I have a thread on here about going to WVO already. Even with diesel approaching 4 dollars a gallon here, I have not made any progress yet on that project.
But I have also found out about adding a CNG tank to my diesel and supplementing my diesel fuel. Has anybody else done this?
What I read was you get a CNG tank added to your truck, it burns approximately 25% CNG to 75% diesel. The claim was you would get about a 25% boost in fuel economy. I get 18.5 miles per gallon right now. That would be a 4.6 miles per gallon boost in economy.
They also claimed I would get a HP boost, not a lot but 50 plus HP boost. More power, less money. Sounds like a good beer.
I can get CNG here for 90 cents a gallon.
The conversion is about 6000 dollars.
If diesel stays 4 dollars a gallon and CNG stays at 90 cents a gallon, I would save about 5 cents a mile. So it would take about 125 thousand miles to pay for the conversion. But I would also get a state tax break for the conversion kit.
So are there any opinions about going with this as an option?

 

Thing is when U see the tanks in action U have no room to haul anything. That being the case wouldn't a simple small 4 cylinder car be a wiser choice since driving a truck like a car is the option. Here is the pictures. Thing to take into consideration is the size ratio needed to capture all the 3600 psi compressed natural gas U need to see a real benefit to ownership of the conversion. If U have a 36 gallon diesel tank U will want a big enough tank to hold enough CNG to fill the diesel tank 2 times, one out and one coming back. I can see a benefit to the guy only driving 25 miles a day with constant refills with a Phill system every evening into a smaller storage tank. But sever limitations to driving range in order to haul his quad. Think $6000 dollars and buy a Platinum edition F150 EB would be a better choice for fun in the sun. Given time and enough CNG supply in ovations and manufactures will off them up at a reasonable price with a designed tank system install inside the frame probably for big rigs. My experience with CNG powered gas engines is it doesn't exactly burn clean in the motor. It isn't like the clean burn of a stove. There is a very nasty residue from it coating everything in the fuel delivery/top end of the motor. There is a lubricant in the CNG that is very nasty.

Small Automotive Applications

 

I know a few companies are converting OTR engines , expensive ! They turn them into dual fuel engines , special software,and engine components .The tec . is out there , but for the regular owner , no $$ benefit yet . Maybe in a few years , but not now .

 

Wait ... so the claim is that if you get x mpg on pump diesel, you will get 1.25x mpg on a hybrid CNG-pump diesel setup?

Or is the claim simply that you'll use 25% less pump diesel (implication being that you're using 25% CNG) ... ?

 

I'm guessing that's the ethyl mercaptan that is added to make it smell like rotten eggs ... or something else. CNG is actually a mix of various-length hydrocarbons, though not as many as is gasoline or diesel.

Do you know, does LP have the same issues with not burning clean? I've always heard people claim that natural gas-powered engines last a lot longer because supposedly it burns cleaner than diesel or gas. Not so?

 

The claim made by the installer is that you would get a boost in your diesel milage by 25%. I burn approximately 32 gallons between fill ups and burn approximately 8 gallons of CNG at the same time I would burn 32 gallons of diesel. My take on this is I would be I would spend 4 dollars per gallon of diesel burned and 8 gallons of CNG burned per tank full.

 

There is a black very thick surpy substance that collects in the fuel regulators of LP powered equipment. Eventually it gets perty bad, filling up the passageway areas turning the internals to a black greasy mess in both the upper and lower psi chambers of it, perty much trashing the fuel regulator in the 90,000 mile range. It will then migrate to the fuel induction areas of the motor. The pistons will remain very clean of carbon, but the intake valves become a mess. It can literally hold the intake valves open in small motors causing poor running conditions on lp fuel injection styles. In all the price U pay for less carbon monoxide in the air but more carbon dioxide. The engine lower end lasts longer on average, but the fuel system/heads needs maintenance over the same time.

 

That's really interesting. I'll file that away for future reference. Thanks Papa.

 

Thanks. These systems help. If the world added supplemental systems to the production processes pollution could be significantly curbed in places like China and India. Reason for jobs leaving the USA, they migrated to pollution friendly areas of the world where are now choking on the suet. Lol The extreme high pressure of CNG systems does cause problems down the line of time. Nature of the beast. It's kinda like the Hindenburg waiting for a spark.