propane airhead

[lloydunknown]

"The extended cranking is because I'm running the engine on propane."

The comments say this airhead is running on propane. Has anyone else done this?

[ritetwist]

Back in the mid-80's when gasoline was $.35 a litre, propane was $.09.Conversion to propane was all the rage.
Thing is, unless your engine was set up with Stellitted valves,it wasn't long before you needed new valves and seats.
Propane burns hot and dry and needs the stellitted vatves to stand up to the propane.Mileage worked out to be about 60% of what you would get with gasoline,thus the need for large tanks in the back of 1/2 ton trucks,or trunks of taxi's.Seems to me I had a 300 l. tank in one of my trucks.The propane burned very clean,extending oil changes and limiting spark plug fouling.The trucks also used a vaporizer with hot rad collant to help convert the propane from liquid to a gas.

My guess propane would be o.k. for a bike, if you could properly store it,the engine was set up for it, and you used it for short runs.

[bmwhacker]

....great "starting etiquette"....wrap her to 6 grand in one second and hold her there....I'd be a smokin too...

[Hawk Medicine]

Sorry but I'll wait until the technology has been worked out a little better.

[Houseoffubar]

Propane is the single nicest thing you could do for your motor. I have seen many propane motors that had 3-500,000 thousand miles on them, and they looked great inside still.
You loose a bit of power, but if you raise the compression significantly (it can be very high with propane) or supercharge, you get the power back.

The bike in the video is hard starting, and smokes because it is a worn out POS, not because it runs on propane.

[Wirespokes]

I hope no one here starts his engine like that! This guy obviously hasn't a clue that BMWs run very high oil pressure and when it's cold, the pressure is out the roof! And that's on top of takin-it-easy-till-it-warms-up. You're right fubar - that bike need some lovin' and a new owner.