'12 now on CNG

[moparguy]

Pollution... ... . population, some think they're linked.

 

[Roostre]

Pollution... ... . population, some think they're linked.

:-laf Hah - yeah.

 

[Walcott]

corey,is your mileage about the same since you removed the power valve and 90's? Or is it too early to tell?

 

[Roostre]

corey,is your mileage about the same since you removed the power valve and 90's? Or is it too early to tell?

Combined mileage is still around 15MPG, but I am now mixing a little more CNG so the lie-o-meter is reading higher. Last tank lie-o-meter showed 27. 3 and hand calculated was 25. 4. This is with a lot more in town travel than usual.

I did a freeway trip to Idaho the day after I took the 90s and power valve out. We had a 30 MPH tailwind... so the lie-o-meter was showing a 40MPG diesel only average after about 2 hours. It cost me $9 in CNG to refill for the trip home. I hope to get some better data over the next few weeks. Now that I have larger tanks I can fill both diesel and CNG every time at the same time. Much easier to track.

 

[EricBu12]

Corey, do you think there is enough room on the passenger side frame rail to hang a 5 gal. tank? Haven't looked at the dimensions yet but just wondering. . . . That would be great to get 13 mpg towing. I get 9 with my SRW and the 19. 5" "G" tires.

 

[Roostre]

Corey, do you think there is enough room on the passenger side frame rail to hang a 5 gal. tank? Haven't looked at the dimensions yet but just wondering. . . . That would be great to get 13 mpg towing. I get 9 with my SRW and the 19. 5" "G" tires.

Anything is possible... but you would have to find NFPA approved brackets that would work. I know they stuff them all over under airport shuttle vans.



5 gallons won't add much to your tow. I think you would need at the very least 10 gallons- even then you are stopping every 80-90 miles for more CNG. For me its more about making the commuting I do liveable without buying a second car and dealing with the maintenance and insurance costs, which this is doing for me. When towing it might be worth using 'when needed'. Not sure what the best strategy would be yet for towing.

 

[JHumphries]

. . Not sure what the best strategy would be yet for towing.

A throttle limit switch, set at about 80%, like a nitrous setup, with a SLOW opening valve, solenoid, or something else to prevent the sudden addition of CNG!

 

[EricBu12]

Corey I probably would turn it on for climbing hills and stuff while towing. . on the flat I see 9-10 on the overhead. 99% of my driving is local commuting so I would be in the same boat as you then. . was looking around and thinking about a 10 gal cross the bed like you. . just 1 though. ..... lots of ideas. . no money. . lol

 

[Roostre]

A throttle limit switch, set at about 80%, like a nitrous setup, with a SLOW opening valve, solenoid, or something else to prevent the sudden addition of CNG!

Yeah, A way to cut CNG as throttle went over about 30% progressively would be stellar. I was hoping to use Smarty Power On Demand to limit throttle to 50%, but it is not out yet for 2010-2012 trucks.

 

[Roostre]

Installed an Edge Insight and EGT probe today. Got it done in the morning before a 2 hour trip. The CNG raises the EGT between 50 and 80 degrees. A little less than I expected.

In other good news, even with a fairly high CNG flow and the pedal to the floor I could not get the EGT over 1200. It took a long steep hill and rapid acceleration to get it there.

The Edge is a real quality product. Impressed with the EAS system. Soon I will be able to have it display my CNG tank pressure along with everything else.

 

[Walcott]

Corey,if egt only increased by 50-80 degrees can you increase the amount of cng ? Are you currently at 20%?

 

[retirednak]

Because I am unsure of the site rules on linking products I sent you a private message.

Please send me a link as well,thanks for all the info. Sure would be nice to improve the mileage of my dually. I get the same mileage all winter within . 2-. 4 mpg and the same goes for summer mileage. So I would know for certain how big my savings would be at the pump.

