gas conversion on a diesel van

cm1179 · 5 Jul 2011 at 12:56

anyone had a van (sprinter, transporter etc) converted to gas? if so, could you tell me about the costs and the pro's/con's?

cheers

ScoobyDoo69 · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:12

Is this the same as LPG? If so.. I didn't know you could convert diesels?

cm1179 · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:20

not the same as lpg. i have a friend who is a hgv driver (i didn't know that diesel's could be converted) and he said they use natural gas or some sort of hybrid system?

Dr Who · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:20

ScoobyDoo69 said:
Is this the same as LPG? If so.. I didn't know you could convert diesels?

You can, there are 2 systems, mixed and pure, mixed diesel/gas has issues of minimal savings and the pure lpg requires a spark ignition system fitting in place of the glow plugs and modified pistons.

You can also have CNG compressed natural gas which Northampton runs its busses on (I used to fill my Mondeo CNG at the bus station in Northampton).

CNG can also allow a home filling station, but I think it also requires a spark ignition system on a diesel.

That is the extent of my knowledge, but my CNG Mondeo was cheaper to run than on LPG.

(LPG works like a fume carb/single injector, CNG is metred individual injectors)

cm1179 · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:23

Dr Who said:
You can, there are 2 systems, mixed and pure, mixed diesel/gas has issues of minimal savings and the pure lpg requires a spark ignition system fitting in place of the glow plugs and modified pistons.

You can also have CNG compressed natural gas which Northampton runs its busses on (I used to fill my Mondeo CNG at the bus station in Northampton).

CNG can also allow a home filling station, but I think it also requires a spark ignition system on a diesel.

That is the extent of my knowledge, but my CNG Mondeo was cheaper to run than on LPG.

(LPG works like a fume carb/single injector, CNG is metred individual injectors)

what about fill up locations, do you know how many there are around the country (apart from northampton)?

Dr Who · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:31

cm1179 said:
what about fill up locations, do you know how many there are around the country (apart from northampton)?

Back when I used it, it was utterly abysmal, but found some info for you, apparently there are 9000 sites in the UK, news to me

http://www.gasfuelling.com/alternative_fuels_cng.php

http://www.gasfill.com/

http://aag.bright-site.co.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1108

http://www.cngservices.co.uk/natural-gas-vehicles/

http://www.cngservices.co.uk/assets/Articles/nscareport.pdf

EDIT: I urge you to read up about Shale Gas and watch Gasland if you go CNG to ensure it meets with your ethics

The Fraccing facility near Blackpool appears to have caused 2 minor earthquakes already :eek:

Dogbreath · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:40

Dr Who said:
You can, there are 2 systems, mixed and pure, mixed diesel/gas has issues of minimal savings and the pure lpg requires a spark ignition system fitting in place of the glow plugs and modified pistons.

Surely no one actually converts a diesel engine back to spark ignition just to run it on LPG? This would be a huge amount of work which is most unlikely to be economically viable. In fact it would probably be easier to replace the diesel with a petrol engine if you were that desperate to use LPG.

Dr Who · 5 Jul 2011 at 14:00

Dogbreath said:
Surely no one actually converts a diesel engine back to spark ignition just to run it on LPG? This would be a huge amount of work which is most unlikely to be economically viable. In fact it would probably be easier to replace the diesel with a petrol engine if you were that desperate to use LPG.

You realise CNG saves approximately 40% in running costs compared to petrol/diesel right? (sorry you said lpg, but cng still requires conversion)

http://www.gill.co.uk/products/digital_ignition/cngconversion.htm

also found a converter for mixed diesel/lpg systems.

http://www.chilterngascars.co.uk/cars/lpgdiesel.htm

Dogbreath · 5 Jul 2011 at 17:25

Dr Who said:
You realise CNG saves approximately 40% in running costs compared to petrol/diesel right? (sorry you said lpg, but cng still requires conversion)

http://www.gill.co.uk/products/digital_ignition/cngconversion.htm

That is a mixed diesel/LPG conversion, the engine using both fuels at the same time. This is a well known and effective system.

The second link is simply a vendor selling an ignition system, is there anyone that actually performs the conversion of a diesel to a spark ignition engine on a commercial basis? It's certainly technically possible, but I can think of all sorts of reasons why you wouldn't want to unless there was no other choice.