[UdoFink]

The angle of the nipples are not critical.

Udo

[dualdj1]

Nice work Chris. You'll have it in and running in no time!

[cgrey8]

Earlier this week, I got the taps ground down and the lower siliconed up and mounted down to the heads. Here's what the taps looked like before:

Runners 1&2

TapsInFlowPath1&2.jpg (44.17 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

Runners 5&6

TapsInFlowPath5&6.jpg (38.96 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

And after:

Runners 1&2 Ground Smooth

TapsGroundSmooth1&2.jpg (34.73 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

Runner 7 Ground Smooth

TapGroundSmooth7.jpg (22.81 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

I was amazed by how easily the brass ground down. A Dremel abrasive drum (course grit) is all it took. All 8 were knocked down smooth is a matter of about 10 minutes.

Now I can start working on the bar I'll use to hold the CNG injectors, the hoses from the injectors to the taps, and the CNG Injector harness.

[UdoFink]

I think the turbulences ot nippels that goes in the chanel will help distribution,
but it is only feeling not testet

Udo

[cgrey8]

I got the plate cut & drilled:

CNG_InjectorsMountedOnEngine3.jpg (63.26 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

CNG_InjectorsMountedOnEngine2.jpg (53.95 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

CNG_InjectorsMountedOnEngine.jpg (59.53 KiB) Viewed 34292 times

Next is making up the custom CNG injector harness.

[dualdj1]

were you not going to be able to link the 2 injector packs directly together? even with just a T in the middle, so the inlet feed was center and not on the end? Just looked like kinda strange angling

[cgrey8]

The angling was necessary to get the hoses to not pinch. As for the Tee, I still plan to Tee them together but only to guarantee the pressure between the two regulators is equal.

[dualdj1]

yeah I couldn't remember if you were running 2 regulators or 1. Should work good though!

[cgrey8]

Well, I got to looking closer at what I would need to do to get the CNG injector harness done. I identified that the one I need is the black connector and then I identified all the wires on that harness and everything was looking good until I studied the wiring diagrams a little closer. There's an annoying snag. The ISC and CANP solenoids use the same power supply as the injectors. The plan was to put a relay in between the main harness and the injectors and via the relay, select whether power goes to the CNG injectors or the gas injectors. The problem is that while in CNG mode, I'd be cutting voltage to the ISC and CANP at the same time. So it's not just as simple as making up a harness to go in between the main and gas injectors. I'll have to sever the ISC from the injector harness and power it prior to the relay. I could care less about the CANP valve. After all, if I'm not burning gasoline why should I care?

Other than that, I got the CNG injector connectors clipped off of the CNG harness that was originally meant to plug to a CNG computer. Next I have to get a perf board to solder my current-limiting resistors down to. I don't trust the soft wires coming out of those ceramic resistors to not break if they aren't soldered down to something solid. And having a board to solder them down to will give me something to line them all up side-by-side on. I should be able to mount such a plate of resistors on the backside of that steel plate bolted to the intake to keep them out of the way.

[decipha]

i still vote for a turbo, figure a 76mm @ 20lbs should make her fun

[cgrey8]

Turbos have been used in Rangers, but it takes significant modification. In many cases, the installer sacrificed AC and relocated the battery to the bed to make room for the snail shells. Then there's all the added tubing everywhere. Maybe some day, but that's beyond the scope of this project.

[decipha]

turbos typically increase fuel economy by at least 20%


something to think about

[cgrey8]

I haven't had much movement on this in a while and unfortunately don't for probably the next 2-3 weeks. But it's not a dead project...not by a long shot. But for those that were following this effort, there's some encouraging news in the mainstream media that promises to make CNG conversions much more affordable:
GE Researchers Developing At-Home Refueling Station for NG Vehicles

The Cliffs Notes version of the article is they want to develop a CNG refueling station that:

• Virtually maintenance free
• Compresses NatGas to CNG via cooling instead of brute-force compression
• Refuels in an hour instead of 5-8hrs
• Sells for ~$500 vs today's CNG refueling stations that are ~$5000

If they can pull this off, I expect CNG conversions will be MUCH more popular. The catch obviously is, can they do it? I'm thinking they'll come up with something, but it won't be for $500...at least not initially.

[dualdj1]

GE's research dept is pretty top notch. If they put some resources towards it, i see it as doable.

[cgrey8]

And yet another article about "affordable" CNG refueling stations on the horizon...and another player mentiond in this article. Eaton.
Home Refueling for Natural Gas Cars

[dualdj1]

how goes the progress, any new updates?

[cgrey8]

The only update I have right now is it appears this engine will be going in over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I've always traveled for that holiday to family. This year, I think I'll stay home and take advantage of the long weekend...and take a few additional days if needed the next week after to get the engine installed and running. There's just not much else I can do to the engine until then. As I get closer, I might see how much I can do with getting the CNG tank supported installed in the bed even if the tank isn't in them. And I might be able to drill some holes in the frame where I expect the CNG regulators to go. But I wouldn't want to install them until the rest of the system is able to also be installed.

