instead of smelling like french fries, like the bio-diesel is alleged to smell like, would my Tercel smell like farts if run off the septic tank?
Another good reason to try it!
There would no end to the jokes my Tercel would get, really give something for people to laugh about...well guys would laugh about it, women would think it is disgusting. No matter, few women would ever set foot in my Tercel anyway.
The propane thing is a fair idea untill you factor in you need to replace the ex valve seats with hardened stelite seats. When i sold Snap-on tools for a living (12 years) servised a account for Petrolane -propane dealer for western Montana ,if you dont it runs so hot and clean it pounds the valve seats right out of the head. I've seen several in person that this happened to after about 20,000 miles The advantage is propane burns clean and engine life is realy extended Not real cheap to convert.
I have never heard of propane causing valve seat damage. How would that happen? "pounds the valve seats right out of the head", so how does the seat pressure affected by changing the fuel? There is no change to valve train, or its function. That just does not make any sense.
If it is because the exhaust temp is higher the easy solution is to advance the timing. Advance the timing as far as you can without getting ping, that will save the exhaust valves and seats. YOu will get lower exhaust temps with higher octane fuel if you advance the spark timing. THat is far less costly than replacing the seats.
The valve seat on the 3a engine are already cast iron and actually pretty durable, as long as the valve and seat are not overheated.
My tercel:: 81 tercel sr5 GTS (4age RWD and 4WD application on build up for the moment) now im running a 3a with weber 32 dmsa 100,corolla gts front suspension, sway bar and steering, troush exhaust
Lol! You could rig your septic tank to recuperate the methane with a one way valve kind a thing than pass that tube thru another reserve tank that a gaz compressor feeds of! But I think the tank will need to be kind of huge to accommodate enough to fill the smaller one at so much psi and figure a way to know when its full of gaz and not air, my guess it will take a while!! Some math formula can be found to know! If a farmer might be worth it to rig something up!
It would be a little like those new technique they use for organic waste and transform it into energy!
But what about a pentone engine I think they call! It's some kind of water injection system that's added to the intake and mix with air/gas mixture it suppose to lower emission and consumption , add a bit of power and help cool engine! By helping burning cleaner! I'll try to find some links the only I got so far are french!
I've seen a reportage on the subject and they tested the emissions and it was kind of dramatic how low it was, or the pollutant went in the water and the machine didn't detect it?
By the way if it would smell like a fart it would leave people away from your rear bumper! Lol
As far as the valve seat goes, I know if you want to have the real power of propane you need an engine rebuild to the right spec! Meaning increase cr to 12:1 as high as 15:1 to accommodate the 116 octane and have head job on it! That's what they did with my 350 for the Bus! But it's mainly for better performance and flow! You would usually upgrade the valves and springs! Which considering that should be fine! Never had any problem with mine and I take her far in mountains for morel picking! I don't know if just slappin a propane kit on a tired stock engine what would happen? Or aluminum heads? But in my guess if the valve seat pop right thru the head it was met for regardless of the fuel you're using! Must of been something wrong!
Petros wrote:Propane would be my choice, there is a company that makes a conversion kit for the 20R truck engine (carburetor), and that carb would be easy enough to adapt the 3a engine (very similar to the stock 3a carb but with larger barrels, same as the weber). We just bought propane for about $2.16 a gallon delivered to our our property. With some simple plumbing I can use the home tank to fill the smaller tanks. This would avoid the heavy state and federal hwy taxes as well (a bonus!)
Also, since propane burns very clean and has 116 octane rating, rebuilding the engine and tweaking it to 12:1 CR and stripping out all of the emissions junk would improve the power and economy even further. Potentially could cut your fuel costs in half. You could even equip the Tercel with a propane stove for camping to run off of your fuel supply.
I wish I would have seen this post before I went to the trouble of finding all the stuff on ebay to do my Weber swap...I would have opted for propane instead. Live and learn! The weber stuff cost me $150 total (including rebuild kit) and I'm happy with the performance. But want to learn more on a propane conversion!
I have thought of propane but run into the law here
the tank must be open to the air in oregon not underneath
the car or enclosed inside. so for the tercel it would have to go on the roof.
other thing I looked at down in arizona since we got natural gas service to the house was a compressor
to put it in a tank they are illigal in the u.s. but saw one for sale in canada this was some years ago .
pretty expensive I recal.
natural gas for the home was cheap.
a propane subaru brat or vw rabit truck would be cool if i liked subarus/vw's.
propane here was 1.99 a few weeks ago now its 2.40 i think it goes up in winter too.
I live close to medford there are two diesel toyotas in my town i see often
i asked a friend that is diesel guy about them he told me that he has not seen
them be as good power/economy as the European car makers have achieved.
but he could be biased as he is a VW tdi and freightliner sprinter van fan.
There are lots of older non-computer diesel toyota cars (Cresida, Corolla mostly) here in Central America and many have 400,000 miles plus. I looked at a 80's volvo 240 wagon w/ a 2 litre diesel toyota engine conversion, but it was hacked-up and needed much work...I'm VERY happy with my little Tercel!
