I found these...CNG Conversion Kits, CNG Tanks, CNG Cylinders One large enough to be of any use on a big heavy truck is going to cost you and is precisely why it's not a cheap conversion. Can probably find one used, but keep in mind they have an expiration date (15-20yrs) and they can't be legally used after that.

Good luck, keep us posted!

 

Thanks Maverick, you've been a HUGE help!

 

Okay, so I did some more work, and I found that it's going to take me about 3 years for the CNG to make up for itself.... Not bad....!

 

edit: I'm just going to play nice


good luck getting better MPG's

 

Any time ive seen stuff like this (conversions) you either need to keep the vehicle FOREVER to make it worth it in the long run. besides now you'll have 2 different fuels to fill up on.

Have you come across what kind of mileage to expect with CNG? I know we used to have a truck that ran on LP around the farm and mileage was crap but with the amount of LP we used at the farm and the price we could get it at made it bearable.

all 6 of the trucks on my farm get less than 10 mpg. just the nature of the beast with short trips and hauling stuff

 

Most honest folks get poor mileage. Dishonest.....well.....

 

I feel you are looking at this from the wrong angle. What sort of exhaust changes have you made? Long tube headers improve the low to mid RPM torque - hard to find though. What final drive ratios does it have? Too tall of a final drive will decrease your available low speed torque, although a shorter ratio may cut into your freeway mileage. 4WD? The extra weight will affect your mileage, but being on a farm, 4WD may be required. How many miles are spent on the highway vs around the farm? Stop and go is a destroyer of mileage in any vehicle.

I feel converting to CNG will not make any difference in how much fuel you use. Mainly because the engine was not built to run CNG. It can, but it's performance and mileage will suffer since the compression ratio and cam profile are setup for gasoline.
I'm curious how a dual fuel system would work on modern day EFI vehicles: two sets of injectors: one for gasoline and the other for CNG. Swap the two narrowband O2 sensors with widebands to allow the different air fuel ratios (CNG runs much leaner than gasoline). Either a piggyback ECU to control the CNG or a completely new ECU that has two tunes - one for gas and the other for CNG. Not to mention the dyno time to get it tuned properly. I dunno, that sounds quite expensive.

Just as many has said before, these trucks are haulers, not fuel sippers. Your mileage problem is most likely the weight you're hauling. They tune them to lean out when running light and to richen up when there's a load. If you try to run lean when loaded, pistons like to melt. It's the nature of the beast. My F350's mileage drops below 10MPG just hauling my sister's three horses around. What do you think it would do with 10,000 lbs behind it?
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02 F350 XL V10 6sp Manual 4WD 4.30 gears

 

You guys are mistaken. I don't care anymore about better gas mileage, I now care about better GAS price, that's why I'm turning to CNG, because it runs about $1 a gallon, and my dad wants to install a CNG tank on the farm, so I won't have to pay for the system, I will just have to pay for the system on my truck!

 

Oh, I see. This should be interesting.

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02 F350 XL V10 6sp Manual 4WD 4.30 gears

 

How are we supposed to know what your concerns are at this point? You're kind of all over the place...

The setup costs have to come from somewhere/someone, whether it's you or your dad, so that has to be taken into consideration if it's going to be a true comparison of whether there's benefit to going this route. If someone else is picking up part of the tab of a fuel conversion, then that's great, there's your fuel savings. More beer for the fridge!

 

I don't drink

 

That's great, neither do I. But does that mean you can't mentally replace beer with your favorite beverage? For me, it's Mountain Dew. ;-)
Of course, too much Dew will get me in trouble....."Uh sir, would you mind explaining that left turn back there?"
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02 F350 XL V10 6sp Manual 4WD 4.30 gears

 

The price isn't the entire issue. Sure, maybe you pay a buck for a gallon of CNG, but how far will that take you? What you need to look at is what kind of fuel mileage will you get with a truck converted to CNG. You can't do a 1 to 1 comparison with gasoline, it isn't that simple. It takes 21.7L of CNG at 2400 PSI to equal the energy of one gallon of gasoline.

Also, the gasoline engine is optimized to burn gasoline. It is not optimized to burn CNG. CNG has a much higher octane number. Very high static compression ratios and different spark advance maps are needed to utilize this higher octane efficiently.

 

That's what I was thinking too. Those "inexpensive" conversions do nothing to the spark maps or the compression ratios. So practically, mileage and performance will suffer and null the cheaper cost of the fuel. Hmmm......
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02 F350 XL V10 6sp Manual 4WD 4.30 gears