[dualdj1]

cool, just curious. Looking forward to seeing it in and running!

[cgrey8]

This weekend, I got the bed drilled and the CNG tank mounted. And I also got the power wiring in my house relocated over to where the compressor is and setup on a 50A plug.

I haven't gotten the hard line, regulators, or wiring installed in the truck yet. But those are things that don't require help from others. I think I can get those done by myself. But it's like anything. Having an extra hand sure helps make some things easier. I don't expect getting the regulators mounted to the frame being that difficult. I have no clue how difficult routing the hard line will be. Point is, there is still some forward progress.

[xd41efisc]

Did you end up getting this up and running?

I am looking at doing this using LPG.
I have a 6 cylinder on injected gas at the moment it is using a gas computer to run the gas injectors, after getting a signal from the EEC petrol injector outputs.
I am converting over to a 5.0, and I have a gas system for it, but it is a mixer system.
I was looking at buying a couple of 4 CYL injector rails, 2 converters/reducers, getting a dual outlet installed on my existing tank, and using the resistor trick to change impedance to suit the EEC5 that I have for the 5.0.

Any tips or otherwise would be helpful.

Thanks.

[cgrey8]

This thread dates back to before the Forum server died in 2014 and lost about 8 months worth of posts. There was a good bit of info I posted, but it got lost.

As for getting it installed, yes it did get installed and it did run. I didn't get it running well, but I later learned the instability of the engine at idle was due to too much idle spark. I thought it needed the spark and I wasn't aware that too much idle spark would cause the engine to hunt. Now knowing that, I'm fairly confident it would've run better...much better.

I haven't messed with CNG much since my compressor's valves died. It runs, but doesn't compress anymore. It's evidently a fairly common problem to replace cheap Chinese backflow valves with decent ones. With gas prices the way they are, it's just not something that I've been eager to look into fixing right away. Too many other projects that call for my attention more. But if gas prices go back to $4/gal, I'll be tearing into it to try to get it working again.

The other problem with the setup I have is I think my regulators aren't big enough for the engine. If I had to recommend a setup for people, I would recommend the standard mixer system from the EWS people out of Utah. They are fast to respond and quick to ship. They also guarantee complete systems. The catch is they are a bit pricey.

But I purposely didn't go that route since I wanted to get the Ford EEC to control the CNG injectors. I was successful at that. But the complexity just isn't something I think most people would be interested in.

[UdoFink]

I will start my Old 455 next week with LPG
it have an ECC on ist and a pigy pack LPG controller it is nor an mixer system ist use sequenzell injectors and just switsh from petrol to LPG. It is a very good and not expensiv system

[xd41efisc]

I tried to set this up on mine a couple of weeks ago.
The injectors (Matrix 334) I got will not run off the EEC5 with resistors, they will not even open with any resistor the line when connected direct to a 12v battery, I tried a few different values from 10-4ohm, they will hold with the resistors, just not open.
The guy I got the injectors from also sold me a AG Zenit 8CYL LPG interceptor computer and a heap of other parts, including the injectors for $500.
I tried to run direct from the EEC5, but in the end it was just easier to use the interceptor computer to run the injectors.
This way the gas injectors can be fine tuned if needed, and the interceptor also handles, switching between petrol and LPG, depending on tank pressure, engine temp, gas temp and other settings.
I have set it to start on petrol and switch to LPG after 10 seconds regardless of temperature, and it works quite well.
The interceptor also handles the tank level gauge, (can set for different sender units), and the switching of the tank and reducer valves.

I am however going to look at using a chip, loaded with 2 tunes one for petrol and one for LPG, the LPG tune should be able to take more spark advance.
I will use a relay operated from the tank/reducer feed to switch the tune contacts on an F3 chip, after I tune it with a QH.

Thanks.

[cgrey8]

I had problems getting my engine to run on CNG initially. At the time, I assumed it was the resistors not opening my injectors even though I did confirm that 12v with 8ohm in-line resistors WOULD open my injectors. So I bought a low-impedance injector driver off the Internet. It didn't fix my problem, but it did at least give me the confidence that my injectors WERE being opened.

After further fiddling, I found that my CNG injectors just required a far lower slope than I thought they should. So there's a chance that the resistors would've worked if I'd known that. But once the driver was bought and installed, I had no motivation to revert back to the resistor pack just to see if that would work.

Later once the CNG was running the engine, I decided to increase the capacity (i.e. slope) of the injectors, I drilled the brass jets larger. That helped, but with low-pressure regulators, it didn't help as much as I'd hoped. Whenever I get the compressor back working, I'll likely replace my low-pressure CNG regulators with a higher capacity unit capable of being dialed into a higher injector-side pressure. I think mine top out at somewhere around 20-something PSI. I would like a regulator I can setup for 40-50 PSI. I think Ford ran 100 PSI on their factory CNG vehicles, although they weren't using rubber hose-clamped hoses & fittings, so I don't think I'll push the limits of those hoses that high. But 40-50 seems reasonable.