Three years into the ownership of my ’09 Tacoma I was starting to get a little bored. There was nothing at all wrong with the truck; it suited my needs well, but something was missing. I needed a beater to spice things up, but my frugal ways prevented me from buying one without a financial rationale. In early 2012, I got a financial reason in the form of a new job that required frequent highway travel. So I bought this uncomfortable little thing to save gas money by not buying any gasoline at all. I converted it to run on propane, which at the time cost almost half as much as regular gas.
I have been fascinated with propane powered vehicles for some time. With the exception of some taxi cabs I had seen when I was younger, most propane vehicles were confined to heavier duty pickup trucks, presumably to save on fuel costs when feeding a big block motor. But rarely were conversions made on smaller vehicles purely for maximum gas mileage. While an old VW diesel would likely have cost just as little to run, I wanted to do something different so I did my research and figured that an old Toyota pickup would be ideal for my needs. Ever since my first Toyota Pickup met an early end, I had pined for another and now I had my chance.
I found DIY propane kits at gotpropane.com, which are intended for off-road use. Off-roaders have been using propane for decades as it doesn’t slosh around in carb bowls at extreme angles like regular pump fuel does. I checked with my local licensing authority to see if I was allowed to just change a fuel system and I was told it was okay; I didn’t even need an inspection. So I was off in search of an old Toyota 2wd Pickup with a 22R engine.
Nelson James in Nelson, BC, towing a Toyota with a Toyota
It didn’t take me very long to find a suitable candidate. I bought the only one that wasn’t totally rotten; unfortunately it looked like a teenager’s truck from a couple of decades ago. I figured it was worth the 5 hour drive to Castlegar, BC (right next to Nelson, BC) to get it as I got the price down to $1000 and it ran alright. It had sat for a couple of years but started right up when I looked at it. It obviously needed a master cylinder and the carb was out of whack, but that wouldn’t matter as I would toss it out right away.
At 220 000 miles (not kms) it had seen some wear and had obviously been bondo-ed and repainted, pretty decently I might add. While I do like yellow, this truck is too yellow; I dislike it when the grille and bumper get painted the same colour. Also, the bumble bee stripe on the back is a bit much. The bed was professionally coated which is probably the only reason it hasn’t completely dissolved. It came with a set of aluminum rims and winter tires on steelies as well. As far as options go, this truck does not appear to have any. Manual steering, 4 speed, rubber floor and there is no evidence of there having been a factory AM radio; there isn’t even a speaker in the dash.
The propane conversion went smoothly. I tore out the old gas fuel system, and mounted the propane tank I had bought from the local fuel conversion guy. I then plumbed the high pressure hose from the tank to the regulator mounted on the wheel well and then to the mixer on top of the old carb baseplate. While I was at it, I did the customary tune-up, covered the hole where the fuel pump used to be and removed and plugged all unnecessary emissions equipment. Propane emits 30% less pollutants so who needs emissions controls?
Once I had everything installed it was time to see if this would work. I turned the key and held it, for a long time. It fired up and ran great, albeit at very low idle (400 rpm!) due to there no longer being any fast idle mechanism. Turns out it’s normal for a propane vehicle to take a while to fire; there’s no ready supply of fuel in the mixer as it bleeds out over time. I tuned the mixer by ear, bumped up the idle and advanced the timing to take advantage of propane’s much higher 104+ octane rating. It ran great, way better than it did on gas. That probably says more about its state of tune prior to the conversion than the benefits of propane however.
Now that I had the truck on the road I was loving it; the lowered front suspension made it fun in the corners. Manual steering cannot be matched for road feel; it felt like a slightly bigger go-cart. There’s a smile factor with a truck like this that makes it so much more appealing.
The 120 litre tank would swallow up about $90 (Cdn) worth of propane every 1000-1100 kms. Cheap to fuel, but not quite comparable to modern fuel efficient vehicles. An early 80’s small diesel would have been cheaper to fuel, but with even worse performance. The greatest impediment to better economy has been the lack of overdrive. On the highway where it spends most of its time it screams along at around 3200 rpm; another gear would definitely improve upon its 21 mpg average. The other big factor in its relative advantage is the wildly fluctuating price of fuel. Propane seems to stay at around $0.75 – $0.90/litre while gas and diesel have been as high as $1.50 and as low as $0.90/litre. About a year ago gas was briefly cheaper than propane, and it’s getting close again.
