Using alot of propane or leaking?

M

matt_10100

New Member
I reacently bought an 84 toyota truck running a stock sbc 350 on propane the guy said that the propane kit is from gotpropane.com. Well it ran fine for awhile then i noticed it started using alot of propane, the diafram gasket around the top plate on the condenser started leaking and I repaired it but after a ride or two it would start leaking again so I looked around and bought a brand new condenser (same as the old one) from a fork lift company. It's an Impco brand. My mixer is also an impco 425, Now it runs alot better but, it's still using over 3 tanks a weekend not riding hard ( about 8-10 total riding hours ). I was told 1 tank should last me all weekend. I've put new o-rings in my tanks, got a new supply line from tank to condenser,replaced and resealed all of my fittings, replaced the old tank coupler, and sprayed soapy water on everything and can't find any leaks... Can anyone help me???
 
I don't know if I'm the best person for this (most my experience with propane and engines have been under 10HP and it's been almost 15 years). On the small engine side they only use the vapor condenser and a modified carb, normally propane does not flow unless there is a vacuum on the outlet unless you hit the button in the center. (keeps all your propane from leaking out if the engine is stopped and you forget to shut off the valve.) Normally we had a sniffer that we would use to test for leaks, it looked like this one http://www.amazon.com/Instruments-T...-Indicators/dp/B000NPIYDC/ref=pd_sbs_indust_1 If you know someone that works for Questar they may have one or something similar that may work.

My recommendations, check for leaks using a sniffer they are far more sensitive than soap and water, on the small engines we had an adjustment screw (basically a needle valve) that controlled the amount of propane put down the carb and there was one on the condenser, reduce the amount of propane if possible, if you are running rich you would be using a lot more propane than needed. Possibly the fork lift company where you bought the condenser would have some suggestions also.
 
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I think my mixture adjustment is off. my idle screw was 2 1/2 turns out and my mixture screw was 4 3/4 turns out. I read in a thread somewhere that the mixture was supposed to be around 9 turns out and the idle was just where it got the best vacume (which port do I check the vacume off of?). I got pleanty off power, and it runs great, it just uses alot of propane. It has 2 vacume lines on the base plate. If I turn the propane off and leave it for a couple hours then come back and turn it on, it dosent sound like its pulling any more out of the tank. Thanks for the help :)
 
I'm running a 10 gallon or aka 43lbs propane tank on my 22r (4 banger Yota). I use about one tank per three days of wheeling... Typically 5 to 8 hours of riding per day. I do use an extremely excessive amount when I'm doing dune riding with high rpm's in the sand or gravel road driving at or above 50 mph. Maybe 10 gallons in 1 day at that excessive rate. When people tell you a tank lasts 3 days of wheeling that's def not true for a V8 romping on it and even more so that would not be true if you have the typical fork tank that is only 8 gallons in size and is 33 lbs per tank. If you truely have a kit from Carey at got propane give him a call he is a super good dude to troubleshoot this type of issue. Or I believe he may also have a chat board on his site where you can ask other V8 propane users across the country what they think... Just my 2 cents good luck yo!!!
 
I used to go through almost a full forklift tank on my 1.3 sami engine in my first buggy in a long wheeling day with lots of road driving. Usually half a tank on a normal, snakes day. Mine was a got propane kit
 
i used to work for a towing company that had 2 similar tow-trucks, 1 had propane, the other ran gas, both BBC engines. the propane one had a big-ole tank, at least 50 gallons. the owner set it up for longer haul tows to save on fuel costs.

but at the reccomended settings the truck was so gutless that it could barely get out of its own way when towing a car on flat ground, so we had to crank the mixture waaaaaaaay up to make the power about that of its gas-powered brother, but then we went through so much propane that it wasn't cost effective anymore.

propane is neat, but it takes a lot of LPG to match the power of gasoline. most fork lifts that run propane are actually pretty low on HP, so maybe your sbc is running just fine it just needs a lot of propane
 
in a three day weekend I might run 8-10 hours total, and I don't abuse the skinny pedal. Mostly driving right above idle in 2nd gear... (about walking speed) no rpm gadge but probably around 1500 - 2000 rpm. Everyone around here says for the way I drive, something's got to be wrong for going though as much propane as I do. But I'll do some calling around and see if I can't figure something out.
 
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