VW Bug 1600cc Gas to Propane Conversion Kit

Where are you going to put a tank in a bug big enough to go 200+ miles? Sure, if you live on an island like Great Britain you can have a small tank, 5 or 10 gallons. But even that takes the place of a passenger. The power output of propane compared to gasoline is only around 70%. The distance between propane sources in the US is greater than the tank you can put in. A gallon of propane costs at least 50 cents more than a gallon of gas. As an example, a 350 Chev V8 with a 2 barrel carb gets 14 miles to the gallon. The same Chev P/U with a factory installed propane setup gets 9-9,5 miles to the gallon. And the

50 gallon tank is MASSIVE. When regular was 2.30 a gallon in Bakersfield Calif, we paid 2.85 a gallon for propane. We filled an empty-on-fumes 50 gallong tank and it only holds 45 gallons because of the expansion zone.....

Back in the 70's during the great gas crisis (weren't we supposed to be out of gas by now?) our city converted all government vehicles over to LP including police cars. I worked in an auto parts house then. We paid off a lot bills and had some great bonuses on the engine parts we sold even at heavily discounted prices to the city. Seems the propane eats at the engine for some reason. I really don't remember the explaination. And the police cars couldn't catch a kid on a trycycle much less someone trying to run.

As I recall, when they tore the engines down, they were very clean, just worn out.

But I see a lot of industrial equipment, forklifts ect. that run on LP and run forever on it. Anybody got an explaination either way?

I'm with the first response, where would you put the tank and the difference in price today doesn't seem to make up for the trouble.

< TC

Propane (LPG) has been around for some time and the tanks aren't that huge. It's CNG - Compressed Natural Gas that need tanks the size of a hot water heater and only get half the range of a regular vehicle. They also need an on-site compressor and hours to refill.

Raymond T. Lowe

In the "70" I ran a motorhome for a while on a dual- fuel set up (gas/propane). This set up used gas for the main fuel but after it was warmed up you could turn the gas off and propane valve on while the engine was running fro the drivers seat. The propane delivery system was a nozzle plate mounted over the gas carb or maybe it was under, I don't remember right now but I think it was on top. It worked great but the power loss was noticed. The idea was if gasoline was in short supply, you could run on propane. The industry felt since oil would be gone in 40 years, we needed to keep our vehicles going until we had the time to change to agriculture alcohol production fuels by 2010 so we were not at the mercy of the saudis. We only got 5 years left, right?

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I am not sure where you would put the extra tank in a Beetle and still have room for your passengers.

You can get tanks that fit in place of the spare wheel, but I guess that would only be suitable for the 1302/1303 Super Beetles. Plus I would not like to think what would happen in a serious front-end accident.

-- Howard Rose

1966 VW Beetle 1300 Deluxe 1962 Austin Mini Deluxe 1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (cars on website)

.............A ruptured tank of gasoline is as potentially lethal to a vehicle's occupant as any other type of fuel. Maybe even more so. Because a gasoline tank has air which contains oxygen displacing the fuel inside the tank, it has the capacity to go off like bomb. LP and CNG tanks don't have any air inside them as they are filled in a way that completely displaces the air that's needed to support combustion. Gasoline fires are very hot and can't be approached by anyone who isn't protected by a complete firefighting suit that includes a respirator. Ask any firefighter who has tried to rescue someone in burning car where the tank is or is possibly about to ignite after rupturing in an accident.

Pull a trailer of tanks.

Ask any firefighter if he's _ever_ seen a gas tank explode due to a burning automobile - for example, when the interior is on fire, or much more typically when the tires under the engine are on fire - the later is very common and nasty. A ruptured tank is another story, but fairly rare. In my years on the flightline and in the field, I've never seen an automobile or truck's tank explode.

unfortunately i agree with JJS....typically(but not always) if a car is burning it will burn through the filler neck or burn out a fuel line and it just lets the gasoline feed the fire...but *usually* no big boom.....i did however see a chevy truck's tank explode when it was "t-boned".....not a real pretty site...

It could, if it was mostly empty. It's the fumes that explode, gasoline alone won't. Gasoline doesn't even burn. :)

You can weld a patch in the bottom of a full gas tank without blowing it up or setting it on fire. (I don't recommend it though).

For gasoline fumes to ignite and explode, the air/fuel ratio needs to be within certain limits, too.

Jan

.................I personally know of instances where the gas tank literally exploded. Those of you who haven't suffered from memory loss yet, can probably figure out what I'm referring in one incident in my family's recent history. I also have two brothers who are firefighters and they've both experienced this type of situation 'up close and personal'. End of arguement.

Never seen it happen.

I sure won't say that gasoline isn't dangerous. There's a reason it is classified (in the USA) as an explosive, while nitro-based gunpowder is just 'flammable'. I was in a gas explosion - a real boom and ball of fire. This was a case of spilled gasoline, and a saturated source that fed it. The fumes must have run across the ground then ignited behind me. I was well away from the source but the fire ball burned my hair and eyebrows. It went away as quickly as it happened and I continued towards the source. Someone was closer and unlucky.

Sorry for your bad experiences, but they are very rare. Cite the exact circumstances of the firefighters and you are likely to find a ruptured tank. That's a different case.

My memory is just fine, thank you.

To follow up on Tim's specific remark. There are exacerbating flaws in some modern vehicles that did cause some horrible fires - one due to ruptured fuel tanks and another caused by a flawed cap release over an unvented tank.

We had a fire here last year from a ruptured tank under otherwise benign circumstances. It was gutwrenching horror. Everyone died. Fast. 10 gallons of fuel dispersed suddenly and blew up. The fire was up and over before the first responders got there.

My deepest sympathies to all who know of such victims.

.............Rupturing is precisely what precedes the ignition of the mixture of air and gasoline fumes INSIDE the tank. What immmediately follows is often called an explosion. Whatever it is, it can rip apart the vehicle. I've seen and heard enough about this to know that it isn't rare at all if you're a firefighter or work in a hospital.

I was a medic in-service for four years active. I doubt you've seen something I haven't, unless it's a recent thing induced by technology that didn't exist between '64 and '68. (And do y'all really have mortar attacks in Boston?)

............Try to remember what would happen when a VC mortar shell made a direct hit on a vessel in a gasoline tank farm.

My memory is good. Besides, most of the clustered drums were diesel fuel.

Or do as they did in WWII and have a big bag of gas on the roofrack!

-- Howard Rose

1966 VW Beetle 1300 Deluxe 1962 Austin Mini Deluxe 1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe (cars on website)