18 wheeler hauling a boat
The other practical reason for owning this thing has been to keep kms down on my “good” truck. When I bought it, I had accepted a job as a train conductor 125 kms from home and used it in fair weather to get to work. I would be laid off twice before accepting another job at a mill 50 kms from home. While I was only there 6 months, I would use this beast to commute there Monday through Friday, bringing home a load of firewood at least once a week. I really wish I had a pic of it loaded to the roof with firewood or lumber, it looked pretty funny. You’ll have to settle for a pic of it loaded with tires and a canoe from the last time I moved.
Having moved on from the mill, I accepted a job as a Heavy Equipment Operator at a coal mine 250 kms from home. Since the job consisted of 4 days on shift, 4 days off, the mobile barbecue was again pressed into service navigating the mountain highways to work in good weather. Two and a half hours is about as long as anyone should be expected to spend time in such a spartan machine, but it’s still more comfortable than the machines at work.
Fast forward to today, and the truck and I have both been out of work for a year and a half. Since my medical issues keep me from operating heavy machinery and I haven’t been able to work, the truck has therefore sat in the driveway. I shuffle it around the driveway now and then to get at the other machines behind it. It just begs to go for a ride, and sometimes I can’t help but oblige. The exhaust has mostly rotted away so it’s not exactly covert but no one cares around here. It makes a good 4 wheeled wheel barrow for yard work too.
The truck and I are both at a crossroads. It needs work and I’m not sure if I need it anymore. No, the brilliant car thieves of the area have not made an effort to steal this thing; the driver’s window broke in a far stranger fashion. I grabbed something out of the passenger side, lightly closed the door and I heard a tinkling noise. I looked at the driver’s window and saw that it had shattered and the middle inch of the window had fallen out. Weird. I haven’t yet found a replacement window. I’ve bought headers and a muffler to repair the exhaust but also need to replace the brake drums, rotors, pads and shoes. As far as I can tell it’s still on its original drivetrain at about 250 000 miles so it’s generally getting pretty tired. I don’t want to sell it but have a hard time justifying it sitting in my driveway indefinitely. Especially when there’s another project hogging my garage.
That’s it, this is finally the end of my COAL series. I’d like to thank everyone for reading and for Paul for allowing me a platform to showcase all my strange machines. It’s been a really nice journey down memory lane. Cheers!
Ahhh…back when Toyota made GOOD vehicles…would not drive a Taco if it was free.
I used to own a regular cab Ranger and as I once told my BIL it often felt like I was wearing it. I can’t imagine my living with this smaller truck.
Shame it doesn’t have the 5 speed transmission, this must have been one of the last Toyota ANYTHINGS sold in North America with the 4 speed. I would guess it would have made your cost per mile more reasonable and quieter.
On a “lighter note”, I agree about the grille being body colored and the bumblebee stripe being a bit too much. But I do like yellow, so could live with the “looks like a snap-together-toy” paint job.
I, too, have been curious about propane conversions. I know the BTU content is lower than gas and I am curious how this affected power, drivability and mileage. Any observations Mr. James?
Since I never really drove the truck prior to the conversion, it’s hard for me to say definitively than it ran better on propane, but I suspect that to be the case. I had read that I should expect a 10% penalty on mileage and performance, but I believe advancing the timing has cancelled that out. Compared to my last (also out of tune) old Toyota it’s peppier and better on fuel. Having checked fueleconomy.gov, it’s 21 mpg seems to confirm that mileage is good.
Aside from having to crank the starter longer than normal, drivability seems the same. I was told that propane is hard to start in the cold but I haven’t noticed that, although the coldest it gets here is -25°C.
As Canucknucklehead says below, motors will last forever on propane especially if built to suit propane’s different properties. The last guy who had my truck didn’t seem to change the oil so it was filthy, now that it’s on propane it seems to be less dirty every time I change it.
I would be wary of the longevity. At an old job we inherited a Toyota Hilux from another department because it had clocked up 70k miles in under a year so they had to rotate it, and had run mostly on LPG. When serviced it needed slightly thinner than the smallest shims to get any valve clearance – the engine was not approved for LPG and the valve seats were wearing. To Lucas’ point this 1997 (I think) 2.0 did not have hydraulic lash adjustment.
