Propane fuel bad?

[Bundy90SBC]

Im looking into buying a 78 chevy 4x4 pickup for the 4 bolt main 350 in it. The only thing im worried about is the guy was a old farmer and switched it to run on propane. Would i be able to switch this motor back to straight gas without having any problems? Does the propane cause problems enternally? The motor has only 65000 original miles on it so i figured it would be a great motor for my truck.

[SassyV8]

If he swapped to propane , I am sure you can swap it back to gas.

[farond21]

Propane burns very clean so it should be in better shape than a 65000 mile gas engine. It is no problem to switch back to gasoline.

[Bundy90SBC]

do i have to switch anything on the motor or is the carb the only thing that needs to be switched on it. I dont know anything about propane burning

[squirechevys10]

Why would you want to switch back? Isnt propane less expencive then gas? It is here anyways. And it burns alot cleaner then gas does and you get better mbg.

[Bundy90SBC]

loose about 15% power and less milage it would cost me about 2 grand to set it up

[SassyV8]

I do know about the propane ran trucks and forklifts.....if you plan on driving in very cold weather, I've seen the tank and line freeze up.a coat of frost on the outside. boom quits running. til you heat the lines up.

[Bundy90SBC]

ya im not going to run propane....i was just wondering if i needed to switch anything over or if i could just put my carb on the motor and go

[SassyV8]

Well honestly never seen the setup on trucks.but my guess yea you can change the carb,Is the actual gas tank still on the truck?

[Bundy90SBC]

im not sure im not worried about that im just want the truck for the motor and gonna part the workable parts out 500 bucks and i get the truck and i can sell the 4 wheel drive parts out of it people are always looking for chevy 4 wheel drive parts like transfer case and front axles stuff like that

[SassyV8]

Then your good to go,If you getting rid of the not needed.better off fuel anyways.

[spacecadet]

Not up on propane fired vehicles however I have seen quite a few.
Basicly its an add-on system. The gasoline part of the system should still be there and be operational. From what I have seen, there is an odd looking air cleaner assembly that has a couple hoses to it. that is what feeds the propane to the motor. There is a switch inside the truck to turn off the gasoline and turn on the propane. The ones I have seen, you start them on gasoline and once thier 'running' flip the switch to propane.
Simply stated from gas to propane you probubly wouldn't notoce the differance.

[harleyboy]

from what I know you can swicth back and forth on the gas and propane and it's not going to hurt anything, some 4 wheelers use the set up for climbing rocks and stuff and it don't stop them.

[Rusty]

only problem with propane is it erodes fuel lines if i remember right? just like alcohol but i doubt the previous owner of your truck had it run through the original lines