[DeTomaso] While off topic - Propane

Thu Feb 11 09:49:55 EST 2010

Thread drift some more, here...

Ah yes.... the 702 V-12's.

Another thing that Garret Farms used. They were going through a experiment
at the time.
What works better and is more economical? A cheap, off the shelf engine that
you throw away when it goes south or an industrial strength engine that you
rebuild when necessary?

So, they had 428 Fords, 427 Chevies, 702 GM's, etc. vs Minneapolis Molines
and other industrical engines on their irrigation wells. When the sand from
the well starts wearing out the impellers on the direct drive pumps, you
just crank up the rpm's to keep the flow rate up... While the Minnies were
throttled way back and running through a gear box.

I have to say I was very impressed at the time to see a 702ci Jimmy on
natural gas running flat out, screaming like hell with the exhaust side of
all four heads glowing red hot, the headers (no mufflers) glowing red hot
and blue flame about a foot and a half long coming out all four pipes. At
night, it was very impressive.

One of the 702's was on a booster pump for a 'walker', the big irrigation
things you see that drive around in a circle, and it started blowing oil.
Oscar, the mechanic, and I were told that in no circumstances do we shut it
down. It _must_ run until the end of the month. I kid you not... We had to
pour 5 gallons of oil into that thing every 12 hours because it was blowing
it out so bad and I absolutely hated getting close to it. It was running at
over 5000rpm and it was rattling and knocking BIG time... it literally
sounded like it was going to go boom any second. We got to the end of the
month and drove out to shut it down. It wouldn't stop unless we turned off
the gas. It came rattling and banging to a halt and sat there smoking...
came back later when it had cooled off and pulled the heads just to see what
was wrong. I'm not kidding here... I could put my little finger between the
cylinder wall and the piston on one of the cylinders... That sure explained
the rattling and banging...

OK, back to Panteras....

Kirby

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 08:31, <gow2 at rc-tech.net> wrote:

> We have carbs if you need them. Authentic GM. Boxy looking. Not sexy in
> any way shape or form but functional:
>
> http://www.thunderv12.com/parts_page_gmc_v12
>
> http://www.thunderv12.com/
>
> "Well used natural gas carbs that came on the 702 v-12's. Some were setup
> as (2) carbs per V12 and some were (1) carb per V12. Your pick. $35
> as-is."
>
> Gary
>
>
>
>
> > Wait a minute. The propane flow has to be regulated some way. Simply
> > spraying it into the air cleaner through a nozzle sounds dubious to me.
> >
> > Tomas
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
> > [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of davidabell at att.net
> > Sent: den 11 februari 2010 05:48
> > To: Bill Lewis; detomaso at realbig.com
> > Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] While off topic - Propane
> >
> >
> > In another life, when my brother and I owned a custom grain harvesting
> > business, I converted our work truck to propane inexpensively using a
> > bunch
> > of second hand equipment.  The main downside is that the propane tank is
> > very heavy and takes up a large chunk of the bed, plus fuel milage and
> > power
> > were poor compared to gasoline.   The propane plumbing was pretty simple
> > though, mount the tank and run a line under the cab to the engine
> > compartment. The propane nozzle was attached to the top of the air filter
> > which turned the carb into a throttle body of sorts.  I installed a
> > solonoid
> > that switched the fuel from propane to gasoline from inside the cab so
> > going
> > back and forth was easy when one tank was empty.
> >
> > As I mentioned, here was a noticable power (and fuel milage) drop when
> > using
> > propane though so when we needed to tow something heavy we generally
> > switched to gasoline.  The propane was a fair amount less expensive, due
> > in
> > no small part to the fact that we had our own bulk propane storage tank
> > and
> > we didn't have to pay road tax on the fuel.  There were plenty of places
> > to
> > refill an auto propane tank in east and south Texas as most rural homes
> > use
> > it for heating.  Refills just weren't available at the typical gasoline
> > service station - you got to go to the propane sales store.  One other
> > downside is that propane is significantly heavier than air so if the tank
> > or
> > line springs a leak, you can end up driving around with a pickup bed full
> > of
> > loose propane just waiting for a spark to turn into bananas foster.
>  Don't
> > ask how I know this.
> >
> > But, if I had a pickup with plenty of unused space in the bed, I'd
> > definitely consider propane.
> >
> > No, actually I'd rather have a BMW850csi.
> >
> >
> >
> > Dave Bell
> >
> > -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > From: Bill Lewis <lotus0005 at hotmail.com>
> >>
> >>
> >> Does anyone have any experience with running a pick up on propane?
> >> ----Bill (Anticipating the next gas crunch) Lewis
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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