Guest Godot Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Hi all! Today I'm taking my beloved 1994 Pathfinder to the conversion Garage. So I'm going to post "before" pictures to compare what they're going to subject my dear pathy to. And so... without further a do: Front: Back: Engine: Dashboard, Driver's side: Passenger side engine bay, where regulator and valves and such will be installed: Close up of bay, where regulator and filling valve will be mounted: Trunk space, where cylinder will be installed: Wish me and my pathy luck! In theory, in 16 man hours of work I'll have her back! meanwhile, I'll gladly answer any questions regarding the whole compressed natural gas thiung here in Colombia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 awesome.. can't wait to see and read more on this as i would like to do this to my truck sometime in the future.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mws Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 For those of us in the states who still get really cheap (on a global scale) gasoline: What king of savings do you get by switching to natural gas? Just list these four and we can figure it out! MPG with petrol: MPG with NG: Cost per gallon for petrol: Cost per gallon for NG: And lastly, any power output differences between the two? Thanks for increasing our knowledge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 mws, we talked about these sometime back.. no idea when or where in here but, mpg with NG are lower as is the HP but NG is clean and way cheaper, definitely warranting a converion or a dual fuel setup.. that's what i would like to do as it would extend my range dramatically. NG is somewhat hard to find but there is at least one station in every major city.. most within tank's distance apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 For those of us in the states who still get really cheap (on a global scale) gasoline: What king of savings do you get by switching to natural gas? Just list these four and we can figure it out! MPG with petrol: MPG with NG: Cost per gallon for petrol: Cost per gallon for NG: And lastly, any power output differences between the two? Thanks for increasing our knowledge! The thing is... the way gas works, you can't properly say exactly MPG since gas doesn't come in gallons, it comes in cubic meters. What the guys that have converted cars for years can do is calculate what you're going to be spending daily/monthly considering your usage. 1 dollar goes for (today) 2300 pesos so you can convert if you like, still, the numbers can make sense to you anyway to see savings. No matter what I say here today (before I get my car converted, and these figures come from a third party) I will report on differences and what kind of mileage or efficiency, or fuel savings or money savings or whatever anyway. Right now I'm spending around $360,000 pesos a month (which is around 50 gallons of gas) and I'm told to expect spending around $120,000 pesos (thats about 140 cubic meters of gas) in gas instead of gasoline. just that is an expectes 60% savings. Cost per gallon gasoline: $5.900 pesos Cost per cubic Meter gas: $850 pesos Of course, my range using either fuel: Gasoline range: around 360 km on a full tank (assuming an 18 Gallon tank and a 20 KPG efficiency) Gas range: around 160 km on a full tank (with a 19 cubic meter tank accorging to their fuel efficiency figures) Whatever the reality of it all will be seen once I get my truck back and run her around a bit. Still, whatever happens, fuel economy is what's going to eventually pay all of this off. I am told to expect to lose a few horses on power (around 5 to 10) but, since I still have the ability to run both fuels I can switch from one to the other withou a problem. In theory my range will be increased to around 520 KM by using both fuels. I'll also have a greener car and expect less problems complying to emmisions standards. I will be posting updates as things progress. mws, we talked about these sometime back.. no idea when or where in here but, mpg with NG are lower as is the HP but NG is clean and way cheaper, definitely warranting a converion or a dual fuel setup.. that's what i would like to do as it would extend my range dramatically. NG is somewhat hard to find but there is at least one station in every major city.. most within tank's distance apart. Gas (real gas, not gasoline stations) are becoming ever more popular in Colombia, I can run around all the northern coast of the country and never run out of gas. in my city alone (a smallish city of around 1 million people) theres around 25 stations. I'll keep on updating. I was told to expect my car back on wednesday (in two long days) but that it might take less time. Wish me patience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sw Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 ooooohhhhh that wouldnt happen to be a lil carby fed z24 i see........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 not really sure how it's sold here, thinking a psi possibly.. i'll have to drive by one sometime when i am on that side of town. if i did my math right then 1km on petrol cost you 295P and 1km on NG will be around 100P. how much to do the conversion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear claw Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 How many pesos to do the whole job done? Can't wait till wednesday too I had my honeymoon in Columbia 10 years ago, it's like a piece of paradise dos cerveza por favor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 that wouldnt happen to be a lil carby fed z24 i see........ Yes... With the Z logo on the cam cover... will pic when back if you fancy. Import tariffs in COlombia for cars are hideous, so importers had to bring "expensive" cars with some skimping so they'd be affordable.. I guess they skimped on the engine. 2.4 liter carb'ed engine must be a heck of a lot cheaper than US standard VG 30... not really sure how it's sold here, thinking a psi possibly.. i'll have to drive by one sometime when i am on that side of town. if i did my math right then 1km on petrol cost you 295P and 1km on NG will be around 100P. how much to do the conversion? I would guess by cubic meter since that's how they meter gas for home use. I'll tell you when I finally fill her up (who knows when that will be, since they hand her over on a full tank of gas. How many pesos to do the whole job done? Can't wait till wednesday too tongue.gif I had my honeymoon in Columbia 10 years ago, it's like a piece of paradise dos cerveza por favor beer.gif 2'114,000 pesos for the whole job. That doesn't include a 500,000 peso gov't bonus (incentive) to get the job done and a 340,000 discount on the gas tank since my wife works with one of the gas company's affiliates. but it'll pay itself off in less than a year (in theory) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sw Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 (edited) he he i do recall the 'z' on the cam cover. all black back ground and a shiney silver 'z'. hows your carby going? does the engine stall on hills? i also just noticed youve got the single spark version. good, the twin spark was dumb, just made servicing expensive...... sorry im post jacking.... Edited February 21, 2006 by sw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MATTY Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Hey guys I looked into it here in australia, in my opinion it is meant to have an octane rating of 110 and you are meant to go a bit further (per equivalent litre)but a 110litrel gas tank only holds about 20-30 equivalent litres so you'd be making trips fill up more often which turned me away from it, its not as populas as LPG here in australia but I reckon in 20-30 years we'll all be doing it good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 he he i do recall the 'z' on the cam cover. all black back ground and a shiney silver 'z'. biggrin.gif hows your carby going? does the engine stall on hills? i also just noticed youve got the single spark version. good, the twin spark was dumb, just made servicing expensive...... sorry im post jacking.... chair.gif It hasn't stalled on me yet, but I really haven't had time to take it off road. so.. who knows? Hey guys I looked into it here in australia, in my opinion it is meant to have an octane rating of 110 and you are meant to go a bit further (per equivalent litre)but a 110litrel gas tank only holds about 20-30 equivalent litres so you'd be making trips fill up more often which turned me away from it, its not as populas as LPG here in australia but I reckon in 20-30 years we'll all be doing itgood luck I doubt it. My gas cylinder hold 95 liters (liquid water volume STP and all) but to fill it with gas it can hold 19 cubic meters (that translates to 19,000 liters compressed, a 1000:1 compression ratio) the 110 octane thing is true, however the thing is that it is ideal for an engine thats designed to run on gas to begin with. My engine originaly ran gasoline and will be adapted to run on gas. As a matter of fact, it still needs gasoline to start in the morning till it warms up. I can switch back and forth, but if I run out of gas it doesn't switch over automagically. This sort of makes sense since you don't want to accidentally run out of both fuels. Still.. I might have to fill the gasoline tank once or twice A YEAR!!! hee hee hee. Of course, I will run her around on gas once in a while to prevent fuel deposits and weird crap in my tank.. but for the most part... CNG will be the norm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 Dammit! The whole installation is ready, BUT... (something had to happen) The valve on the tank was defective (a factory error apparently) so it siezed up and wouldn't let gas out of the cylinder. So.... I have my car right now, working on gasoline. They took the gas cylibder off abd left me runnign on gas only. I'll take pictures of the engine modifications (if light permits) and post them later tonight or tomorrow. Bummer... :furious: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Well, here are the changes (engine bay only, since the tank isn't in)... Gas regulator and closeup of filling valve: Filling valve and mounting bracket: Gas/air regulation connections: Same: "Control" chip (it verifies if I'm up-to-date on programmed maintenance, if I'm not, the fuel pump won't dispense gas, it's unsafe): Today I'm going back and get it finalized... We'll see how she performs this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 It's working! Finally! Ok, so know I know what everything is, and how everything works. The car is running fine, after a bunch of bitching and moaning, since the brand spankin' new advance timing processor was way off. So, lemme explain what everything is: this is the gasoline cutoff valve. It's an electronic valve that cuts off the gasoline flow when the car is running on gas. What