Anyone ever have any experience with these? Just curious, I was watching tv and saw a short show on them. They seemed pretty interesting. The only thing that really stood out to me was that the rating of Natural gas compaired to normal gas octane was around 130. They also showed "Drag" cars that was Natural gas powered running 9's. They claimed that it was only around $1,500-2,000 to do a complete swap. Said they the only thing that had to be changed was the timing, they said it had to be advanced. For anyone that sorta knows about this stuff... doing this type of swap would not only save gas milage and money (due to the fact its about 60-80 cents a gallon) but would it not increase hp/tq ratings?


And fyi, Im not thinking about doing this. I was just curious.

 

Just to clear something up. Im basically asking if you were to advance your timing from what it runs on at 91-93 octane to what it would need to run on at 130 octane. How much more power would it create?

Also, would this not be ungodly for FI cars?

 

By natural gas you mean hydrogen right? Because octane is as a natural a gas as you can get.

 

Natural gas as fuel

 

I suppose so, they called in Natural gas tho.

 

 

The Civic GX is a natural gas powered car. It's supposedly very clean.

http://www.hondacars.com/models/civic_gx_b...ame=Civic+Sedan

No experience with them though (They are available as fleet vehicles only).

 

The only non-natural gases used in energy production are those that are man made. For example plutonium, or uranium, these are all radioactive elements. Octane, which is used in cars today is almost completely natural, meaning it was dug up and processed.

Actually now that i think about it the term "natural gas" probably refers to an energy source that isn't derived from fossil fuels.

 

There is a difference between Octane, and Octane Rating.

When crude oil is refined, the lighter weight products of the distillation process are hydrocarbons of varying lengths. Some of these are Octane isomers.

The Octane Rating of a fuel was initially used to rate how much fuel could be compressed before it spontaneously combusts (knocks). One of the isomers of Octane, Isooctane, is the benchmark standard of the measurement. Any fuel with a 100 octane rating could have an equal amount of fuel compress inside the engine chamber withough combusting. Another product of the distillation process, Heptane, combusts quickly under compression. Any fuel that combusts like heptane would have an Octane Rating of 0.

Gasoline is a blend of fuels. There is no one standard hydrocarbon, or even a standard product that is "gasoline". As a result, the Octane Rating on motor fuels serve a rating that shows their combustion as compared to an equivalent blend of Isooctane. Octane 87 would perform equivalent to 87% octane and 13% heptane. Octane 91 would perform equivalent to 91% isooctane, etc. As the Octane Rating can play a role in engine timing, all manufacturers specify a minimum octane rating for the fuel used in their vehicles.

An Octane rating of greater than 100 is more of an estimation. Airline fuels, for example, have an "Octane Rating" of 120-130. Aviation calls the rating an "anti-knock" rating...which is perhaps a better description for the 130+ rating of the NGV engine...which is quite resistant to problems like knocking or vapor lock.

 

You can buy them as a fleet vehicle even as a consumer from Honda's fleet department. I was seriously looking into one of these as a commuting car in 2002-2003. They cost about $20,000 and have some (or may still have some) hefty tax credits.

With this year's model, a home fueling unit is included with the car, so if you have natural gas in your home you can fuel up each night after coming home. The car has the same basic engine as the econo-box Civic, but it is factory built for CNG use.

250 or so miles per tank. $5-7 to fill the tank. I test drove one and it drives, sounds and feels like any other Civic on the road. As an added bonus, you can park for free at parking meters and drive solo in the carpool lanes in Southern California.

Why didn't I get it? At the time (2003 MY) there was no home fueling unit available and the closest fueling station was 2 miles away. The Gas company never responded to my application for a gas card. It didn't do much for building my confidence. A few months later, I found out I could get an S2000 since the dealers stopped gouging them.

The rest is history.