----- Original Message -----
From: "David" <dubnut@today.com.au>
Subject: Re: dual fuel Van

> Hey there Gary, I'm down here in Australia. We have easy access to
> L.P.G.here. Petrol is around 90c per litre and LPG is about 50c.

Petrol in Alberta, Canada is $0.61/l cdn ($0.40/l USD), propane is $0.40/l
($0.26/l USD).

> have run taxis in the past on LPG. My main concern with running on
> LPG is that my cabs all ran with a much higher engine temp.

I have converted several EFI vehicles to propane. With the Vanagon, and
Jetta, Honda etc., water temperature is the same as gasoline.  With the
Vanagon, I had a pyrometer probe in the exhaust for 10,000 kms and noticed
no difference in EGT between gasoline or LPG.  I hear it said that propane
engines run hotter, but that has not been my experience.

>They also  had less power. They were 4litre six cylinder Fords, so they had
> quite a bit of spare power. Not so with a 2.1 wasserboxer. Have you
> lost any power with your conversion?

I do notice a loss of power with the low compression ratio vanagon.  Just
barely noticable, so its not a lot ..... but it is less.
Other cars I have converted to propane, like the VW GTI 10:1 engine, there
was no difference in power after you advanced the timing a lot.  There are
timing advance kits which allow a dual advance curve for different fuels.
Unfortunately I'm not aware of anything available for the vanagon.
If I could get a steeper timing advance curve for propane, and 10:1
compression, power output should be identical to gasoline.  That is the case
with other applications anyway.

>And do you notice the engine
> gets hotter? The heat problem was most noticable in summer, which I
> think is hotter down here than up your end of the world.
>