There's been TV ads by T Boone Pickens regarding CNG (compressed natural gas). The only manufactured vehicle available with CNG is a Honda Civic GX.
However, in searching the web, I find there are conversion kits for Super Duties with a 5.4 Liter engines readily available.
Do you think Superduty sales could benefit from offering CNG ready vehicles?
If you have a 5.4L would you consider conversion to CNG to stop the demand for foreign oil?
Does anybody here have experience with the 5.4L CNG Superduty conversion and drive one?
In answer to your questions, "NOT NO, BUT HELL NO". CNG has got to be one of the worst "boone" doggles going. CNG has nowhere near the BTU's of gasoline, let alone diesel. As a result, you have nowhere near the economy of a gasoline engine, let alone what diesel will give you.
City of Ashland, OR retrofitted a F150 (5.0 flex fuel triton) to CNG in the late 90's. The tank took up half the bed, rendering it unfit to haul anything, and the truck had a total range of 100 miles before empty. And for God's sake don't let it run out of fuel, as the purging process was a nightmare. And, tell me where you're going to find a "fueling station" that has CNG?
So, you want to take a Superduty truck, and make it usless??
OMC
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Yeah, Memphis City government had a few for a while. They had two bottles mounted in the bed, which like OMC said kills the truck's usefulness and they had a range of about 100 miles. My biggest fear, other than it's one of the shyster Pickens plans, is the refueling. Something about the common city slicker, or minimum wage station employee, missing with CNG or LNG just scares the bajebbers out of me.
T Boone made a boat load, make that a barge load, of money screwing land owners and us from oil. Now he has invested heavily in wind generators and CNG. Don't think for a minute he has our best interest the economies or the environments best interest at heart. He wants M O M O N E Y!
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165K miles, 12 injectors, EGR cooler, Fuel pump, 8 glow plugs, GPCM, FICM rebuilt FoMoCo engine at 150K under 7/200 warranty.
The price right now for CNG compared to other fuel is $2.40 gallon per the CNG web site. I read a couple of months ago the price would go up if it started to be used to fuel vehicles.
You guys make it seem unattractive. So patriotic reasons alone don't cut it.
I don't know the exact technicals and what not with natural gas and the like, but I do know that Ford does have plenty of factory natural gas vehicles (47% of the market, is what I read). They're pretty rare, granted. One of the roads maintenance companies here has a few of their F150's on CNG, and the biggest local autoparts chain has a bunch of theirs on CNG and propane. Some of the local transit busses are CNG, and I've even seen a couple of Police cruisers on CNG.
I actually grew up around a truck running on natural gas. My dad has an old GMC Sierra 1500 from the early 90's (I forget the year, 90, 92?) that we bought when I was young from the gas company in an auction. It's dual-fuel and has four tanks for holding the gas; two behind the cab in the box, and the other two below the box behind the trailer hitch. They take up plenty of room, so in a shortbox truck the cargo room is cut down significantly. It's an extended cab, 4x4, with 2500 springs on a 1500 truck. It's an old beast with a strong roar, and a pile of miles (around 250,000). Rebuilt engine, and replacement tranny. It's had plenty of problems (a few on vacation when I was a kid of course ) but for all my old man's complaints and curses about it it's been an amazing vehicle for the family. We used to be able to fill it up for around $18 and get at least 200 miles out of it. The price has risen, but is still way cheaper. It's even possible to put a natural gas filling station on your house with compressors and holding tanks if you want to get crafty.
This truck has an aftermarket conversion on it. I don't know who did it but anyway, from what I know factory vehicles are generally better. For vehicles built for propane and CNG they're able to increase the compression in the engine because the fuel is a higher octane. Obviously the truck will run better if this is the case. The fuel itself is incredibly clean in emissions as well as engine deposits. The fuel itself has less lubricity than gasoline, but one look at your motor oil and you'll be amazed. Most of the guys at the lube place can hardly believe how clean my dad's oil is when he brings it in. From our experience the truck has a little bit less power on natural gas than gasoline, and a little less range, but the cost is at least half. It seems like natural gas vehicles are a lot more common here in Canada though, so your mileage may vary.
The old family truck is quickly nearing the end of its lifespan, even though it should have been replaced long ago. I think I'm finally wearing off on the old man... the other night he said he's going to go diesel with the next one.
Feel free to do a little bit of Googling about NGV's, as they do serve their purpose.
If the new gas pipeline from Alaska goes through, it would seem sensible to convert some of that gas to diesel for the trucking industry. Europeans conert natural gas to diesel, so we should too. Seems easier to do versus converting the fleet to CNG.
This is a very goof thread. However it will be better not to overestimate or underestimate the facts. In Germany where fuel is about twice the price there are a lot of Tahoes / Suburbans with "real" gas.
There are two kinds of gas. Compressed "normal gas" and "auto gas". I assume CNC referres to the first one. This is hard to install. Latter is easier.
Reports indicate that fuel economy is reduced by about 15 % in the range of 5-20%. The Tahoes who normally run some 14 MPG will go at 13. One tank is 60 Gal. Makes 700 Mi per tank.
With a SD you would need 9-10 gallons of "real" gas giving a range of 550-600 Mi with a 60 Gal tank.
I haven't seen a converted F-250 yet but there are converted F-150s.
This is a very goof thread. However it will be better not to overestimate or underestimate the facts. In Germany where fuel is about twice the price there are a lot of Tahoes / Suburbans with "real" gas.
There are two kinds of gas. Compressed "normal gas" and "auto gas". I assume CNC referres to the first one. This is hard to install. Latter is easier.
Reports indicate that fuel economy is reduced by about 15 % in the range of 5-20%. The Tahoes who normally run some 14 MPG will go at 13. One tank is 60 Gal. Makes 700 Mi per tank.
With a SD you would need 9-10 gallons of "real" gas giving a range of 550-600 Mi with a 60 Gal tank.
I haven't seen a converted F-250 yet but there are converted F-150s.
Jim
Jim,
Please explain your comments further. What do you mean by normal gas and auto gas?
To me CNG, is compressed natural gas (methane). What do you mean by "auto gas" ? Is it a compressed gas that has different ingredients? Or is it a different system that combines gasoline with a compressed gas?
The biggest problem with converting to CNG is the lack of fueling stations. period! Vehicles designed to run on CNG [or LP] and not dual fuel, get very comparable mileage and run CLEAN. But America is afraid of change and it will probably never catch on, so long as we can give the towel heads a few billion dollars a day to keep the petroleum flowing, America will continue to stick its head in the sand.
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roush racing has a liquid propane injection system for the f-150. This looks real promising, but it looks like the kit can be used on any 5.4 l engine. propanetruck.us - Home
Last edited by macmaniac1; 09-13-2008 at 09:38 AM.
roush racing has a liquid propane injection system for the f-150. This looks real promising, but it looks like the kit can be used on any 5.4 l engine. propanetruck.us - Home
That makes a little more sense if you have home propane and don't mind picking up those little propane tanks on a road trip.
Please explain your comments further. What do you mean by normal gas and auto gas?
To me CNG, is compressed natural gas (methane). What do you mean by "auto gas" ? Is it a compressed gas that has different ingredients? Or is it a different system that combines gasoline with a compressed gas?
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) but for all my old man's complaints and curses about it it's been an amazing vehicle for the family. We used to be able to fill it up for around $18 and get at least 200 miles out of it. The price has risen, but is still way cheaper. It's even possible to put a natural gas filling station on your house with compressors and holding tanks if you want to get crafty.
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