I'm thinking about buying a propane powered +8.

Would anyone be so kind as to give me the plusses and minuses of gas versus propane ?

Dutch

Have had propane pick-up trucks (utes) in the past. As far as advantages go, they are clean burning and easy on oil. At oil change intervals the oil was still honey colored. Somewhere after 100K miles I had to remove a rocker cover. Cleaned the inside with one shop rag. Propane is also emission friendly.
Down side for me was a) the tank took up 1/4 of the truck bed, and b) propane for road use wasn't easily available. Only one or two places had it. Something to remember if you're planning on traveling far from home.

I'm sure there's a lot more.

My only experience is with a propane powered suitcase generator. As Thomas suggests the oil and spark plugs stay clean giving me at least a sense of emission friendliness. Surprised therefore that a CO alarm I have for the stove inside was triggered even though it was 30 feet away from the generator which was running outside the boat with doors to inside fully closed!

I know that the propane fork lifts we had at the plant had tons of hours on them and almost never had a breakdown. And like others have said they ran really clean.

I'm hoping someone with a propane Morgan will share their experiences

Dutch

I haven't run a +8 on propane, but did run a Saab Aero, and my wife a Subaru Forester on propane (LPG as it's known here).

Both cars were aftermarket conversions made around 2010, from petrol to LPG. Both cars were mid-2000's turbos, the Saab being a HOT (high output turbo) and I'd guess that both would be in a higher state of tune than a +8. Both cars ran just fine on LPG - as expected about 10% poorer fuel consumption, offset by LPG being half the cost of petrol. If I remember rightly the LPG management systems would add petrol to the mix under high loads. If there was any reduction in performance it would have been so marginal as to not notice it.

I added lubrication systems to both cars: most systems seem to come without them, but I reckoned it was a worthwhile insurance.

On the Saab I could definitely feel the weight of the LPG tank in the boot. My fix was to fit self-levelling suspension at the rear (the last one from the Swedish factory before it closed :-( ). As the self-levelling kit gave a stiffer setup at the rear, I paired it with a set of adjustable Bilstein B6 dampers at the front & a strut brace to add rigidity: the car had a good balance, and sharper handling as a result of the changes. It might be worth driving +8s with and without LPG kit to see what difference it makes.

You don't say which engine you're looking at - Rover or N62 BMW?
I'd be nervous of changing the N62's fuel without a lot of engine-specific research. It's an expensive engine to fix if anything were to go wrong - and LPG would I suspect add heat at the top of the engine where the N62 valving is complex. I don't know how sensitive it would be to a change in operating environment... I'd check that first.

hope that helps

Will

& there's a fella on Morgan Cars UK facebook group Bayne Ronn Geistman
who runs a +8 on propane

It would be a Rover engine. I still haven't found one in my price range yet. :-) There are some out there right hand drive but I'm gonna pass on those as I'm in the US.

Watching “chasing classic cars” the other day which featured a propane converted Morgan in order to meet or get round US emission regs.

In that case you may get better results posting in the Classic section just under this one in the menu level above.

The comment "Rover based" would indicate you are looking for one of the older classic chassis based V8 models? This thread mostly follows the Aero chassis aluminium models of 2000-2016 which will usually be more expensive and rare than the classics. Especially in the US as so few went over (Aero America was like an Aero Series 2)

The naming convention had a loose association with logic and words used are always close! There are only so many combinations of v8 Plus8 etc so it becomes a bit granular.

You stand more chance in the Classic section where there are more owners if I understand you?

HTH.

Glad you wrote that. Not the only thread that is about the Trad +8 posted in the wrong section