 

[rscurtis]

Warren Buffet's railroad, BNSF, is running tests on 4 LNG powered locomotives. Since they spend $4. 5 billion per year on fuel, the potential for savings is quite substantial, even considering the cost of handling a cryogenic fuel. The fuel will be carried in a tanker adjacent to the locomotive, and will use diesel fuel as the ignition source. The engines will run on diesel from idle up to power level #2, and then LNG will be added when more power is required.

 

[Roostre]

Corey,if egt only increased by 50-80 degrees can you increase the amount of cng ? Are you currently at 20%?

Now that I have gauges I have turned up the CNG. Will report back later this week...



Last tank hand calculated mileage was 26. 7 on diesel. Truck was getting between 13 and 15. 5, so I feel it is close to 50% CNG on average. I hot rodded it a little more than usual to test the EGTs and such, so it might have been better.



I used the Insight 1/4 mile deal to see what the truck would run. I am not sure how accurate they are, but it ran the 1/4 mile in 15. 5 seconds at 4300 above sea level. Not bad for 8K lbs of not aerodynamic hippo-shaped dually. I really didn't push it too hard of the launch for fear of breaking something. The bottom end torque from the CNG is just incredible.



Converting my buddies '09 in a couple weeks. Just waiting for parts.

 

[Roostre]

Here is a couple poorly shot cell phone videos just to show the CNG in action.



The cruise is set to about 67MPH on a stretch of straight, flat highway on my drive home:

#ad




BTW- may not have mentioned that cruise seems to work flawlessly with CNG on. :-laf



This was a little further down the road where it turns into a 45MPH zone:

#ad




I tried to get a good shot of the EGTs. Roads are so worn in by large trucks that its hard to hold the phone still. Oo.

 

[Roostre]

Corey,if egt only increased by 50-80 degrees can you increase the amount of cng ? Are you currently at 20%?

I was doing about 50%. If you watch the video above I am getting around 45 MPG on the lie-o-meter in a section that I would normally get 18-20 MPG. This leads me to believe that I am getting closer to 60%. (45-18=27. 27/45=. 60) 60% works great on the highway, but I think its too much around town. I will occasionally get a surge at idle now and its never done that before. It may just need the idle turned down even more, but I have not had time to stop and tune much this week.

 

[Roostre]

Warren Buffet's railroad, BNSF, is running tests on 4 LNG powered locomotives. Since they spend $4. 5 billion per year on fuel, the potential for savings is quite substantial, even considering the cost of handling a cryogenic fuel. The fuel will be carried in a tanker adjacent to the locomotive, and will use diesel fuel as the ignition source. The engines will run on diesel from idle up to power level #2, and then LNG will be added when more power is required.

LNG would be awesome for that. Some trucking companies in California have started going this route too!

I knew it couldn't be too far-fetched when I saw one those UPS over-the-road trucks that had "CNG/diesel Hybrid" written on the cab.

 

[Roostre]

Some towing finally...

We towed this:

#ad




up to Idaho for a family get together. Getting ready to go was rushed and I had no time to tweak anything on the truck before we left. Airing up all the tires was about it.



So I left the CNG regulator turned up pretty high. My plan was to only use it when cruising, but curiosity got the best of me and the CNG ended up staying on the entire trip.



EGT's stayed in control. We went up and over Sardine Canyon, which has some pretty good grades. Never had to floor it or even close. Hit 1250F cresting the summit @ 70MPH. Max trans temp was 162F.



Cruising on relatively flat highway at 65 in 5th gear the lie-o-meter read between 20-24MPG. (Ran this test from Bountiful to Layton for those familiar with the area- it is slightly uphill)



All in all it was a great success. I haven't fueled up yet to see what kind of mileage numbers were produced. We used the truck to run around town, so it would be skewed anyways. When I arrived home last night the EVIC was saying 23. 7. Its been about 2MPG optimistic on the CNG.

 

[EricBu12]

Cool corey. We are towing to LA in a couple weeks. Wish I had this system in. How long did the CNG last in miles?

 

[Roostre]

Cool corey. We are towing to LA in a couple weeks. Wish I had this system in. How long did the CNG last in miles?

150 miles. So about 10MPG on CNG when towing.