LPG conversions are popular in some European countries eg Holland or Poland. The reason is that propane is much cheaper. Even though that engines running on LPG use more fuel it`s economically viable. Most American big displacement engines run good on LPG – especially V8 Hemi or older Mopar V8 engines. Northstar can cause some problems when converted to LPG so it`s not recommended. Surprisingly Ford`s V8 Modular runs good on LPG while smaller Ford 4 cylinder engines don`t. There are even conversion kits for DI engines. Personally I own a 1994 Subaru Legacy with a LPG kit and despite its mileage of 400k kilometers it`s still a daily driver. By the way smaller Toyota VVTI engines without hydraulic valve clearance compensation can be damaged when running on propane.
Thanks Nelson…I’ve enjoyed reading your COAL series!
Let me join. +1
+2. Thank you for writing these.
I used to drive a 1950’s propane fork lift at work, and I was always impressed by how smoothly and evenly it ran. It was a flathead straight six of some American manufacturer that I have forgotten with time. But I didn’t know it was so relatively easy to convert a gas engine. Very interesting.
LPG had its peak here in the seventies and eighties. That was before the days of the direct injected -and especially commonrail injected- turbodiesels.
Folks who drove a lot either bought a slow diesel or a gasoline car with an aftermarket LPG system. But then the excellent performing turbodiesels arrived in the nineties, and the days of an LPG system in the average family car were basically numbered.
Yet LPG is still available at most gas stations, being the cheapest fuel per liter by far. Problem is the car’s factory warranty. Automakers don’t want you to install an aftermarket alternative fuel system.
So who uses LPG these days ? Roughly, those who drive a gas guzzler. In short: old American vehicles and recent or new V8 pickup-trucks. No one, literally no one, is running his or her V8 gas guzzler truck on gasoline.
The latest fuel injected engines can be retrofitted with an LPG system, no problem. The tanks are in the frontside of the cargo bed (like in Nelson’s truck) or are hanging somewhere deep down below (see picture).
Nice job Nelson ! Never saw a Japanese pickup truck here with LPG, since these all had diesel engines “by nature”.
It seems propane had it’s peak here in the 80s and 90s as well but instead of being killed of by turbodiesels, it was killed of by cheap gasoline.
Propane remains readily available out here, mostly due to this being tourist country, lots of big old RVs run propane.
My understanding with converting modern vehicles to propane is that it’s considerably more expensive compared to what I did. A new tank on its own can be a couple thousand, so if used ones are available and allowed it definitely helps.
I checked today’s average fuel prices.
Euro 95 gasoline € 1.53 per liter (regular gasoline, 95 RON octane rating).
Diesel € 1.15 per liter.
LPG € 0.75 per liter.
According to a Dutch LPG-website the LPG fuel consumption is about 15 to 20% higher than the gasoline fuel consumption. But it’s less than half the price of gasoline. So there’s the “V8 pickup running on LPG” explanation.
Below a typical LPG fill-up station, as can be found at most gas stations (pictured BP, green and white).
A few years ago I saw an ad for a ’79 Olds 88 sedan with the 403 that had been converted to LPG. The seller was basically representing it as “LPG conversion kit with free Oldsmobile attached” and had written his ad to target the off-road crowd. I contacted him about it (thinking I might convert the Olds back to gas and sell the LPG kit separately) but he never answered my emails. Had a bad feeling that if it was bought for the kit, the 88 was probably scrapped.
With your mention of the RV market, did you find that it was available at most filling stations? Here, finding propane in any format other than the pre-filled tanks used for gas grills is somewhat uncommon.
I don’t pay attention to the price of propane, so I was surprised to see it so close to gasoline. When I was driving taxi in Ontario in the mid ’80s, many of the cars in the fleet (mostly ’77+ B-bodies) had been converted, and propane was less than half the price of regular (roughly $0.20 vs. $0.45). The propane powered cars ran very hot – ours were aftermarket conversions, but another company had a fleet of new M-body Mopars done at the factory.
We had factory LPG Caravelles, which which we bought off DND. The problem was the tank was one big cylinder, and it was place to the rear of the axle, making the trunk a small, deep, well.
LPG is relatively close in price to gasoline with the various taxes added.
A very interesting read. Propane is an exotic fuel (for vehicles, anyway) in the midwestern US, and likely to stay that way with our present low gasoline prices.