you can't see is under the air filter, where ther is an aluminum mixing block where gas and air are mixed on a 10:1 ratio. The big honking black tube is taking gas from the regulator to the mixing block. Gas regulator. It lowers the pressure of the gas coming in from the tank at 3000(!) PSI in several stages to 0.5 PSI for use in the carb. The weird little do-hickey in front of the pressure guage is an electronic reader that relays information to a switch/guage inside the car (which will be pictured later) that let's me change from gasoline to gas (on the fly!) and is also a pressure guage that tells me how much gas I have left in the tank. I still have a couple of pictures missing: A pic of the Tank that now occupies half my trunk space, and a pic of the electronics that are now installed inside the cabin. Performance for now is ok, I have to drive her around a bit more to tell any difference. More updates later.. any questions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Are you really going to save money after spending so much to have it installed? CNG/LP is almost as expensive as gasoline here, FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Are you really going to save money after spending so much to have it installed? CNG/LP is almost as expensive as gasoline here, FWIW. Comparing prices, and fuel economy, I'm told to expect to spend around 40% of qhat I used to spend on gasoline. VCNG (Vehicular Compressed Natural Gas) is cheap in Colombia. From the expected average saving on cars similar to mine, I'm told to expect the conversion to pay itself off in around a year.... So in a year I'll save what I spent doing the conversion. I still have to drive her around a bit to see how much gas I'm using and exactly how much I can drive on a full tank of gas. I'll keep you all posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packie88 Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 i remember hearing somewhere its possible to get a home filling station. i will ahve to dig that up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear claw Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 i remember hearing somewhere its possible to get a home filling station. i will ahve to dig that up. There it is http://www.myphill.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Hello again... I'm sorry for the absence, but Carnaval got a hold of me and I wen AWOL for a while there. I've had some experience with my CNG pathy and I can't say that I can complain. My ignition coil is acting up, so I guess I'll have to change it. A whole conversion to electronic ignition was offered, but I just spent a crapload of money on the CNG conversion so I guess I'll hold off for a while. I will buy a new more powerful coil (any reccomendations?) so she'll run nicely. I took the truck on the road to see fuel economy. Right now (with a bum coil, it sputters when it gets too hot, particularly on hills and such) I'm getting around 8.7 km/m^3 (highway) that means that my fuel tank will run me around 165 km (around 100 miles for those of you who are metrically challenged). I can't really complain. All in all, my round trip (including tolls and such) which used to cost me around 70.000 pesos in my old car (a tiny VW gol) now it costs me 45.000 in my truck! yay! Today I'll get the new coil in and everything will be fine. (One hopes). I'll take pictures of the stuff that is missing sometime today so I'll post them tonight (hopefully) On power. Yes, I do notice a little difference, but nothing horrible. I can still switch to gasoline on the fly anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 BTW... The pathy was due for an oil change... So, there's this new oil in the market for CNG powwered cars. I decided to switch to the new formula (same grade). Everything was cool, oil was drained, new filter put in, I went to the place next door to get an air filter and when I came back I wailed at the guy: What the hell are you putting into my engine???? The freaking oil is BLUE!!!! BRIGHT ELECTRIC BLUE!!!! Will take pictures of blue oil too... God, I though he was putting antifreeze or something in the engine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Kendall oil is purple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SC88Pathy Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 As is Royal Purple (NAW REALLY?! ) Royal Purple is supposed to be good stuff, on Horsepower TV they replaced all lubricants with royal purple on a stock camero and they saw something like a 10hp increase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Godot Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Heh.... no pictures yet (wife had her wisdom teeth pulled, so I've been busy otherwise) However, on the subject of power, I finally had a worthy experience to document,. A friend of mine as a Mercedes Benz 300 sl class sedan from way back in 1984 (I think) its a beatiful, old, heavy piece of german engineering. It's gasoline pump quit yesterday leaving him stranded so I went to the rescue. I had no trouble whatsoever pulling the heavy car through traffic and for arounf 5 miles uphill and stuff to his house. I can't really complain. I recently did have to change the ignition coil (remember those?) on the pathy, because the old one (original part, 11 years old) wasn't behaving nicely. I'm oh so happy with my CNG.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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