Propane Conversion: How to Make LPG Cars

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Instructions

Detailed instructions should accompany your convertor. What follows are simply my thoughts on doing the job without some of the normally recommended equipment. . . and adapting the conversion instructions (written mainly for water-cooled engines) to the VW.

Instaling the Tank

Mounting a propane tank in standard cars is mostly a matter of common sense. With a VW, though, you may have to put the fuel container on rather than in the vehicle. My friendly welder charged me $5.00 for my custom roof mount (the bracket was coated with canned spray paint to prevent rust) firmly attached the fuel tank base to my van's roof with six 5/16" bolts that were secured with nuts and lock washers which were—in turn—sealed with little globs of plastic rubber

Installing the Convertor

If your car has a water-cooled engine, you'll heat the convertor by running hot water through it from the power plant's cooling system. This is extremely simple if the system is the type that always circulates hot fluid through the automobile's geater whether it's in use or not) Just cut through the hose that takes hot water to the heater and put the convertor directly into that line.

Other water-cooled systems are more complicated to tap but the process isn't hard. See the set of instructions that come with your convertor and remember to use pipe-joint sealer on all connections.

If you have a VW or other air-cooled engine, you're going to use exhaust heat to warm the convertor. Start by drilling a 9/16" hole in your car's muffler. Where? Scrooch down on your back underneath the VW with your feet behind the right rear wheel and your head behind the left rear tire. See where the muffler is attached to the heater box by semi-circufldr clamps and long, skinny bolts? Just to the rear of those clamps is where you drill . . . horizontally.

Now tap threads into the hole using a 3/8" NPT tap. I've found it easier not to use a tap handle for this . . . instead, just apply pressure to the shank of the tap with your thumb while turning the tap with whatever wrench fits (usually 5/8"). If you have a socket set, it'll work really well for turning the tap in . . . use the ratchet and a 5/8" socket.

Next attach the 3/8" O.D. copper tubing to a nipple screwy screwed into the hole you've just drilled and tapped. Drill a 3/8" hole up through the engine compartment floor (slightly to the left of the power plant for the VW bug. . . into the far left engine compartment space for the bus). Shove the other end of the copper tubing up through this hole and attach it to one sideof your convertor's water tunnel with a ferrule-type compression fitting as the unit is lying on its side with the primer button pointing at you.

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