I am interested in converting my 98 5.9 to Propane. Looking for any information I can get. Has anyone on here tried it? Seems like there are (or were) kits available for older carburetor engines but don't see much for FI engines. Looks like the next step for gas is around $5.00 a gallon.

 

If you're concerned about $5.00 gas, buy a little used gas sipper car. You can pick up a little used car that gets anywhere from 30-50 mpg for not much more then what it costs to do this conversion (which will never yield anywhere close to the MPG's a little gas sipper can get anyway). Keep the truck as a second vehicle for when you need to tow or haul, and drive the sipper the rest of the time. It will save you magnitudes more in the long run then doing a propane conversion. Plus, when you need your truck, it will still have all the power you need it for. With the conversion, you will lose 10-20% power.

 

You can tell when the price of gas is going thru the roof. These threads start popping up all over the place.

While I concur with Silver's recommendation of getting yourself a cheap, beater 4 banger, the idea behind a LPG or CNG conversion does intrigue me.

I had the chance when my step dad passed in late 2008 to buy his car from my mom. An '01 Hyundai Accent, 2 door with all of 27k on the clock. I decided I couldn't deal with having three vehicles and no way I was giving up either my truck or '02 Grand Cherokee Overland. At 6'3" and close to 280 lbs., and having two discs in my back fused together a few years earlier just doesn't make for a tiny car fit.
I wish now that I had bought it, I could have had it for $2500 and besides the ultra low mileage, the thing was absolute mint. While trying to sell it for her, I drove it around a little and the thing got 32 mpgs on average while getting right around 40 on the interstate. Ended up only getting $2800 for it for her because the KBB and NADA on it weren't much higher than that.

Now, back to the LPG/CNG conversions. I did some reading up on it a couple of years ago and found that it was commonly done in Europe where gas is STUPID high compared to the cost here.

An independent study in Germany had taken a Mercedes car that was converted to LPG new off the lot and was driven hard and long for a couple of years while data was monitored. At 350,000 miles they took the engine apart and found that wear was just about non-existent due to the fact that unlike gas, both LPG and CNG enter the cylinders as a vapor which does not "wash" lubrication out of any contact areas, also there is almost an untraceable amount of carbon in either of these fuels, hence NO carbon build-up.

Estimates are if the conversion is done on a fairly new vehicle where there is next to no engine wear, life expectancy of the engine is 3-4x that of the same engine burning gasoline, rivaling diesel engine longevity. Also, I found it amazing that the spark plugs in that 350,000 mile engine WERE STILL THE ORIGINALS and showed no signs of wear or gap change.

Fuel economy averages about 15% less than gasoline, but the cost clearly outweighs that fact, while yes, as Silver has noted, power losses are around the same 15%.

It is estimated that there are about 9,000,000 automobiles in Europe running on either LPG or CNG (most being LPG) while only about 400,000 in North America and most of them are in Canada where their government got onto this bandwagon a few years ago by converting many govt. vehicles and offering incentives to individuals wishing to do so. Canada's main concern other than fuel cost was environmental impact due to the fact that LPG is non-toxic and is not harmful to soil or water. Also, the emissions contain 75% less carbon monoxide and 50% less smog producing gases than that of gasoline. While the govt. there is still pretty high on it, as gas prices came back down a few years ago, public interest on it subsided substantially.

Would I do the conversion myself? Probably not, but it does interest the hell out of me...

 

I think you are right for the most part, that is the way I am using it now, for tow or haul, most of the time to go up to my farm (300 mile round trip) with just enough equipment or tools to justify the truck, and often times need the 4WD to get in and around.

 

Silver_Dodge does have a good point about buying a fuel-efficient small car if you don't need to use your truck very much. However, if you have the truck because you need it for its carrying capacity, a propane conversion can make a lot of sense. You first have to make sure that there is a readily available supply of low-cost propane nearby. Generally, it's a lot cheaper to buy motor fuel in bulk from a propane supplier than from a propane retailer than specializes in refilling BBQ cylinders. If you were in Buffalo, NY and locked-in a price during the summer (when the propane market is low), you could have been paying $2.2135/gallon ($1.95 for fuel & $0.2635 for tax) today. The supplier would expect you to buy at least 1000 gallons/year to get that price which isn't that hard to do if you drive every day.

Generally, an injection conversion (necessary for EFI vehicles) will run about $5000 commercially installed and the cost depends upon the vehicle and the size of tanks. The underhood V8 LPG ESIP parts package runs about $1350. Ideally, it would be good to get a large enough tank with which you can make a round trip back to your propane supplier. A bed-mounted 20x60 tank holds 59.4 gallons, which could easily hold enough fuel for at least 2 round trips to the farm.