Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel Conversion For Light Trucks

Years ago (around the late 70's or early 80's) here in New Zealand the government announced a subsidised plan to convert a target of 150,000 vehicles to run on CNG, and there was quite an extensive adoption of CNG, and a reasonable network of filling stations set up etc. Not much left of this now!

The company I worked for at the time developed a small range of high pressure equipment (filling valve, pressure regulator, and a clever conversion kit which allowed the standard "gasoline" fuel gauge to be used at the flick of a switch to display either gasoline contents or CNG contents). We soon had a tidy export business selling this equipment in Canada and USA. One of our USA customers was Impco, who supplied the Impco conversion kit for CNG. I recall their equipment was highly regarded and had a genuine gas carburettor (as opposed to the cruder metering methods used by some other brands of conversion kits).

I'm retired now and not familiar with what equipment is available but you may find it useful to contact Impco if they are still in business in the USA.

Cheers,

John S

Not sure if this helps but notice a lot of Garbage trucks (freightliners ) here on CNG can ask about if it is a help

There is a store/shop very near me.(Moulden Supply) They convert vehicles to run on propane.I think they also do CNG conversions too. cuhulin

People in Argentina has been doing this for ages. Check:

There's a fair proportion of UK cars converted to Duel-fuel using LPG (usually a propane / butane mix) due to a large difference in duty between petrol and LPG. Most opinions seem to be that LPG gives slighlty less power (but at about half the price here!). You might find more data on conversions on UK sites. (The rest of us that don't want to drive round with a gas cylinder in the boot run diesel cars - modern turbo common rail diesels being as nippy as a petrol car, and much more economical)

I did a websearch recently and found a decent site where they have the technology to covert fuel injection vehicles (particularly important since carbureted small cars are all but dinosaurs).

The Phill (sp$) system is available to compress your own natural gas, but it seems to be a bit expensive. Probably safe, but also requires periodic maintenance...good for a number of rebuilds. I feel one could engineer his own compressor system, but could also end up winning a Darwin award.

If you cant find the first site, I will see if I can retrace my steps.

The main problem is that methane will not liquify when compressed at ambient, so you will have to design in a high pressure storage system

CNG & LNG storage systems exits, so designing one isn't necessary.

On a distantly related topic: anyone have a URL for a supplier of natural gas conversion kits for small engines (Briggs & Stratton, 5 HP size)?

I've got a genset with a crudded up carb that I'd rather run off the gas service anyway.

The problem is that these conversion systems are a bit pricey. Certainly the systems exist and people are using them today.

But to make them accessible to the people who need them the worst (those who are not as affluent as T. Boone Pickens, for example), the pricing has to come down.

Will people try to home-brew systems? Most likely, and some of the problems are obvious.

Yes, indeed!

The cost of conversion of a gasoline car to CNG is around $12,000.

The cost of conversion of a gasoline car to flexfuel (incl. E85) is $360 for a 4-cyl. car. And the result is a fuel that is cheaper per mile, cleaner, and hotter.

Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

They always have been, which is why lpg conversions are good value by comparison.

It does, but they're always going to be expensive due to their nature.

Indeed.

I don't know what part of the world you're from, but here in OZ natural gas hasn't taken off as a motor fuel despite us having a huge supply of the stuff. There are some who use it, but the numbers are very small and its principally found in industrial applications such as powering forklifts and generators, or in some large trucks and busses that have been converted from diesel. LPG, or Propane, is the number one alternative fuel to petrol for most cars and light trucks, and it has a lot of advantages.

If it's an Onan genset, you can buy a kit from Onan.

--scott

Interesting products (but irritating website).

Any idea on pricing, Tiago

Converting to Propane pays off if you plan on keeping your vehicle for a long time.Best to take your vehicle to a shop where they do those conversions on a regular basis.Let the experts do it. cuhulin

No. Its some odd brand unit. Fortunately, it uses a B&S engine, so that should be easy to find parts for. But B&S doesn't have conversion kits, nor do they endorse after market mods. Their position appears to be: but a new B&S motor already fit for the purpose.

I found one site that appears to be selling something which appears to be a pressure regulator, a metal tube and instructions on how to drill a hole in your carb and stick the metal tube in. But this looks like a cheap hack.

Some years ago, I converted a pickup truck to run on propane. The metering unit that sat n top of the carburetor was a non-trivial piece of hardware, as I recall.

You're probably thinking of the vaporizer/pressure regulator. It's needed on propane units but not on natural gas. You might try asking on the alt.energy.homepower group. There are a lot of irrigation power units on natural gas or propane. The ones I'm used to seeing are 300 cid. up to about 454 cid. You'll lose about 20% of the horsepower on natural gas if I remember correctly. I think the timing needs to be advanced also if going from gasoline to either propane or natural gas.

Dean

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Around here (Vancouver, Canada) the cost of the conversion is currently just under $6,000. I didn't inquire how many tanks this would include, so I assume if you want more than one tank (which may hold roughly 60 - 100 miles worth of fuel), the price will climb significantly with multiple tanks. Of course, unless your vehicle is a truck or similar, there won't be much room to install more than a one (or at most two) tank(s).

I once had a 1977 (i.e. carbureted) GMC van, which I had to use for my work, converted to CNG back in the mid-eighties. It took 36 months of heavy commuting for the investment to pay for itself. The GMC van unexpectedly bit the dust shortly after that though, thwarting my anticipated net savings.