Completed the install of my boost and egt gauges as well as my Badgerland Performance Propane Injection System. Short trip coming up this weekend so I'll get to shake it down a bit and tune the amount of propane I want at the sparge tube and the boost level I want it to come in at (currently set for 8psi). Rather than installing both the boost gauge sender and the hobbs boost pressure switch right on the intake manifold I installed a tee at the cold start connection and routed a sensing tube up to the electrical bay at the foot of the bed...these senders should have much longer life in a cooler, lower vibration environment. Routing the high pressure liquid propane hose from the tank to the rear of the coach (25ft long hose) sucked, but after running cables for the new camera and the gauges I knew the deal pretty well. This is a full weekends worth of work if you have all the parts on-hand.
Looks like a great project and pro-grade installation. I will be interested in reading your reports of real world performance gains. ^.^d
Badgerland Performance (http://badgerlandperformance.com)
Len are you seeking performance gains or economy? I do know if I lived in Utah I too would be looking at it. Real affordable fuel source but only to residents as I understand.
Scott
Towing and grade climbing performance; where I live in SoCal you (minimally) have to make one mountain pass just to get anywhere...I tow my jeep to utah and when I go to Moab there are many passes (a couple at 7000ft) and I tow 8500lbs. With the cost of propane there is no real economy to it now...
I would like to dispute the t-shirt saying in the above post.
I have a boat with 1600 HP. I was at a neighbors house last weekend having a few adult drinks and one of their neighbor came over that I do not care for (that most do not like) . Somewhere along the conversations my boat came up, this lady started telling me that there was no reason I needed that much HP, my boat was too loud, and that there was no reason to go fast on the water.
Getting back to subject at had. As I have always said there is no such thing as too much Horsepower. Watching with interest.
2021-Feb 02/01 2.004 02/08 2.003 02/15 2.090 02/22 2.096
2021-Mar 03/01 2.100 03/08 2.122 03/15 2.078 03/22 2.069 03/29 2.029
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W_EPLLPA_PRS_SUT_DPG&f=W
Guess they too have been hit with price increases up almost three cents a gallon
Scott
It would seem the thing that was too loud and obnoxious is your "neighbor "
Sad to watch some people get old and bitter. 😏
Too much horsepower, not ! Getting there is cubic inches or cubic dollars, or both for the extremists.
Len,
Just curious what HP increase you are expecting to get at the end.
Len
I've heard that some folks ad a bit of trans fluid to the tank and I've heard about a water injection system for diesels. And to also add propane injection.
Do we need a computerized thing to blend all these and inject at just the right moment.
Cause I don't mind going up the hill at 40/45 ,but it'd help if the Allison shifted great on its own ....it doesn't always do that. So
Need more HP.
With turning up the fuel a bit, removing the stock muffler and installing propane I'd like to think I'll be improving from 250 to 300hp and getting another 100ftlbs of torque...this will be a temporary solution for me. As soon as I get moved and have the space I'll be repowering the coach, looking closely at 400-450hp CatC9and Cummins ISL with a 4000 series allison
Those 6 cylinders will probably be too long. I thought of doing a repower on my '81 with the Cummins V-8 555 and with the 6's and the tranny, no driveshaft room.
there's some room to work with (but your point is valid), the radiator can move back nearly 2" and the fan could be another 1" closer to the core with plenty of space left, I also could shorten the driveshaft 1.5"...It would be some cursing and cutting for sure...but...I've done this kind of thing quite a few times over the years. I haven't completely discounted keeping the 3208 and adding a CAC and maybe a larger turbo/injectors and water injection.. if I can get the torque up around 900ftlbs with the 22000lbs dry weight I'll be happy with that..
My '81 has a side radiator and had room to move to the rear but not enough. The driveshaft angle on mine if it was shortened would have to be made up with the angle of the engine. The rearend angle is fixed without a major modification
the 6V92 fits in the same engine bay and is 41"L x 39" W x 47" H. The Cat C9 is 43"L x 33"W x 41" H. The extra 2"L can be managed.
The ISL would save some weight if the extra inch fit.
My 300 hp cat 3208 coach uses the mt647 transmission and a heavier duty rear differential. Rpm is boosted to 2900. Biggest mistake I made was shifting down going up Cajon pass, It ran 70 mph going up the grade into flagstaff with only a hint of black smoke occasionally in 4th.
And still the best engine on the road and still made today! Move the start batteries and you could fit a 8V-92 in there.
Pierce
Not sure you'll find any V series 2 strokes in this lineup. Possibly some compromised drivelines / u joints when those boys are back at work making a living hauling 1/2 million dollars worth of 2x4's in today's market.
https://youtu.be/62XRP4wY4Oo
:'( :'( :'( :'(
Pierce ;)
I did finish the install of the propane injection system and made some test runs with it...it's going to take a few more runs to get it dialed in; not because of any problem with the propane kit, but, because before having a boost gauge I had no idea when and how much boost this engine made.
Surprisingly it was more(boost) than I thought; I saw 20lbs of boost a few times on hard acceleration, but basically no boost at all for normal hwy driving (I had figured maybe 2-4psi for normal cruising) so I'll use this info to dial in the pressure I want the system to engage at and try it again and then again while towing. I had read other post where the 250hp 3208 only made 15lbs of boost so I was glad to see more than that..
The one thing I will say is that getting rid of the monster muffler and going to the 5" resonator definitely helps acceleration...the engine spools up much quicker and the sound is perfect.. EGT monitoring is great...engine idles in the low 200's and runs up close to 900 when I'm working it...towing will of course drive that up more..
Where are you getting the 900 degrees for EGT? Exhaust manifold or post turbo?
Pierce
No, right at the #7 and #8 cylinder ports on the exhaust manifold (hottest spot) as pictured above. I spent the extra few bucks to get a dual channel egt gauge so I can watch both banks. I'm sure it was considerably lower post turbo..
Perfect temp that won't damage anything. ^.^d ^.^d Big safety margin.
Pierce
May want to review your location where the boost pressure is sensed, when it comes to pressure readings location is quite important, due to turbulence.
It's right on the manifold, same place the boost sense line to the fuel system is located. Also with having the extended sense tube moving the sender off the engine it should reduce any turbulence/rapid fluctuation of pressure...indeed, watching the gauge (and I did verify it's accuracy using regulated compressed air) I'm seeing smooth pressure changes.
I wondered about your sense location only because the lack of boost at highway speeds. I sensed my cat was loafing at highway speeds, just didn't realize how much.