Technical Propane Prime?

Anyone ever fire up a hard starter by priming with an unlit propane torch? In my 50 years of auto mechanics I have never heard this, until today..

 

Never heard of that before, maybe a “use what you have”, instead of starting fluid?

My forklift has a primer ****on on the regulator though.

 

No, but do use it for seeking vac leaks.

 

Can't see why it wouldn't work but I'd be wary of how much I used.

 

Never heard of it , I guess it would work if your cranking while holding the propane can to the carb so vacuum will **** the gas in .

I’ve given things a snort of quick start or brake clean in the past
Diesels love silicone spray to get them to turn over ! , supposed to be less violent then quick start .

 

All I can think of is a very loud "BOOM" as your engine explodes.

 

I’ve used it on diesels

 

You wouldn't have to worry about washing down the cylinder walls.

Phil

 

It's probably better than squirting enough gasoline in there to hydrolock it. I can't see why not. My propane generator's carb just pisses a stream of propane (gas, not liquid) into the intake stream (fork trucks are usually liquid fed). Pretty simple. With an unlit torch, you just have a hand held manual fuel injector. I have seen gasoline used to excess many times (often on TV). I don't see propane kicking back all over the top of the engine and setting a nice fire either. Mike

 

Paul, my dad use to do this on old speedway engines which had fixed distributor advance.
The slower burn rate of the propane was easier on the starter motor.

As a kid I tried this with Oxy-acetylene on a mini bike [as well as inflating balloons with it, to make explosives ]

Nowadays my starter fluid of choice is paint thinners, because it has a low vapor point.
A cap full down the carb and the engine always starts and never floods

 

Does the propane “fall” into the carb? Ie is it heavier than air?
Or is it a two person operation where one cranks the engine and another opens the bottle?
Has me curious

 

My old auto-shop teacher would use the torches (acetylene) for that very reason

 

Propane is heavier than air

Phil

 

Yes propane is heavier than air.
With a speedway car it was easier to have 2 people than to run around and climb through the side window.
A firewall mount solenoid would make it easier.

I've been always taught never to start a V engine without an air cleaner [in case of backfire] so even when I tip some thinners down the 57 carb I always drop the air cleaner lid back on. This also gives time for the thinners to vaporize.

 

Back in the early 80's just before the cars went to fuel injection, Chrysler had a procedure to set the carburetor idle mixture using propane enrichment. All dealers had a propane bottle with a needle valve and what looked like surgical tubing.

The dealer I worked at had previously been a Studebaker dealer and we had a few Studebaker customers. One of them had us rebuild the V8 engine on his 64 Lark convertible. The mechanic who did all the work was very meticulous. However, when he went to start the car he found that the fuel pump had failed. We had one on order for late in the day. The dealer's son, Paul, was a very good mechanic and while the mechanics were on lunch he decided to start the engine on propane. It started right up and Paul was happy then went on his way. Paul seemed to be missing in action most of the day. The fuel pump came it and the mechanic installed it. When he went to start the engine there was a big boom. It seems that Paul had left the propane on and flooded the engine and crankcase with propane. The boom spit out the oil pan gasket, both valve cover gaskets and maybe the intake gaskets. The mechanic was not amused.

 

My good friend and fellow hot rod hoodlum Marv built a replica of Henry Ford's first "sink" engine. He was having trouble getting it to start. The carburetor just wasn't working well enough to get a flammable mix into the cylinder. I asked him if he had a propane soldering torch. I put some electrical tape around the venturi air inlet so it was flowing pure propane out the nozzle and held it near the inlet.
It fired right up!

He later converted it to run on propane which was actually more convenient to use as a demonstration model.

BTW if you like hot rod tractors check out his magnificent collection he built in his home shop.

http://marvinbaumann.com/biography.html

 

I've done this on lawn mowers for years; has always worked well for the first start of the season after sitting all winter.

 

I am always optimistic, about well focused experimentation !

 

I always thought that they would start old tractors on gasoline and switch them over to run on Propane once they got them running. Or am I completely off on this. I do know they started them on one thing and then switched a pet**** to a different fuel substance. Propane powered tractors were common when it was cheaper than gas and diesel.

 

Only issue that can cause major issues are propane vapors are 1.5 x heavier than air . If the engine doesn’t light , the vapors are filling the crankcase with explosive mixture and not depilating into the surrounding air . We had a few gas compressor engines that fired on propane . Fools would , just keep hitting the primer and once it would lite , it would explode , blow the pan and valve covers right off the engine . One guy was burnt really bad he was standing knee deep in vapors when it went boom .

Just use caution and brains when trying this , it will work fine if it lights the wick fast .

 

You need this:

 

Never seen any propane tractors. Propane forklifts seem rather common these days, i seem to recall someone saying something about cleaner exhausts (for indoor use).

There were many tractors, stationary engines, boat engines etc. meant for running kerosene around here back when the kerosene was tax free. You had to start on petrol and then switch over to kerosene after it warmed up, the engines had a lower compression to handle the lower octane rating and a heavily preheated inlet manifold to vaporize the kerosene.

 

We had propane tractors and they started on propane. We had irrigation engines and they started on natural gas. Lippy

 

Lots of dual fuel tractors. Granddad had a M***ey that had gas and propane tanks. You could start and/or run on either, but it made more power on gas. Older stuff would start on gasoline then switch to 'distillate' after warm up. Distillate was similar to kerosene and I've used kero in an old JD I had many years ago

 

Yup...

 

I recall back in the '80s, one of the magazines did a series on a propane powered '32 roadster. (Clean air Deuce?). They claimed propane burned so clean, that you wouldn't have to change your oil for 100,000 miles...or until you lost your nerve.

 

That is true. But since propane does not have the lubricity of gasoline valve seat recession will occur unless stellite valve seats are installed.

 

A while back, a local propane dealer ran his pickup on propane. It was cheaper for him than buying gas.

 

I believe they were going to use some form of water injection for that very reason.

 

In the 80's up to a few years back virtually all taxis were LPG (propane) fueled. They ran close to a million miles (taxis had a mandated 7 year life span, so usually that came up before the 1M.) I think it was more about being a cheaper fuel. Our LPG had very good octane.