I have enjoyed this series!
Nelson, thank you for the wonderful pictures and story. I do hope your condition improves so that you are able to find some other employment that can make use of your impressive mechanical skills. Your Toytruck reminds me so much of mine, an ’81 white model kitted out exactly the same way, right down to the spartan, truly hose-able vinyl interior with aftermarket radio and speakers cut into the doors. You must have more padding on your backside than I did; I recall the ride on mine being more on the buckboard side. But it ran and ran and ran, bucking and pitching and bounding over Louisiana’s definition of a “road” for a good 80,000 miles before I traded it out of the mistaken notion that it must be wearing out (at 105,000 miles-hey, my previous cars were a Vega and a Rabbit, what did I know? Even though the only, I mean only non-maintenance repair it required in that time was a headlight.) and from a desire for something with air conditioning for the Delta summers. Oops. 21 mpg sounds pretty good for propane; I got 25 with mine and it was quite peppy. I can attest to the ability of these vehicles to carry a ridiculous amount of stuff; their suspensions did not seem to notice whether you had anything in the back or not. I do hope you can find a window for yours and get it back to work, or find someone else who understands it and can do the same. Like a border collie, these vehicles need something to do. All the best in the New Year to you!
Nelson, I’m sorry to see this series end, it’s been an enjoyable journey with lots of ups and downs. I hope you are able to find employment in this new year in order to keep on tinkering with some of your wacky machinery. Thanks for all of the stories!
Good series and well written. Can only echo the others commenting here that I’m sorry it has come to an end.
When I was looking to convert one of my vehicles, nothing was set up for FI. Guess things move along.
Nelson, I’ve enjoyed this series. Hope you and the truck are on the road again soon. Until very recently my job called for me to travel all over the East Kootenay and Columbia Valley region, and I’m sure I’ve actually seen your yellow bomb on the road!
I’ve never seen a Toyota on propane before, but I’ve converted many early ’90s F-150s with the EFI 300 six, and it was a great combo in most respects. The missing power could be largely made up with more initial ignition advance, and at the time propane was maybe half the price of gasoline. Most emissions were lower but we couldn’t do it with units intended for use in the Vancouver area as they still had emissions testing back then and we couldn’t get the Oxides of Nitrate low enough to pass.
Back then you had to have a gas fitters license to install the system and an inspection decal on the vehicle to buy propane as a motor fuel, I wasn’t aware they dropped those requirements. Thanks again for the stories, have a Happy New Year.
For some reason, it was really hard to get the NOx down on Ford engines, as they always seemed to run hotter. This was never a problem with the GM stuff.
With Ford products (and we only did a few) found keeping the EGR hooked up brought the NOx down to legal levels.
Ha, the yellow bomb is hard to miss. Happy New Year to you too.
To be honest, I’m not sure BC has fully dropped the requirements for propane vehicles. It seems more like it’s fallen into a gray area since no one really deals with them here anymore. There’s been a couple times I’ve fuelled up and been asked for my decal, but since I usually buy from the same place and fuel myself, I haven’t had any issues.
If I do put it back on the road, I’ll have to look into getting a decal.
It’s 14.64 cents per litre. Took me 2 seconds to find out, as all government finance is on the Web.
Tax Rates on Fuels
http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca › mft-ct_005
A good informative post and fun to read too , thanx .
In the Winter of 1984 I worked @ LAX in the shop , pretty much the entire fleet was Dodge trucks and Police cars (we had a few of those nasty cheap Malibu Police Sedans) , everything was converted to dual fuel but we were not allowed to ever put gasoline in them .
We were also not allowed to bump the timing so everything ran super smoothly but noticeable loss in power .
On routine oil changes the old oil came out looking almost as clean as new oil .
-Nate
My family ran a fleet of taxis in the 1980-1997 period, and every one was on LPG. It is an excellent motor fuel, in my opinion better than gasoline.
We did loads of conversions, mostly to Oldsmobile 307’s, which didn’t complain about it at all. Once the cars were on propane, the engines basically lasted forever. My Dad’s 1979 Impala eventually went over one million kilometers.
For ex-police 9C1’s, we’d pull the 350 and sell it, and put in a truck block 305, which could be bought at a scrapyard for like $250 at the time. We’d rebuild it with 11:1 compression, a very mild cam, and dual exhaust. The distributor would be re-curved and the cars ran very, very well, even if 4000 rpm was the limit, it didn’t much matter for a taxi.
