[SEL] Propane regulators

[Peter A Forbes]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:10:41 -0500, you wrote:

>Hi John,
>
>When you rig one of your petrol (or parrifin) engines to use this "on demand"
>propane setup, how do rig it?  Do you connect the propane line to the mixer
>where the fuel line would normally go?  What sort of process do you go through
>in setting & experimenting with mixtures?
>
>I think this would make a great "how to" article for GEM.  8-))
>
>I'd like to experiment a bit this summer.
>
>See ya,  Arnie
>
>Arnie Fero

Bit of info that you 'might' find useful:

1)
When we used to install Onan AJ single-cylinder engines in the ice-cream vans
over here, they used a very simple arrangement. The float bowl and needle valve
were removed, and the gas pipe from the demand regulator was literally pushed
over the carb body jet tube in which was located the main jet.

2)
The demand regulator doesn't do anything until it sees a slight depression in
the carb, so you have a start pushbutton which allows gas to flow enough to
start the engine.

3)
On cold days we would have a plastic bottle with petrol in, which we used to
squirt a drop onto the air cleaner gauze so the engine would start without any
hassle.

4)
Propane/Butane is a 'dirty' gas, and a lot of crud comes across with the gas
flow that deposits in the demand regulator and around the jet tube.

5) 
Gas is very 'dry' in engine terms, and you may find that valves need seating
more often as there is no cooling effect of the fuel vaporising which you would
have with liquid fuel. We used to find that a petrol engine running on petrol
would have less valve maintenance than one on gas.

6)
Oil contamination is much less with gas, we used to get twice the life out of
oil on gas-run engines.

HTH

Peter

--
Peter & Rita Forbes
Email: diesel at easynet.co.uk
Web: http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel