than the boost pressure under load and you will get nothing if injected after the turbo.

Ruben,


How are you injecting it?


I am familiar with propane, I use it for cutting instead of actylene( when possible). I purchased one of those bed tanks for my truck. 100 gal capacity but holds 85% when full. It has liquid and vapor lines. I would like to run a liquid line to a small evaporative core that could bleed liquid/gas propane into the intake post turbo. That should drop intake temps more than 100 deg. as propane boils at -44 deg.


A propane intercooler if you will.


I havn't seen any 12v solenoids for propane. Who might supply them.

Any fork lift supply company will have 12 volt selinoids for vapor. I got mine from Propane Equipment Corp 11 Apple St Tinton Falls NJ 732 747 3795. About $25.00


I question the idea of injecting propane post turbo for the reason I mentioned above. I also qiuestion the effect that this would have as a cooling agent because I thing you would greatly over fuel the engine on propane long before any signifant cooling would be realized.


My regulator, at the bottle, is set at 6 psi and will drop to 0 psi when opened because the engine pulls a vacuum on the hose. Even with this notisable flow limitation in the system I get a signifant power increase when using propane. If you were to supply liquid at high pressure to produce the same power increase the orfice would have to be extremly small.

I would like to run a liquid line to a small evaporative core that could bleed liquid/gas propane into the intake post turbo. That should drop intake temps more than 100 deg. as propane boils at -44 deg.


Liquid Propane in a diesel?


I've seen this before,,,,, with devastating results.


I hope you're budgeting for extensive engine repairs.


I'm not sure how accurate these figures are, but somebody told me that one drop of liquid propane is equivelant to 250 drops of vapor.


So,,,if you intend to try this, I recomend that you be outdoors, and have the camera rolling.


Just my $.02 worth

I get my idea from having watched propane evaporate off before. The liquid should never leave the evap core. I am also interested in supplimenting the O2 content of the air charge. This idea comes from using propane as a cutting gas and seeing how efficient it burns with the oxygen on.


The way I see it you would need a trickle of LPG, 30-40 psi pulse of oxygen and hold on.

Ok, I see, When I read it the first time I thought you were going to spray in the liquid, like a water misting kit, and I was thinking NO DON"T DO IThttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gifhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Big Smile.gif


Now that I understand that part, you got me confused againhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Embarrased.gif


Where is this 30-40 psi pulse of oxygen going to come from?


And what about the headshttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Cry.gif . You might need a big strap to hold them down. That's an aweful lot of boost for our little 6.5's. The boost sensor in the manifold won't like it either and will defuel the motor if it see's 15 or more lbs for a couple of seconds.

The o2 would probably come from a welding bottle as it's what I have.


The Theory is to supplement boost, not force feed it.

How much boost you run now? And which truck are you going to try this on. I'm unsure as to how to read ""'93 5spd'94'96 L65 k3500""

The O2/propane charge would increase my efficency of combustion. I don't want anything more than is needed to accomplish that.


The '93 would be the easiest to set it up on, but the '94 might be the one.