Done correctly, LPG will run better than gasoline. We paid $0.25 a litre for years, but when the Glenn Clark government as elected in 1997, they couldn’t resist putting road tax on LPG, which made it cheaper to go to smaller, gasoline powered cars. By 2000, the Lumina was the cab of choice around here, and by 2010, the Prius.
I agree that propane is a better fuel than gasoline, it’s really too bad it’s not as cheap as it used to be. I’d love to rebuild my 22R with either high compression or a turbo. With about 150hp the truck would be way funner and I could expect it to last forever.
The price of propane hasn’t moved more than a dime per litre at any one of the stations here in 4 years yet there’s still a huge variation in price. The cheapest is $0.80/ litre and the most expensive is an RV park at $1.15/litre. The price in Alberta is cheaper in the $0.60-$0.80 range while heating propane in around $0.45/ litre. I’d be interested to see how much the road tax really is.
You mention heating propane. Is there more than one “grade” or formulation, or is the price discrepancy a matter of tax and convenience? If it’s all the same stuff, seems like a dedicated user could come out ahead buying in bulk as one would for heating/cooking use, and then filling the automotive tanks from the bigger main tank.
I’m sure there are probably a million safety issues with that, and the supplier would probably catch on before too long, but…
Back in the late ’90’s propane was 79 to 99 cents a gallon. I replaced my electric clothes drier with a gas model that I installed a propane conversion kit into. I still use it today, but prices over the years have gone as high as almost 3 dollars a gallon. Last time I filled the tanks it was $1.79 a gallon plus about 9 percent sales tax. Sales tax was added to propane a few years ago, it used to be exempt. Gasoline can be found for $1.99 a gallon today. So really not worth doing a propane conversion due to similar pricing and less mileage on propane. Would have been worth it in the late ’90’s. I saved money on my electric bill when propane was cheap, today I think it’s pretty much the same either way.
Nelson, I really have enjoyed your COAL series and hope your health improves soon.
A propane conversion in my old ’70 C10 Chevy would have saved a lot of money back in the day.
The only propane vehicles I remember running across were in Texas (which I thought was strange). In the early 80s the local Ford dealer in the small Texas town I was living in sold a few Crown Vics and a few F-150s. Somewhat oddly, a dozen or so miles away a Ford dealer was selling a diesel-engined Tempo/Topaz.
Ford, giving you 2 ways to “alternate-fuel” your vehicle.
Propane is making a big comeback in student transportation:
http://www.icbus.com/bus/buses/school/ceseries/
The engine they are using is a revised and enlarged version of the old Chevy Big Block.
Very interesting, for a while Navistar’s engine option for propane or CNG was a version of their old DT466 that I think was built by the same company that is doing this 8.8 based on the BBC.
Navistar isn’t the only one offering a school bus set up for Propane/CNG as Thomas (Daimler) has one that is supposed to be released shortly. Bluebird has offered a propane Ford V10 for a number of years.
Interesting story Nelson, I am surprised they didn’t require an inspection at least for the conversion, is it the same case for propane/gas in a house?
LPG (liquified petroleum gas, mainly propane) has been pretty popular in Melbourne in particular because it is available at nearly any petrol station, but less common in rural areas and interstate.
Ford have done dedicated LPG versions of the Falcon for 15 years, they bump the compression ratio among the changes. The current version has liquid injection (other conversions offer vapour injection) which acts as an intake charge cooler as the liquid evaporates in the intake port and makes more power than 95 RON petrol (91 octane by US standards).
It used to be that taxis were nearly universally LPG Falcons here, but the Camry hybrid has made big inroads in recent years.
My 2000 Falcon wagon (Malt the Maltese Falcon) runs factory LPG, costs me $45 a week compared to around $120 in my Mercedes for my weekly commute. Power is fine, only drama from time to time is backfire on start up that blows the inlet gasket – quite a big job to replace on one of these honkers.
KJ in Oz
Nelson, I’ve enjoyed your series immensely–you’ve owned quite an interesting assortment of vehicles. The AMCs have interested me particularly since, save for the odd Eagle, they never seemed common in my part of the US. And about the only propane experience I have is for grilling, and the fact that the house my wife and I purchased this year uses propane for the range/oven and the fireplace.