My CNG conversion

[Perrier]

price increased liaoz?

 

My PI also quote me about $4000 for CNG conversion from scantruck. It includes all the installation plus inspection, etc.

[Steady]

Wow! The price has increased!! Is that with or without GST?

 

This is a case of once popularity of the conversion increases, company will ride on it to earn more profit. Unless, as you mentioned, the justification is provided to support the price increase.

 

I thought once more ppl gets interested in doing the conversion, the price should be lowered because of economy of scale. Should it be cheaper to buy more and pass on the savings to consumer??

[Luvknowmore]

The price will go down when there are more installer available (more competition). I dun think they will care what is economy of scale...

[Luvknowmore]

Hi Genie,

 

I think you are right about MY kg is not the same as SG kg.

 

I am able to pump 12 - 13 kg of MY gas in Tampoi with my 66L tank, and only 9.5 - 9.9kg in Jln Buroh (never try Mandai). Both gave me almost same distance..

[Gilbertaue]

Need to bear in mind mind that filling stations in singapore are all verified by SPRING Weights and Measurements one a year. ... who knows what/who checks Petronas pumps in malaysia??

[Gilbertaue]

Hi Incom,

 

AS explained over the phone, the bulk of the CNG conversion are the cylinders. Unlike the electronic parts in the conversion, which are revised periodically by the supplier, the cylinder supplier can change their price daily as they are governed by steel prices.

 

Unfortunaly, all CNG suppliers are at the mercy of the cylinder suppliers. Today's price may not apply tomorrow. New stock of cylinders arrive in 2 weeks time - they are a big increase to cylinders bought in about 5 months ago.

 

Finally, you are paying for safety. Cylinders are from reputable manufacturers (White Martins - Cilbras) and not from India or China. You may pay similar conversion price elsewhere, but do you get the same quality? I suggest that everyone insists on traceability of parts that are installed.

[Luvknowmore]

So based on your experience, how much gas can I pump with 66L tank taking into consideration of the residual gas.

 

Genie has 60L tank and he is able to pump almost same amount as mine which is 66L? So, what is the point of getting 66L of tank. It is definitely much heavily..

[Dirtrider_ak]

Try going direct to the manufacturer and ask for quotation. White Martin is a good brand. To me brands are brands. Steel can still be made in China. Option 2 start a plant here. Option 3 Carbon fibre tanks price should be fixed.

[Gilbertaue]

It depends on how empty you drive your cylinder. You can coax it to drive a bit more my pressing the button to force drive it on CNG a bit longer.

 

66l is in fact lighter than Genie's 58l as the 66l is from a different manufacturer, manufactured differently and it is a "light" range.

 

Another thing. For CNG litres is not = to volume. In gas you speak of pressure. If the compressor at the station has topped up for you at 200 bar, let's say you can fit in about 9kg. If the compressor at that moment is only dispensing 195bar, you get maybe 8.5kg. So it's different to water/petrol volume where you have a liquid filling up a caniister. Here it's all about pressure - and that can vary from station to station, from peak time to lull time, from good compressor to bad compressor.

 

When filling, don't look at the $$$, don't look at the kg. Look at how many BAR you are getting basing on the manometer in the engine compartment. Some compressors in Malaysia sometimes only give you 160bar... Internationally you should be getting exactly 200 bar. This is good for the cylinder too as it is what the cylinder is designed to hold.

 

Makes sense??

[Incom]

Hi,

 

The price increase justification has being posted by Gilbert.

 

Cheers

[Beng2]

The price will go down when there are more installer available (more competition). I dun think they will care what is economy of scale...

Er, more installers means there are more potential customers to begin with, right? More potential customers means more demand, which means Px will increase too

so we are back to square one.

[Genie47]

Mandai will be more than Jln Buroh. The Jln Buroh Nanobox seems to have encountered problems this morning. Lots of cabbies complaining that it cannot stuff their cylinders. I thought I could get a fill up since I hit red already but I didn't want to wait. Went off and the beeps started. Using petrol .

[Genie47]

This is the Nanobox for those still with petrol.

 

Picture below is the side panel opened. Inside is a compressor. Beneath it is the gas line feeding the compressor and there are 4 big white cylinders in there.

 

[inline Nanobox1.jpg]

 

Below is when the side panel is closed.

 

[inline Nanobox2.jpg]

[Dirtrider_ak]

Mandai is a better place to pump so far smooth smooth ..... bt slower than JI. JI pump super fast sia. Good pressure also. :)

[Genie47]

Just went back to Jln Buroh. The fill up is better because there is an issue with the compressor. Can only use one nozzle. Though the fill up was slower I got the full 200bar pressure. Cost me SGD8.65 only.

[Gilbertaue]

1. As mentioned a few days ago the pressure will be "upped". It has. Now max pressure is set at 210bar - so it's because the max pressure has been increases - not because only one line running.

 

2. This morning issue was door solenoid. Door not closed properly, compressor doesn't run. Engineers there still need a bit more experience to work on the machine.

 

3. Nozzle 2 leaking for some reason. Will be changing it to the Jurong Island style "Gun" nozzle. It also has a swivel joint. Might be easier to fill up cars with that. So this will be a trial.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Gilbertaue

[Andyngps]

Drivers' reviews are out!

 

"I am no stranger to fuel efficient driving. My car is a manual transmission 1.4L DOHC Aveo. Needs strict discipline to get 13km/L from RON92 petrol. The car is now bifuel and is using the sequential gas injection kit from OMVL. It is programmed to start and idle on petrol.

 

With CNG, I have lost some torque when climbing up expressway ramps. You cannot slam down the accelerator and the car must be coaxed gently. The ignition system is very important when it comes to CNG. When installed, I didn't know my coils and flywheel pickup sensor had suffered damage. I did encounter failure to start prior to the installation. After the installation, the car choked a lot on CNG. The coils were stressed a lot. However, shrugged this off as this went away when I was back on petrol. Finally they failed. I had these replaced since and the car behaved even better with CNG. Above this, I reduced my spark plug gaps from the default 1.1mm to 0.9mm and this helped too.

 

Then came the bad news, I was careless and had a minor accident crashing the rear of the taxi. The car didn't blowup or anything. The gas lines were still safe and secure. It got repaired and a short two months later I got into another minor accident when a car crashed into my rear. Again, nothing out of the ordinary and the car got repaired again.

 

Right now, because it is programmed with the petrol idling, I am able to get 300km from 12kg of CNG. Do note this a combined petrol/CNG cycle as I encounter congestion daily. I would safely say around 270km covered is from CNG.

...we live in the Age of Bacteria (as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, until the world ends)... - Stephen Jay Gould"

- Mr Chia J N.

 

Think now is the real question bro...so what is your FC now compared to before CNG. And how much do you manage to save per month in spendings for fuel.

[Genie47]

FYI, the review is me.

 

FC is still the same after I converted the kg of CNG to gasoline equivalent litres.

 

Cost saving is not the FC of the car. It is the cheaper fuel. Right now, I travel everywhere, anywhere w/o fear watching out for the distance. I just go knowing that it costs me less $/km. That is the real deal. Who the fark cares about FC when you got cheaper fuel. It is FUEL ECONOMY, FE rather than FC.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Genie47