Hi All First let me introduce my self, My name is Dave, tattoo artist by day hot rodder all day. I live, work and play out of el paso tx. I've been lurking and asking the occasional question here and there. This will be my first post. my old poncho was found on craigs list, i picked it up in demming nm for 500 bucks about two months ago. Shes a factory straight 8 4 speed auto, with the under seat heater, and as i found out after i got her home, she had a very unique fuel convertion done in the late 70s. Now i've been working on old cars for most of my teenage and adult life, everything from from my 50s and 60s VWs to my factory hemi 64 plymoth sport fury to my brother super stock 72 nova, and now finnaly this 53 poncho. I must say i was kinda stumped when i first poped the hood, this car was converted to run on propane in the late 70s, apparently this was a very common convertion out in new mexico back then, because propane was much cheaper than gas. Heres some pick of her as she is now, unfortunaly i've lost the pictures i had before i removed all the convertion parts.see the yellow cap there behind the fuel door thats where the grill gas goes. trunk shot with the massive 200lb tank. this is gunna be a paine to remove this is all the propane gear i took off, the large thing in the middle is a gas heater it was hooked up to my heater hoses and the large tank ith the trunk. Simply put, liquid fuel was injected into this thing and the warm coolent witch circulated thought it caused the liquid to turn to gas and then feed the propane injector on the top of the carter carb. the injector is the peice to the above right of the propane heater. Ofcourse ther are various selenoids and controller to make it all work. Heres the straight 8 after removeing all the propane stuff, just changed the fluid and did a simple tune up put a 4 barrel adapter and a holly carb and she fired right up. With that said the monster straight 8 will have to find a home somewhere else. I plan on pulling the motor and trans. Now u may think SBC, but no i see chevy motors in everything and i want something different. I'll show a little later in the post what I'll be stuffing in here. Becaus this car spent it's whole life in the south west it's very solid. Body is very staight and the trunk and floor have only surface rust. I must say this was a great find. the sheet metal was a mode done by the previous owner that will have to go. Heres the hood, I dont have any of the trim but thats ok because the whole car will be shaved and the hood is going to be welded together. My brother is donating a 425 ci. cadillac bigblock for the car, so when i pull the flathead and hydromatic it will be for sale. Here's the caddy bigblock barried under some crap, all i need now is a th-400 and a trans adapter. i'm taking my time on this build saving money talking my friend and family out of free stuff and of course trying to find time to put it all together. i need to find glass for the car, so if anyone has some spare glass that they want to get rid of let me know the price and i"ll see if i can take it off ur hands. i belive any 53 to 54 chevy or pontiac will work maybe onther gm's too. Any questions comments or addvice is welcome.
That propane conversion is nuts. I saw some engines torn down, that came from gas company trucks, that ran on propane. Those motors looked like dishes from the dishwasher on the inside. They were spotless. Whoever gets that straight eight will probably have a goodun'. Those old Pontiacs are way cool. Used to see hundreds of them on the road when I was a kid, but it seems like they all disappeared. I'm glad you found such a nice one for your project.
Yeah man, I had never seen such a setup before especially with that huge tank. And ur right this motor seems really clean, I thought there would be some rust issues with the motor, because propane contains alot of water condensation in it, but this dry south west heat really did wonders for the car. When i drained the oil it seamed really clean, so i called the previous owner to see if she had changed the oil recently, it had been almost 3 yrs. From what i was told the car was parked and ocassinally started for the past 11 yrs, if the od is correct and i think it is there's only 97,000 on the motor and i'm guessing about half or more of thats with the propane setup. Thanks for the kind words and Keep these oldies on the road!!!
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