It took us awhile but we got the paper work taken care of and we now run LPG (Propane) in our Volga wagon. It had propane that ran OK when we bought it, but to get paperwork done I had to remove the part of the system that dealt with propane. The Russian government did not like the paperwork that came with the car about propane. It was not official enough…
So I removed the LPG system one slow and careful step at a time. I wanted to be able to put it back if we were allowed. I then stored all the pieces in a box. After the Russian government was happy that the car was OK and properly set up on benzine (Gasoline). We got our tags…
Now I had the choice to leave propane off or put it back on and start the tedious process of getting the paperwork changed to a dual fuel car. My choice was to go dual fuel – What other choice is there? 🙂
**Lets regress a minute: Why would I care about propane? The biggest reason is the cost. Propane runs about 11 to 12 rubles a liter in Moscow. So 92 octane gasoline runs about 22 to 24 rubles. Half the cost! Several other factors are: cleaner burning fuel and higher octane.**
I did a lot of studying on removal and reinstalling the propane systems on a car. I had some issue before I removed the system that I wanted to fix. Propane should run as well as gasoline if properly installed and should produce as much horsepower due to timing adjustments. Propane also will get nearly the same fuel mileage as gasoline. In our case the original system was not installed correctly so we did not have the above conditions in our favor.
I spent a whole day installing the system back onto our Volga wagon. I replaced everything according to specs and instructions. I installed a electronic timing adjuster that fits under the dash for manual adjustment of the spark timing. (Now the car will run on 76 octane and up to 98 octane, with no pinging)
After checking to see if there were any leaks anywhere, we went to fill up the propane tank at the nearest station. We crossed our fingers and switched to propane – After a few adjustments in airflow we had the sweetest running Volga wagon you ever did hear. 🙂
It really does run as strong now as gasoline and has virtually no bad smell from the tail pipe. It does exactly the same mileage as gasoline and that combined with a 60 liter propane tank, means we can go about 600 km before filling up. Add to that the 55 liter gasoline tank and we can travel over a 1000 km before filling up.
The engine can be switched from one fuel to the other by a simple manual switch that is also mounted under the dash next to my ignition key…
Svet loves our dual fuel Volga wagon!
Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.