Propane Conversion: How to Make LPG Cars

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But you might find that the highest rpm comes with the hole left open. If so, drill another hole, insert the screw and toy around until you get optimal rpm that you can lower by moving that screw in and out.

On the other hand, maybe your best results come when you put your finger over the hole . . . that's OK, too, because you can just tape up the hole and be done with it.

In the unlikely circumstance that a finger over the hole gives you the best idle—but one that's still nowhere near what you had with gasoline (even when you turn the idle screw up a bit)—then you need a larger jet. Before you buy one, try reaming out the opening of the jet you have, using a drill bit that almost—but not quite—makes it into the opening (maybe 7/32"). If that still doesn't do the trick, you'll just have to get a larger spud-in jet from your LP-equipment dealer .

Other Things Worth Doing

Nothing else is absolutely necessary to make your car run smoothly on LP, although there are lots of goodies you can buy and things you can do to make your conversion more elegant, convenient, efficient, etc. Things like regapping the spark plugs to .008-.010" (.018" for a VW), removing the automobile's heat riser, taking off the automatic choke, adding a filter-fuel lock, putting more sophisticated jets in the carburetor or mounting an electric solenoid switch on the car's dash so you can flip back and forth from LP to gasoline while driving.

None of these modifications will hurt the vehicle during it, short sprints on gasoline and they can all be readily undone—in fact, they must be—if your car's ever to run exclusively on : gasoline again . . . but I won't go into them here because these changes are covered in the manuals that come with LP convertors.

Here's a special tidbit for VW bus owners, though . . . turn the air cleaner around so that its snout points toward the engine compartment's side vents. That way you'll draw the coolest possible air into the power plant.

Buying Liquid Propane

Once you're off and running on LP the only trouble you're likely to have is in finding a source of fuel. You can minimize this problem by writing to Woodall Publishing Company, for a list of more than 8,000 LF dealers across the country. As LP use for campers and motor vehicles becomes more common, LP depots are proliferating and Woodall handles a fairly up-to-date guide. I Truck stops sooty also commonly sell LP.

By the way, if you're going to be in an unfamiliar unfamiliar area for a while, check (anonymously by phone) on whether LP is cheaper as a motor fuel or as a non-motor fuel. It's often possible to save quite a bit by purchasing LP for heating/cooking rather than for driving. In Vancouver, for example, LP is 20¢ a gallon for use off the road and 40¢ a gallon for use as a motor fuel, most of the difference being in road tax. Oddly enough, in some states things are the other way around . . . so check first.

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