Champ forklift with chrysler industrial inline. Switch to propane

[crane operator]

I've got a old Champ forklift with a Chrysler industrial inline 6 motor. Its a pain in the a$% to haul 5 gallon cans of gas for it, plus it seems like its always out when I need it. I don't use it very often (once a week or so), so the propane wouldn't go bad like gas does. I have propane at the shop, so I'd like to convert.

Its a single barrel carb on the forklift right now with a manual choke, manual fuel pump. I can come up with the propane tank used.

Just wondering if anyone has done this. I don't know how the flow of the propane is set up, is it just a vacuum draw? Can I just find a old forklift that's propane and build a adaptor plate for its "carb" to my intake? My inline 6 is quite a bit bigger engine than most of the little flat head 4's I see, so I didn't know if one of those would work.

 

[lantraxco]

We used to buy conversion kits, sized to the engine displacement. Engine that big will usually have a convertor which uses coolant water to heat liquid propane from the tank to vapor, then the carb meters the vapor into the intake. You will need a tank that can give you liquid, forklift tanks are with very rare exception are all set up that way. YMMV

 

[gtermini]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMPLETE-IM...m2a2876a7c7:m:mMM8s2xfM4kZXqmpWuPZSKg&vxp=mtr

$750 seems like a hefty bill, but it might save a lot of work trying to piece stuff together and build adapters. Looks like the slant six used a carb base similar to an old flathead. Displacement should be on the same order of magnitude for fuel/air tuning.