Has anyone ever thought about Propane Conversions on a Tecumseh?

Has anyone ever thought about this? I found a site that uses Tecumseh engine's as a base. I'm thinking because the burn cleaner, they would increase the life of your engine.

http://theepicenter.com/tow102899.html

Engines running propane do burn much cleaner, and because of that live much longer. Propane powered forklifts, for example seemingly run forever as long as they are maintained.
The only real downsides are re-fueling and power loss (about 25% less compared to gasoline).
You could convert an engine, or even find one from a floor buffer.

The power loss is only due to the higher octane level of propane, it's about 110 octane if I remember. Most small engines have very low compression ratios to begin with, add higher octane and it has even less power. I looked into propane on a 4.3 V6 in the trail S10 I used to have. Lots of good general propane info here.
http://www.patooyee.com/propane/propane_1.htm
Obviously a small engine conversion is much simpler, but the basic principles of propane are there. Also check out gotpropane.com.

My thought is to use the small camping lantern bottles. There are adapters out there that you can fill them from a 20lb gas grill cylinder yourself. I have 3 spare 20 lb tanks in the garage, so at $20 a pop for an exchange. It seems like it'd be a good deal.

My thought would be to replace the gas tank with 2 of the lantern bottles held to the firewall by like a round fire extinguisher bracket. Then build a scatter shield between the propane storage area and the engine. Any hoses outside of the scatter shield would be braided.

Technically you could also do a water injection to increase compression. Or I wonder if you could deck the block or mill the head. I don't know much about small engine tolerances and clearances. But I bet there has to be a way to increase compression.

I watch a lot of youtube. I've seen some videos of smaller engines, pushmower size, running off the coleman tanks but they said it wasn't enough to power a larger motor, like a riding mower size. I don't know if it was the tank capacity or the size of the lines that was the hindrance though. It didn't look too hard to run at a set RPM, like a pushmower or stock riding mower that has set throttle. All you do is have a screw valve and adjust till it runs good with a hose shoved over the main jet area of the carb, minus bowl and float and other parts.

There is also another video where a guy made a supercharger out of one briggs to power another. He modded the camshaft to basically be a 2-stroke and used JB-weld on the cylinder head to up the compression ratio. Though this supercharger never saw ignition tempt and I doubt JB could handle it. Still, there's all kinds of cool stuff out there.

Jamus wrote:

I watch a lot of youtube. I've seen some videos of smaller engines, pushmower size, running off the coleman tanks but they said it wasn't enough to power a larger motor, like a riding mower size. I don't know if it was the tank capacity or the size of the lines that was the hindrance though. It didn't look too hard to run at a set RPM, like a pushmower or stock riding mower that has set throttle. All you do is have a screw valve and adjust till it runs good with a hose shoved over the main jet area of the carb, minus bowl and float and other parts.

There is also another video where a guy made a supercharger out of one briggs to power another. He modded the camshaft to basically be a 2-stroke and used JB-weld on the cylinder head to up the compression ratio. Though this supercharger never saw ignition tempt and I doubt JB could handle it. Still, there's all kinds of cool stuff out there.

I was thinking running 2 to 3 of those lantern tanks.

Anyways, it's just an idea. It's too cold to go wrenching so I need something to do. Working on afew other mods that I don't see anyone on youtube or around here doing.

I just happen to find a lp carb on craigslist. Might bolt up to a briggs twin or a horizontal kohler. I dont know crap about these, so dont quote me on anything. just passing along what I found.

http://kansascity.craigslist.org/grd/2781268089.html

I cant see a torch tank running that long. might get an hour out of it. running a briggs twin hard for a hour will burn about 2 gallons of gas. the price might be the same but not sure if the loss of power is worth it.
wouldnt want to stall out or run out of propane on a big hill.
I have been on a lp forklift when they run out. they dont sputter they just die.
A gas carb wont run very long if you flip it. the lp carb will keep feeding fuel and would increase the chance of a hydro lock by getting oil sucked into the cylinder.

look for pulling tractor or gokart how to's they have a bunch of "cheats" on building small engines. I have seen 5hp honda clones that claim to make 25 hp on the dyno. not sure how long they will last, Its all about how much money you want to dump in to it.