Slant Six in Jeep?

Propane wouldn't make any difference as far as the engine installation went. I had a Slant Six telco truck, but there was no evidence it was ever a propane burner. Charles Chips, the potato chip people, had propane Slant Six van-chassis trucks and after having all the heads redone for the valve seats they went a long, long, long time on propane. I'm guessing some of them went 500K before falling apart. Apparently out of a 500 truck fleet they had one lower end failure in all that time. Cam lobes would start going and they'd change the cam, lifters, and oil pump but the cranks and rods were in factory specs after that much mileage. They used propane, Franz asspaper oil filters (in addition to stock) and specially modified surface gap plugs in some engines.

Wonder what happened to Charles Chips?

Don't know how their vans are powered, but they show up at my office (West Los Angeles..Brentwood to be more exact) about once a week. Those folks too feeble to walk accross the street to Ralphs buy snacks from them for way too much money. In other words, they are stil around.

The vans, from what i can see, are pretty old delivery vans, but I have no idea how they are powered.

Regards,

DAve

The Dodge vans the phone co. I work for didn't last long regardless of fuel.

You would have to cast your own bell housing, make an adapter plate, or find a Dodge 4WD transmission that fit your transfer case. This is all basically a waste of time, given that the parts are readily available for Chevy small block, AMC inline 6, AMC V8, or Ford small block. If you really want a 6, that is not AMC design, then the Chevy 6 bolts up to the same bell housing as the V8. In my opinion, a Dodge 318, or later designation 5.2 Magnum, is a more interesting choice, but still you have to find all the parts. The last time I looked, your friendly local Chrysler products dealer could sell you a 300 HP Magnum V8, "not for street use". The transmission and clutch housing could come from a Dodge 4WD pickup. If you are dead set on putting a Chrysler product 6 cylinder in there, how about a Magnum V6? Same amount of work as the V8, same adapter, but less power, maybe more economical.

The first Jeep conversion I looked at, came to us with a Ford 292, with the Ford clutch housing, cleverly bolted to the Jeep transmission, using an adapter welded together out of angle iron. The bolts, which were undersized for the application, would shake loose every two weeks or so. It convinced me, that this sort of endeavor was somehow unnatural. The cast aluminum transmission adapter, that someone found at a mail order house (this was

1976) did little to "enlighten" me, as to the benefits of inter-make vehicle engine swaps. You would have to have a compelling reason to do the swap, such as a radical difference in reliability or power of the donated engine, to make it worth my while, to be involved in another of these.

Availability of a propane input device, carburetor or whatever it is called, wouldn't really do it for me. But as Bill says, "Blow yourself up, have a good time!"

Earle

Why?

Would a Slant Six give better mileage than the 4.0L? Remember, you Jeep has all of the aerodynamics of a brick. Making a brick get good gas mileage is nearly impossible. I don't think the anemic Slant Six will give you any better fuel mileage.

Your mother teach you to lie, lie, lie like that? She should have been paddled for not raising truthful kids.

From a practicality standpoint I would agree. FYI I think adapters are generally no good for manual applications, I believe if it's worth doing a custom bellhousing is in order. If the space permits a scattershield style housing is probably the least expensive way to go for a one-off if a standard hydroformed dome will be drillable and have the right distance. Since we no longer have a job shop foundry industry in the US to speak of and since automotive people have a mysterious genetic inability to understand basic concepts like "draft" and "shrink rule" the simple expedient of making up a pattern and having ye olde sand crab house ram it up and pour it is no longer feasible.

From a fuel availability standpoint LP Gas is not a practical daily use fuel in the United States. But the average person willing to think a little and follow the clear, explicit directions need not worry too much about blowing himself up with propane. Bill OTOH probably would blow himself and his house to kingdom come, because as he has shown he cannot and does not learn anything new.

Propane motor fuel is common in every other country in the world, practically. and people are not blowing themselves up at any notable rate. Propane calamities in the US usually involve barbecue grills or houses owned by retards who sue the propane industry after the fact because a few sleaze bag lawyers take the cases on contingent fees figuring propane insurors would pay off quietly with hush money. They were for quite awhile, but the imploding interest rates (and consequent skyrocketing premiums) saved them from themselves.

Fire insurance isn't much good if you are dead, or have to do six months of rehab. :o(

You will find a way to disagree with anyone, won't you?

Earle

As long as Stoddard Solvent, K-1 Kerosene, and many other fluids are around gasoline is ultra-stupid as a cleaning solvent. Not is it only WAY too flammable it isn't even all that good! The most volatile parts evaporate too soon and leave the dirt only slightly displaced.

Dry cleaning fluid was "the shit" but unless you marry into a Korean dry cleaning family, it's unobtanium now.

That said I _do_ use gasoline for one or two particular jobs-but outside, wearing full fire coveralls, and with an assistant with a BIG fire extinguisher standing by. The parts stay outside a full 24 hours "no matter what" and are then solvent cleaned.

Much as I _love_ the venerable Slant Six, why bother putting one in a Jeep when the 232/258 drops right in?

Bret Ludwig wrote:

Actually it's methane (CNG,LNG) that has 130 octane rating. Propane is only 106-108 depending on which test engine is used. (Actually ALL octane ratings depend on which test engine is used, but that's a diffferent issue.)

However, methane is condensible only at cryogenic temperatures. Propane is a low pressure condensible.

Propane is the simplest fuel system and the cleanest, easiest to use, best motor fuel we may buy. Unfortunately, there's just so much of it a barrel of crude will fractionate off. CNG has no range and requires scuba-class pressure tanks. LNG requires a cryotank and complex valving and high dollar gas condensing plants.