“What motor you got in that truck?” asks the guy locking up his Tacoma at the Piggly Wiggly. “It’s a 428 Cobra Jet,” you reply calmly, adding after a pause “Supercharged… Runs on propane… It was in a magazine.” At that point the curious shopper will either froth at the mouth asking you to pop the hood or, getting far more than they bargained for in your answer, say something like “Uh, wow. That’s interesting.” Or you could simply choose to answer questions like this by saying “A V8,” and get on with your day. Either way this stock-appearing 1968 Ford F-100 in Baldwin, Wisconsin offers the new owner plenty of parking lot conversations, and will draw a deeper crowd at your local Show ‘n’ Shine than a swimsuit model doing yoga under a garden sprinkler. At least eight bidders have pledged interest at the auction here on eBay where $5000 claims it as we go to press.
The April 1985 edition of Truckin’ featured the truck much as you see it today, minus the trick wheels.
According to the Truckin’ write-up the “Mach II” centrifugal blower helps the tricked-out 428 make “close to” 700 HP, and the 17-year owner says it “feels like” it still does. This thing must be a riot, and the sleeper look might let it pass as another “old truck” until someone gets an earful of that supercharger whine.
Blue-dot taillights may be illegal in some states, but you can rock them legally in this truck’s home state of Wisconsin. They’re more typical on hot rods of an earlier era, and they suggest a blown 700 HP V8 rests under the hood no more than a pair of fuzzy dice. The seller says the paint is about ten years old, and the F-100’s cab was replaced and the frame detailed out while the cab and bed were removed.
“Fill ‘er up with BBQ gas, Cooter.” The propane tank looks identical to the original build, and a second tank resides underneath.
The largely stock interior could use some sprucing up, but fits the truck’s low-key appearance. How would you answer the question “Whatcha got under the hood?”
Needs a gun rack to be complete.
And here I thought Hank Hill lived in Texas. Must be a cousin of his.
So, a four wheeled suicide vest is what we’re looking at?
More like an engine donor if it has a real 428CJ. At anything close to its current price the engine will likely wind up in a Mustang originally powered by a 428CJ and this body will either be sold off as a rolling project or get an inexpensive used engine transplant and passed on to a new owner that is looking for a short bed fleetside late-60’s F100.
Steve R
Stuff an Aluminator in there with a Crown Vic frame underneath ala HotRod Garage
No proof it’s a 428CJ engine as we know it was probably beat into the ground and blown up then replaced with a 390 and putting out about 500hp.
Sure, why not, what could possibly go wrong?
It just needs a Saint Christopher dash medallion.
My friend had a mid 80’s Chevy C-20 that was propane powered
We called it the Bomb.
Sometimes he would also have oxygen and acetylene tanks strapped in too.
We used to joke that if he ever had a bad accident in a tunnel it would probably make history.
It is frightening to think that something like that could be sitting next to you in traffic
One interesting thing was how clean the motor oil was after 4-5k miles
There are alot of propane powered cars and trucks, buses running around the world. Very clean burning, high octane fuel. As the Bmac777 says, oil change intervals are greatly lengthened when using it Back in 1974 when i was a kid I worked at a small 50s era Texeco truck stop in Austinburg Ohio. There was a guy with a Olds? four door sedan running propane. He had three cylinders on his roof rack the length of his roof full of propane. I didnt think much of it as a 12 year old pump monkey but it is scary now.
If I had the time to mess with it I would nit mind having the old truck but not an option at this time.
Nothing wrong with propane in the bed except the inconvenience of getting it filled. Very common right back in the 70’s & 80’s. I had a friend up in the CO high country that had two tanks over his wheel wells went the length if his bed in a 72 F250 high boy 4×4. I bet he had over 350,000 on clock of that old truck. Propane burns cleaner, oil stays cleaner, engines last longer. Downside in stock low compression engines they lose a tad bit of performance. In those days propane was a lot cheaper than gasoline. If you built the engine for propane use they ran great. I don’t think it would be worth the trouble to build one today especially as efficient as the newer vehicles are.
Interesting, but I wonder how many miles he can squeeze out of a tankful of gas?
Propane has 27% less energy than Gasoline. It’s used for things like fork trucks operating indoors, because it has very low emissions.
I think this was a mid-eighties supposedly “earth friendly” experiment. I would put this right next to the “wood gasification” projects at Clem’s Museum of Oddities. They would be near the JC Whitney Toilet Paper oil filters exhibit.
Yeah I’m shocked they claim 700hp out of 428ci, even with a blower. The articles I’ve read about propane show it requires a lot more cubes/hp.
I snow plowed a lot in the northeastern section of the United States in the 80’s and they marathon cabs!! They were indestructible with large straight 6 engines and they were all powered by propane!! I had to start every car and pull them out of the lot!! Of course it was on a one way street so I had to take them around the block to park them in the lot again when it was clean!! Fishtailing them around the block was the most fun of all!! They all ran extremely well and putting 300K miles on them was the norm!! I see nothing wrong here if it’s done correctly!! However I would rather see that motor in a two door sedan!!
Propane is a lot more stable than gasoline. Cool old truck, but kind of a weird science project. Blower to make it go faster, propane to slow it down. Of course it will run indefinitely. I used to run a wrecking yard and got all the run out taxis from the local cab co. Got in a ‘78 Chevy SW with a 305 on propane. The chassis gave out before the engine. The head mechanic said there was a mix up in the records, but the car had somewhere between 750k and 800k on it. Engine still had good oil pressure and compression. Sold it – guy came back much later and said it was the best SBC he ever had.
I hear cng is super clean to run,fleet vehicles use it in cities,but unsure of propane’s characteristics etc.in a big v8,for the money this is worth it,build a box around the tank if your afraid of it “blowing up” ,all pre-73 (approximation)pick-ups had the gas tank literally right behind the seat,a slam in the rear by a sizeable vehicle could make for a really bad day!
Damn, I wish I had the money.
Went from $6800 to$ 10,100 in the last 15 sec.
Cool old truck! I worked for a propane company my entire adult life from 18 years old until retirement 5 years ago at 57. I’ve converted automobiles and pickups from gas to propane and driven propane -powered vehicles literally hundreds of thousands of miles. The only thing that I see on this truck that gives me any pause is the lack of valve protection on the propane tank in the bed. The guard is missing leaving the valves subject to damage. That would be my very first fix.
Growing up we had an early ’63 Ford p/u with propane, 1 large tank in the bed & we added a smaller 1 along the passenger framerail, & we worked that truck to no end at the ranch & down the hwy. When my father got ready to sell it I wanted it because I knew the engine was in great condition even though it had over 400k miles. Paint was practically non-existent & we had pulled out the vinyl floor so we could wash it out with a hose but hey, that was a plus!! Only thing we ever had to replace besides brakes & batteries was the rear-end & then it got a Dana 60. Guy that bought it drove it for another 20yrs before both he & the truck finally gave out.
You lost me after seeing the Spider web of wiring hanging down under the dash , Overall not a very clean build , not sure what the purpose of the thing was , but i guess at the time it made sence to someone , as well as this guy who just paid ten grand for it . Enjoy
Great looking car. 1968 Ford F100 shop manual here https://fordmanualblog.wordpress.com/2022/01/29/1968-ford-truck-shop-manual-pdf-download/