Natural Gas Alltrac??

Turn my ST185 into a Natural Gas Car?

  • Yes - why

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  • No - why

    Votes: 0 0.0%

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Indy3sgte

New member
Hey

My father owns a small industry that works with industrial compressors and natural gas custom setups on the side. I was talking with him last night about maybe dropping my gas tank, intalling 2 carbon fiber tanks in the trunk and having a fuel cell for back up. What do you guys think? I've never done a conversion on a turbo car before...so I will need more pressure/gas than normal right?

Well let me know.

Dan
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
It sounds like a cool idea. I have a gas well on my property. Might be just in time for the upcoming fuel crisis.
 

BraveUlysses

New member
Natural gas injectors are pricey.

Are you kidding about the CF tanks? Decently-sized CF CNG tanks easily cost more than our cars are worth.

Other than the novelty aspect of it, you'll never ever see the added costs pay off in terms of benefits in fuel cost/economy.

Plus, if you wish to use both fuels--definately can be done--you have to use separate fuel systems, pumps, filters and injectors for both fuel types.
 

Indy3sgte

New member
Natural gas injectors are pricey.

Are you kidding about the CF tanks? Decently-sized CF CNG tanks easily cost more than our cars are worth.

Other than the novelty aspect of it, you'll never ever see the added costs pay off in terms of benefits in fuel cost/economy.

Plus, if you wish to use both fuels--definately can be done--you have to use separate fuel systems, pumps, filters and injectors for both fuel types.

I agree that they are pricey...and no I am not kidding about the CF tanks...like I said my fathers company does it on the side so I could arrange somthing with him I'm sure, we get them for free every now and then. I understand the seprate systems which shouldnt be too hard to come by with my fathers company distributing most of them.
 

Mafix

New member
i would guess that it would work...i don't see why not.
But if i had the money and resources to do it I would go to methanol. stock motor should put out some big numbers just from that.
BTW NOS tanks and CNG tanks the same thing?
 

celicat93

New member
the military uses CNG for it's non-tactical vehicles, I drove one in the Marines...dunno if the technology has advanced any, but it SUCKS!!! Horrible acceleration, patchy power-curve. It relies on tank pressure for fuel delivery and so you don't keep running until the tank is empty, you have to keep it filled up to maintain enough pressure to deliver it to the engine or it'll really start stuttering and hesitating on you. I can't even imagine how it would work with a turbo, they'd have to improve the fuel delivery technology for forced induction to do any good. Oh yeah, and it takes forever to fill up, seriously, sometimes I'd wait a half hour for the pump to fill my tank.
 

Shaggz00

Active member
celicat93":1ef9civ4 said:
the military uses CNG for it's non-tactical vehicles, I drove one in the Marines...dunno if the technology has advanced any, but it SUCKS!!! Horrible acceleration, patchy power-curve. It relies on tank pressure for fuel delivery and so you don't keep running until the tank is empty, you have to keep it filled up to maintain enough pressure to deliver it to the engine or it'll really start stuttering and hesitating on you. I can't even imagine how it would work with a turbo, they'd have to improve the fuel delivery technology for forced induction to do any good. Oh yeah, and it takes forever to fill up, seriously, sometimes I'd wait a half hour for the pump to fill my tank.

Agreed,
There are a ton of natural gas vehicles in Brazil, and they suck bigtime. I mean, not that there are many performance cars there, but still. I drove a VW bus with propane power, it was... ...an experience, haha! had like negative 40 horsepower!
 

Mafix

New member
Austen_gt4":2j1alzyw said:
i think some of the schwan's truck are propane powered..
ya know i think you are right but those are deisel motors converted over. they take crap like that much better then gas motors.
 

RIalltrac

Active member
We have buses here in RI that are powered by propane, not really sure on thier engine setup, but for buses they kinda screw. The local gas company also uses propane powered ford rangers for service calls.
 

ChrisD

New member
IMHO

Converting to NG is probably a huge waste of money. You would have FAR more luck if you converted to liquid petroleum gas. LPG is a really sweet to use on a turbo car, because of it's very high octane rating. Plus if you can find it, it is really cheap. But you definitely need an aftermarket engine management system to be able to advance timing and tune for high boost in order to fully realize the potential of it.
 

BraveUlysses

New member
CNG and LPG are nearly the same fuel source. Both have high octane ratings, but overall CNG resevoirs are larger and more prevalent than LPG.

LPG will most likely have more refil stations, but that's a moot point, since your dad has a business that is related to CNG.
 

celicat93

New member
yeah propane, I was a schwan man too for awhile - lol They switched back in the 70's after the oil embargo. Not much better than CNG...one other thing you have to consider is what these alternative fuels do to your seals. In summation, I don't know why anyone would want to run any of these gases on their vehicle - lol Schwan's is actually switching back to diesel now though.

Austen_gt4":1oskrhzn said:
i think some of the schwan's truck are propane powered..
 
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