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My 2000 Chevy 2500 got 4 - 6 mpg less on propane than gasoline. The propane was cheaper per gallon, but evened out in dollars per mile.

9 mpg might not be about as good as you can get. Is that Hubodometer accurate?
 
My 2000 Chevy 2500 got 4 - 6 mpg less on propane than gasoline. The propane was cheaper per gallon, but evened out in dollars per mile.

9 mpg might not be about as good as you can get. Is that Hubodometer accurate?
Good point, DJ. Considering what the original intended use of the hubodometer, the tires might be a bit short to get an accurate reading.

Are hubodometers adjustable?
 
That's my tire size.



Propane is less power dense than gasoline. It needs more compression to match the 110 octane equivalent, or it just won't perform. Or, forced induction.

So I hooked up the vacuum advance. It's supposed to advance 5 degrees, and only at high vacuum at low throttle angles (starts at 7 inHg, and maxes at 10-12). Of course on a six cylinder, it comes out to 9 degrees advance. It brought the idle up about 60-70 rpm.
The engine idles at 20 inHg vacuum, and at 45 mph it's at 10 inHg. So the advance should help the mileage a little. The other thing is that all of this is city driving. I don't drive over 55 with these tires in such bad shape in the back.

I really don't know where the fuel mixture is set under power. It doesn't have jets or anything like a carburetor. It just has a knob.

The other adjustment I made, was to turn the boost down from 10 to 8 psi. I heard a couple loud noises at 10 psi. The engine won't like that. So far, 8 psi is just fine.
 
Well, it's been a few months. I got a good used tach on eBay. This one works. It's the closest thing to a speedometer that I'm gonna have, aside from the occasional speed check with my phone speedometer app.



I was parked for a little while because of a different problem. My dad and I have a '76 GMC with a 292 in it. We bought it a while back, and it had a brand new HEI distributor in it. Well, I had taken it out into the mountains a bit, and on the way home, that new distributor tore itself apart. The upper bushing went out, tried to lock up, spun the distributor, put all the spark into the exhaust, and overinflated the muffler. I was able to turn the timing back close to where it was, and drive to where I could get a phone signal. It was running on two cylinders by the time it finally quit.

I had to have my brother pull the distributor out of the rat, and my wife and her dad brought it to me. I dropped it in, and drove home. Here's my vote against cheap, generic distributors.





That distributor had about 500 miles on it.
So, the rat was without a distributor for a while, but I realized my priorities and pulled mine back out of the pickup, and put it back in the rat.

One of the best upgrades that I finally got done, was this:





That's right. I finally got new tires. Now I can finally drive it without worrying about the tires flying apart, and I can go normal speeds.
I put 481 miles on those old scabs.
 
I have to give a big thanks to Dana Tire & Auto Service for getting me tires at the best price around. They have always done right by me, and I get all of my tires, batteries, and any work I can't do myself gets done there. They've been in business since 1951, and are still family owned and operated. The fine folks at Dana are always honest, and I don't have any hesitation to send friends and family there, because I know they'll get honest service.

www.danatire.net

https://www.facebook.com/danatire

services include:

- See more at: http://www.danatire.net/Chandler-auto-service-repair.html#sthash.mbIAAXlM.dpuf


 
I wondered how well built those cheap off shore distributor were. Now I know.

Nice tires. Good to have a reliable, honest shop you can go to.
 
Good move on the tires and tach. Now you'll be able to drive it when the temps drop below 100 - maybe October.

You must have gotten an extra special distributor. I have heard most of them go a couple 1000 miles.
 
Nice new tires... Happy to hear your getting miles on your ride... Is the hubometer behind the hub cap? Seems too cool to hide

Can't wait to do the same... I took your advice and ordered a signal stat 900 for mine...
 
Wow, I have to revise that last post. You could drive it to work today and get a chance to see how it drives in the rain. And it's not my fault, I'm not painting.
 
Good move on the tires and tach. Now you'll be able to drive it when the temps drop below 100 - maybe October.

You must have gotten an extra special distributor. I have heard most of them go a couple 1000 miles.

I've still got some other things to work out before the temps start to come down. I did drive it some in the 105+ heat. It's not as hot as riding a motorcycle. At least I'm mostly in the shade.

Nice new tires... Happy to hear your getting miles on your ride... Is the hubometer behind the hub cap? Seems too cool to hide

Can't wait to do the same... I took your advice and ordered a signal stat 900 for mine...
It's behind the hubcap on the driver's side. I never would have thought that I put on that many miles. I'm glad I put the hubodometer on. Some of my favorite things on this are hidden. Oh well, ya can't have it all.

You keep chugging along on that thing, and you'll be doing an oil change before you know it.
 
Wow, I have to revise that last post. You could drive it to work today and get a chance to see how it drives in the rain. And it's not my fault, I'm not painting.

Im using a tach on my ford truck now .. but it had an electric speedo that hooked in the computer ,,all thats gone but the tach gets me close to the speed I need .. I used this to help me get mine figured out
http://www.mustangtek.com/calculator/calculator.html

That's a cool gizmo, Yankee. I always use something like that to make sure my gears are right when I put a drivetrain together.

I heard it was raining back home there, but I can't drive in it 'cause I'm not there. Starting on the 3rd, I've been on a week long vacation in Montana near Yellowstone. It rained a little here too.



Mostly it's been really nice though.



 
Okay, back on topic. I finally got around to changing out the upper ball joints last week. That's not too exciting, and I didn't take any pictures. However, I was looking through my pictures on photobucket, and realized that I skipped an update a while back.

When I originally stuck the doors on and got everything working, I drilled the hinges out just a bit for 5/16 bolts. The doors hang nice and true, but the striker was worn away on the driver's door, leaving a gap.



So whenever I hit a bump, the door would bang because that gap left it room to move around. So I pulled the door off and welded it up. Now it's nice and quiet. The passenger side is a little worn too, but not nearly as bad, and it doesn't make noise.





 
I have had similar horns before (and still want them), but never could figure out how to get them to work. How about a tutorial?
I don't know if I can tell you anything you don't already know. I'm working on getting the voltage down to 7 volts for these. Right now they're on 12 (14) volts, and I think they're a little overcranked.

Step 1: be sure your horns work in the first place
Step 2: everything else

Here's how I wired them.



I had used a 20 amp fuse that worked for little test beeps, but it blew when I held the horn for about 1.5 seconds. All of the wires are 12 gauge, except the trigger wire which is 16.

I had an ignition coil ballast resistor at the junction next to the horns, but it dropped to 1 volt and nothing worked. It was only 0.6 ohms, but my math was off somewhere. I've emailed my professor for a solution. I'll see what happens.
 
im running the old horn on mine.. which should be a 6 volt horn.. but I get nothing when I test it at 6 volts.. but it works on 12.. sounds all sorts of goofy but makes noise..

Whats your concern with running them at 12 volts? burn them out? (mine hasnt given out yet.. but only played with it a dozen or so times)
 

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