Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 07:17:53 -0500
Reply-To: "John H. Rodgers" <inua@QUICKLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "John H. Rodgers" <inua@QUICKLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Natural Gas Conversion Kit
-- [ From: John H. Rodgers * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
David, there was a time when there was a push in Alaska on getting natural
gas into automobiles. The gas companies were selling the kits for American
cars and trucks. It just never got off the ground. For one thing, the gas
company was the only place you could fill up. Kept promising home fill-up
points IF enough people were interested. Just not ever enough interest.
Another thing was the reduced miles on a tank of fuel. A third reason was
lowered performance, ie, acceleration, etc.
Anyway the whole idea sort of fizzled. The extreme cold of Alaska in winter
had a lot to do with it. The liquid to gaseous state change thing is a
problem at extreme cold, witness propane tanks in winter that won't empty
completely.
It's to bad something didn't come of it. The state is rich in natural gas,
more than oil, and it could have been put to good use to reduce pollution.
As it stands now, a winter additive is added to fuel, and it stinks, and
people complain about not feeling well when they are around the stuff. Yet
the Anchorage area is just like LA. A city sittling in a bowl of mountains
and no where for stale stagnant air to go when deep cold sets in, and the
pollutants build. Natural gas as opposed to gasoline would have been a big
help.
From what I know of running an engine on NG or Propane/Butane fuels, you get
a tremendously extended life on the engine. I guess the only by-products of
combustion on NG are CO2 and Water. No acids and other contaminants like
from gasoline. I understand that oil also lasts almost forever.
NG might be a good way to go in a warmer climate.
John Rodgers
'85 GL Driver
-------- REPLY, Original message follows --------
Date: Wednesday, 01-Apr-98 08:44 PM
From: David Marshall \ Internet: (vanagon@volkswagen.org)
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM \ Internet: (vanagon@vanagon.com)
Subject: Re: Natural Gas Conversion Kit
At 18:13 4/1/98 EST, KENWILFY wrote:
>I was wondering about this kit, you have to use a carburator with it right?
>You can't use the fuel injection that our American Vanagon have can you?
>Ken Wilford
>John 3:16
It uses the Digifant computer, without it the engine would run like crap as
NG has a lower octane than gasoline so the timing changes between the two
fuels. Very very simple kit. Essentially when you flick the switch in the
cab the gasoline pump turns off and the natural gas regulator introduces
natural gas upstream of the air flow sensor. The mixture of NG and air then
gets sucked into the cylinders and ignition takes place. There is
compensation for load via a small computer that attaches to the NG regulator
. This computer gets signals from the distributor and somehow know the load
state from that.
-- David Marshall Email: david@volkswagen.org --
-- 78 1.8L VW Rabbit, 80 2.0L VW Caddy, 87 Audi 5KQ --
-- 85 VW Cabrio, 88 VW Syncro Double Cab Transporter --
-- Volkswagen Homepage http://www.volkswagen.org --
-- VW Caddy Homepage http://www.volkswagen.org/caddy --
-- USE DAVID@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG WHEN SENDIGN EMAIL --
-------- REPLY, End of original message --------
