Cng Conversion Kits

Gas up your CNG car in Socorro for $1 per gallon

If you think you need a time machine to pay $1 per gallon for gas, think again — at the city of Socorro's CNG filling station, that's about what you'll pay right now. There's just one catch — you need a vehicle that runs on compressed natural gas.

The city has seven such vehicles, and is considering purchasing more. At the May 28 city council meeting, Utilities Director Jay Santillanes announced that Socorro has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The grant will allow the city to make improvements to the CNG filling station, and may also help pay for a few more CNG vehicles.

The station is open to the public between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

"With the grant, we're looking at making it more accessible, and making it open 24 hours," Santillanes said.

Right now, he said, the card reader doesn't work properly. Members of the public can still fuel up, during the limited open hours, but would need assistance.

"We'd probably have to help them," Santillanes said. "But we can do that."

Santillanes said he's also looking into purchasing one or two Honda Civic GX cars for the city that run on natural gas. Natural gas vehicles are slightly more expensive to purchase than the ones that run on gasoline, and the grant could help pay the difference in cost.

"We bought some trucks three or four years ago," he said. "They were about $3,000 or $4,000 more apiece than if they ran on gasoline."

The payoff, though, is what it costs to run them.

"The cost of natural gas is about 25 percent of gasoline, and the mileage is about the same," Santillanes said.

Another benefit to CNG is that it's less polluting.

"Natural gas burns cleaner," Santillanes said. "There's very little emission."

On the other hand, CNG vehicles don't go as far.

"The limitation you have is the size of your storage tank," Santillanes said. "Our vehicles can go about 125 to 150 miles on a full tank."

CNG fuel, because it's a compressed gas and not a liquid, takes up more space per gallon than gasoline, so the same size fuel tank won't hold as much. For city vehicles, that's not a problem, but for people traveling long distances, it can be. That's one of the reasons the EMNRD provides grant money to help build and maintain the filling stations.

The presence of the station in Socorro is thanks, in part, to New Mexico's effort to strengthen its CNG infrastructure along the Interstate 25 corridor. There are six available to the public along I-25; one in Las Cruces, one in Socorro, two in Albuquerque, one in Santa Fe and one in Las Vegas.

CNG Conversion Kits – “DIEL” CNG Kit Review | Dual Fuel Autos

If you are interested in CNG cars and have been thinking of converting your vehicle to run off of compressed natural gas, there are several home CNG converstion kits on the market.  In order to give you the best information on these cng conversion kits, here is our review of the DIEL CNG conversion kit.

Features:

Our Review:

The idea of having a CNG kit shipped to your home is somethig that mechanics get excited about.  The thing that makes these types of kits different is that they mix CNG with diesel directly.  Other CNG conversion kits simply allow the user of the cng cars to flip a switch to switch fuel sources.  Because of this, the kit does not have a computer that manages the fuel intake, as the valves and hoses automatically feed the engine with CNG whenever the car is operating.  The kits also do not come equipped with aluminum composite CNG tanks, which means that you will have to pay for those seperately.

Negatives:

The biggest thing wrong with this kit is the lack of control that you have.  When the car is on, so is the CNG, which is not what most people want.  While it can enhance diesel engine performance, and help the diesel to last longer, the biggest downside to this kit is finding someone to install it.  This kit is not EPA certified, which is an important thing to note depending on what state you live in.  The problem is that this kit is very complex, and is just not sophisticated enough to give you the performance that you really want.

Positives:

If you are a motor head and love to install things, this could be a great way to get more out of your diesel truck.  This kit has not been tested or given ratings, so it really is a no-name kit, so install it at your own risk.

Conclusion:

We would give this kit a 2 out of 5 star rating.  The biggest reason for this is that it lacks a computer controller, and while it is sold as an “at home” kit, it is way too complicated for the average person to install.  This kit lacks the components in order to be a real contender, which is why we give this kit only 2 stars.

Natural gas vehicles

Paving the way to natural gas vehicles

Torque

Internal combustion engines

Environmental Impacts of Trade Liberalization and Policies for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, A Case Study of India's Automobile Sector