Readiness for possible Middle East war

[Highspeed]

Or convert it to propane.

Propane is OK if you have the filling stations available.

You can't use propane cylinders to run a petrol engine, at least not without redesigning the commercial retrofit systems. I know a lot of fork trucks use propane but that is a different thing, they were designed that way from the beginning.
I looked into it when we owned a propane\petrol Range Rover with the 3.9 V-8 engine - the filling station propane had a shitload of taxation applied to it ( but was still cheaper than petrol, pro-rata )

Unless the systems have evolved radically propane gives about 60% of the mileage you'd get from petrol with about a 10-15% power loss. You still need to start the engine on petrol and then switch to the gas when it's warm. You won because of the lower taxes on the fuel.

The Range Rover caught fire one day just parked up in the street ( that's Range Rover's for you ) - I was expecting a huge explosion from the propane tank but it held out OK.
We had 'forgotten' to tell our insurance company that it had the propane conversion because it would have cost us £££'s extra on the cost of the premium, which was highway robbery already. This voided the fire insurance.
So I had to find out which salvage yard it had been taken to, break in there at night and strip the propane tank out of it before it was examined by the insurance assessors...
Looking back it seems insane but at the time stupid shit like that was just another day at the office for me and it saved us $7k

We eventually settled on a Toyota Hilux with the 3.0 turbo diesel. We would run that on a mixture of vegetable oil and pump diesel, depending on the temperature. It turned out to be around 70% veg oil in a UK summer and 30% in the winter.
The exhaust smells like frying doughnuts and would probably attract Homer Simpsons...

[HTRN]

Everything I've read says that you'll get slightly less mileage with Propane, not half, but perhaps 20%.

Propane has a much higher octane(110)slightly higher stoichimetric ratio(15.67) and about 75% of the energy of gas(85K BTU/Gal).

An optimized setup would be a smaller engine with much higher compression, say a turbocharged 4 cylinder instead of a NA V6.

[Netpackrat]

PRI-G is available through Amazon. A 16oz bottle is 30 bucks.

Last time I bought some I had to have it shipped to somebody in the 48 who was driving up the highway to AK. I found it at a marine store up here once, but they didn't have any when I went back for more.

[Netpackrat]

Everything I've read says that you'll get slightly less mileage with Propane, not half, but perhaps 20%.

Propane has a much higher octane(110)slightly higher stoichimetric ratio(15.67) and about 75% of the energy of gas(85K BTU/Gal).

Another advantage of propane, is if you are converting a vehicle with a float carburetor, the propane will allow smoother running at more extreme angles. That's potentially handy if you are doing a lot of difficult off-roading.

[HTRN]

Yeah, it was somewhat popular as a conversion for just that reason in the 90s among the more extreme rockcrawlers before third party EFI became cheaper and more popular.

One of the big reasons why it's so popular for forklifts is it runs very clean - a forklift can sit for a long time and not have any problems with varnishing.

[Dub_James]

I was thinking of it more for a generator. Would be handy to have some squared away in case pumps go down.

[evan price]

Guys,

If you are going to buy gasoline to store for more than a couple of months, DO NOT forget the Sta-Bil; it is your friend.
My lady barber's husband is a mechanic. During the week of Hurricane Isaak, he repaired over 20 portable generators. All but 3 were fuel/carburetor problems. One person told him that they had not run their generator since Gustav(Sept 1, 2008).
Also, try to find non-ethanol gasoline. It stores longer when Sta-Biled, easily over a year. Ethanol-ed gasoline will store about 6 months or so when Sta-Biled.
Temperature is a factor, too. Gasoline stored underground keeps longer, as long as moisture is kept out.

Diesel: Use biocide. This is important. There are bugs that grow in diesel fuel, and they will plug your fuel filters. This is something of a problem in the oil & gas industry.

A couple weeks ago I picked up another generator (my third); this is a Chinese 2500 watt 100% duty cycle 120-VAC with 12vdc aux outputs, with a Honda-clone 5.5hp motor. Guy at the swap meet wanted $75 for it as-is, would not run, "Carb trouble" he said. Drained off a half-pint of the old fuel from the bottom of the tank, topped it with fresh fuel and oil, cleaned the air filter, and away she went.

One GOOD tip for people who have a fireplace or wood stove and live nearby a city area-
Keep an eye on Craigslist "free" section, especially after storms. There's always people who want their tree limbs and storm debris removed for free, often already cut into nice easy-to-handle lengths. I brought home 2 more cords of firewood this year for free this way, there was a lot of it available, I only chose the ones closest to where I was going anyway to not spend money on gas. A lot of it was 4'-5' long and will need bucked to firebox length but for free I can do the work. They say wood warms you twice, I figure it's at least 3-4 times (lol).

Also keep watch for power-line right-of-way maintenance crews trimming trees- they cut into 18"-24" lengths anything as big as your arm or bigger and dump it for the property owner's use, and chip the small stuff. I followed one crew down a country lane by my house one week and knocked on doors asking for the wood- most of the people let me have it gladly- by the end of the week the power line guys were just loading it in my truck instead of stacking it at the edge of the property. That got me another 2 cords of wood, and it was already cut to firebox length, just needs to cure and then I split the big stuff.

Speaking of Craigslist, I can score nice kerosene heaters, often with partially full jugs of fuel, for pennies on the dollar. Somebody bought it, used it once or twice, then decided they want the space in their garage. I like the radiant style which looks like an old TV set. Often the worst thing about them is they need a good cleaning and service or replace the wick.