Driving on Propane (LPG) in Russia… (Part 2)

So as we stated in Part 1. Propane (LPG) is an environmentally good fuel and cheap. Now I am going to show you the parts. The only things that I could not get a good picture of, is the base plate on the carburetor and the switch to tell which fuel you want. I had to drill and install the gas to the base-plate myself and the inside of the car was too dark… (Here is what I mean by base-plate >>>)

The parts are few and very simple. Propane (LPG) does not need a fuel pump of any type. It does not need to be atomized because it is a vapor. But as you see (fourth picture from the left) there is a Propane Heater that is run off of hot water from the car. That is necessary because Propane (LPG) is so cold that it will freeze everything and it is in a liquid state. This device turns the liquid to a vapor. For cold weather operation you definitely need the propane heater…

I said that the tank would be interesting. The first picture above is our fill valve for propane (LPG). The second picture in the row is our tank. It is located where the spare tire is supposed to be. It holds around 55 liters. The picture to the left is a tank before installed. Ours has a rubber inner-tube installed around it for vibration control…

The third picture from the left is a magnetic shut off for the gasoline. When you activate the switch under the dash (below) and turn on propane this is the little devil that stops the gasoline from flowing. Believe me when I say that trying to run on gas (LPG) at the same time as gasoline does not work…

The last picture across the top is a regulator for the propane (LPG). It also shuts off the propane (LPG) flow when there is no electrical flow to the engine. It is mainly as I see it a safety device. Keeps the propane at a constant pressure and stops the flow of gas when you turn the key or switch off…

Now the unseen parts is copper tubing used for the propane (LPG) flow from the tank to the Propane Heater. It is insulated every foot with rubber buffers. You also have to have several meters of heater hose to install the Propane Heater inline with the heater core and such on the car. Of course there is lots of little fittings and such…

The propane goes right from the heater and straight into the bottom of the carburetor. Or in some case I have seen adapters to install on top of the carburetor. When I rebuilt the system I elected to remove the base-plate and drill a new hole to attach the gas (LPG) line. It had an adapter plate that was cumbersome and poorly designed. Gas straight into the intake manifold works much better and power loss is minimal. You have several way to attach the gas (LPG) line and if you manifold is of correct design you can actually tap into the manifold directly. I had to use the carburetor base because of design limitations…

That is about it for parts for running propane (LPG). It is a very simple system and in basic reality you do not even need a carburetor at all. In my case it is for throttle control and starting only. One thing that I do know is that since you do still have a carburetor attached that you must run it once in awhile on gasoline. Gasoline goes bad and varnishes up something terrible. So if you do not use it up or keep the carburetor wet inside you can cause some serious issues down the road…

Stay tuned for Part 3… (Driving on Propane is great…)

Windows to Russia!

PS:
Driving on Propane (LPG) in Russia… (Part 1)

Driving on Propane (LPG) in Russia… (Part 3)