USMC64-70

Has anyone tried this or have ino and prices to do it? Many cities mow run there buses on natural gas. These were most likely diesel engines.

Wonder if they will run on both, nat gas when not owing, diesel for towing?


Nat gas is way cheaper than diesel, about .95/gallon.

logskidder

I have converted many B and C series cummins over to CNG.........you cant do CNG/Diesel, however you can have a CNG/Gasoline that when it runs out of nat gas it switches over to gasoline.

taildragger

Whats the BTU content of the nat. gas when compared to diesel (something to think about, diesel will have much more)

USMC64-70

Logskidder

Any idea what the conversion costs? Just a ballpark number.

Kenny D

http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/6-4.pdf

hope that link works ita about a 5.9 liter cummins produced engine im pretty sure cummins makes quite a few propane powerd diesel based engines like yall said the city busses and allot of Masive generators are using LP

heres another cool propane website


http://www.alternatefuelsracing.com/

logskidder

The B series with a 4 tank system for something like a small bus is about $15,000.

logskidder

Not sure about BTU but the seat of the pants power and MPG are very close,the diesel feel a wee bit stronger on the bottom but the CNG rev a little faster. The main thing is CNG cost 90 cents a gallon.

infidel

Natural gas is about 1000 BTUs per cubic foot while #2 diesel is 139,000 BTUs per gallon. 1 cf = 7.48 gallons so one gallon of natural gas is only about 7500 BTUs
So #2 has about 18 times more BTUs per gallon than NG

John Faughn

I think that there are some missing aspects of this post .
Running a diesel off natural gas ?
Adding natural gas , propane , hydrogen to help a diesel run ?
I know a gasser can fun off gas vs gasoline .
But I have not heard of a diesel able to run off of a gas / no diesel - or other oil .

logskidder

To convert a diesel over to to LNG or CNG it can never run on diesel again unless converted back diesel....different type of head/pistons/cam/electronics/fuel system

USMC64-70

It sounds like this idea to reduce fuel costs is not viable. $10k - $15k for a conversion, you can buy a lot of diesel for that price.

Sounds like a gasoline engine is much easier to run both fuels.

John Faughn

I would say that its still wrong , its not a diesel engine any more , just using some existing parts to make a different eng.

logskidder

Your right its not a diesel anymore...the only things that get reused are the block/crank/rods/timing cover/oil pump/oil pan

logskidder

For most people its not worth it.....and a full load of CNG will only go about 300 miles.

Lil Dog

Not to mention people don't like having 2000 psi bullets in the vehicle for the fuel cells. Propane got a bad rap at 200 psi!!!

If you want to compare diesel power to Natural Gas, just take a look on the Caterpillar website as they make the same model engines in NG or diesel. Usually the Diesel can provide a good 75% more power than the NG equivalent.