Propane powered outboard??

Has anybody ever heard of a propane powered outboard??

Wondering how this actually works and what the modifications that have to be made. Been seeing this same as for a while now on Craigslist.

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bod/3581579819.html

I don’t see why it wouldn’t work good and probably very good. I know propane dosen’t have any carbon in it and regular gasoline does and that is the main cause of engine wear. The only problem is no oil for lubrication for the crankcase on older two cycle engines where you mix oil with the gas. I don’t know how the newer oil injected engines work but if that oil system is completely seperate from the gas it may work with propane. Around here alot of state vehicles were propane powered until about 10 years ago and I heard they ran good, then they disappeared, probably ethonol or oil influance there. All a guy would have to do is get oil to the crankcase to keep the parts lubed and you can run just about any basic engine on propane.

RAM is building a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engine right now. They have been used by some Gov’t agencies the last few years, to perfect them. They should be available later this summer

Would be intresting to see one run… I know any 4 stroke engine with a carb can be converted to propane. My summer project is going to be looking at the Honda strikemaster and making it propane…

When I was just a young man, 50 or so years ago, my father bought a tractor (Farmall I believe) that was run on propane. He had one of the same vintage with a bad gas engine. Changed the propane engine to gas. While doing so he pulled the head, just to have a look, and it was clean and slick as a whistle. Fast forward to just before I retired. I worked for a Power company that was into electricity and natural gas. The mechanics there told of the same thing. Some of the gas company trucks were run on propane, and when the engines were tore apart they were just like new.

Getting propane into the carburator wouldn’t be hard at all. All you’d have to basically do is drill a hole into the side of the carburator anywhere above the floatbowl and insert a copper tube. That tube would run from the propane tank to the carburator. Just turn on the valve that holds the propane in the tank right befor you turn the engine over to start it. Theres other more effecient ways to do it by installing a gas valve to the carburator linkage so you wouldn’t have to mess with a valve on the propane tank but this is basically the way it could be done. I do know propane is very explosive and is a good fuel source otherwise other gasoline engines couldn’t be run on it.

Usually the biggest issue with propane is tank size and weight and where to get them filled.

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Usually the biggest issue with propane is tank size and weight and where to get them filled.

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…and on a lesser note, where a person can go with a tank of propane.

Where or how far?

So what problem is propane supposed to solve. Got to like innovation but sometimes it just looks like a solution before the problem. It would be interesting to see boats driving around with 20# cylinders in the back ends.

I would guess cleanliness is the biggest factor. But I am not an expert

One thing solved would be the motor would never flood out because of too much gas getting the sparkplug or plugs wet. Chokeing the engine until its at operating temperature to warm up might not be necessary, alot of mistakes here being made and eventually flooding the engine out, to the point it would be drowning it with gas. Cleaner engine so you’d get less wear and the motor would live longer. 10 too 1 bet that propane ignights better so an easier starting engine. I don’t think it would be that hard to find a place for the propane bottle, maybe under the front deck.

I don’t have time to look, but are they using injectors now?