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going green


master hec0
04-14-2006, 01:43 PM
how much would it cost to convert a 1995 dodge dakota to ethnol,propane or deisle/bio desile also is their anyways to have a engine that runs on gas/ desil or gas/propane

neon_rt
04-14-2006, 03:27 PM
How much to convert to propane or how much to do it right?
I have seen propane conversion kits, they replace the TB with a propane fed TB, looks like a carb. You would have to ask the conversion company how you would deal with the FI system that is in place. Some systems allow you to place a propane fed spacer under the facotry TB and then use some sort of controller to disable the Fuel Injectors. The stock computer continues to run the ignition and you can flip a switch to enable the gas again (bi-fuel setup). The problem is this: Propane is 110 octane and the engine and computer is calibrated to 87 octane. The engine will run with the propane but power will be very low and you will get very poor propane mileage (I have a friend with a tow truck converted to propane, he gets 3-6mpg, yes 3 to 6). To properly burn the propane, you need compression in the 11:1 area rather than 9:1 for gas and a spark curve modification. It is difficult to resolve these problems in a way that will make the engine run efficiently on both fuels. You may have to choose one and stay with it. I don't think Ethanol would be a good choice, it is hard to get and I don't think it will be a fuel of the future. It will have some popularity for a while, but not on the long term. It takes more BTUs to produce ethanol than ethanol produces when burnt. With a negative return, it will not become the main fuel for autos. I think we will see bio-diesel and bio-diesel/petroleum blends in our future.

master hec0
04-15-2006, 09:49 AM
ok then anyideas on how to convert a gas motor to a desile motor because you dont need any kinda conversion for a desil motor to use bio desile

master hec0
04-15-2006, 09:51 AM
o ya also hydrogen might be the fuel of the future but im not interested because theirs no hydrogen pumps here

neon_rt
04-17-2006, 12:12 PM
You can't convert a GAS engine to DIESEL and expect it to work reliably, GM tried that about 25 years ago, ask them how that turned out!
You could (with a lot of $$) modify a gas engine to burn diesel, the engine block and heads might (if you are lucky) last 10K miles or so between blowing head gaskets and cracking blocks. Diesel engine blocks and supporting hardware have to be way stronger to manage the power of diesel ignition. Diesel doesn't ignite by spark like gas does. It ignites by extreme heat caused by 20:1 compression ratios. The resulting explosion is similar to what happens when a gas engine is pinging (severe spark knock, detonation).

I'm not sure that you would find parts to convert a gas engine to a diesel engine. If you could find a old Chevy Caprice with the "Diesel" 350 engine. You could use that as a model to make your own conversion kit. The fuel pump/distributution center itself is a $1000 item, plus injectors, fuel rails, computer system, TB, custom intake manifold, glow plugs, etc. Plus you would need a total engine rebuid with 20:1 compression. I would think you could easily spend $15-$20K on a conversion to diesel. You could buy a lot of gas for that. If you want to burn Bio-Diesel, buy a diesel car or truck. Then buy the home Bio-Diesel making machine, it makes 40 gallons of diesel at a time from whatever kind of cooking oil you want to put in it. Making bio-diesel has some by products that you will need to dispose of. You may want to find out how to dispose of the Glycerine sludge before you start spending money.

master hec0
04-17-2006, 02:16 PM
ok so im talking its better to sell my gas truck and buy a desile truck or swap engines. becauseright now deisle is is 15 cents cheaper

neon_rt
04-17-2006, 04:54 PM
If you sell your truck, buy a diesel truck and only spend $3000 on the trade (diesel trucks are expensive). You will have to drive 46,000 miles at 20mpg (vs 14mpg for gas, if diesel stays 15 cents a gallon cheaper than gas, it is about 20 cents more per gallon here) to break even on fuel cost. If it cost you $6000 to trade up, it will take 92,000 miles to break even. Diesel trucks are typically more expensive to maintain, so given the cost of maintenance you may never break even. If you plan on doing a engine swap, what engine would you swap to? There aren't any clear choices, diesel engines were never put in the DAK by the factory so you would have to engineer the whole thing yourself.

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