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:
- The DIEL kit can be purchased and installed on diesel and gasoline engines.
- They provide two different kits in order to provide you with CNG cars.
- The first kit is called the “Mixer Air Intake” kit which is easier to install and that costs less
- The second kit is called the “Sequential Injection” kit which is higher cost, higher quality, and is harder to install.
- The kits are sold in gasoline and diesel categories, and differ on engine size and cylinder count.
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.
Description:
This review is of the Natruell CNG conversion kit that can be installed in most cars, suv’s and trucks on the roads today. We will go over the positive things we saw and the negative things we experienced to give you a better idea as to what you can expect from this type of kit.
The Good
Natruell has put together a fantastic kit that comes with everything that you need in order to convert any type of vehicle into cng cars, truck , or SUV. The kit comes with a composite aluminum tank that can hold about 8-12 gallons of CNG at any given time. The kit also comes with injectors that are installed directly on the engine to inject the Natural gas into the engine to produce the fuel the engine needs. One of the best parts about the kit that we experienced was the customization the on board kit computer comes with. This computer lets you customize and tweak almost any value, but beware that a trained professional should do this as you could easily damage and permanently ruin your engine if not careful with these settings. The kit only sees the engine losing about 8-10% of power, but works great as the kit comes with a switch to turn of the gasoline and turn on the CNG. We found that we could flip the switch and have the engine switch to cng while the car was running, and while we had the throttle going.
This kit produced a great amount of power and really felt no different from the regular gasoline. Because the CNG composite aluminum tank is so large, this type of kit works best in a long bed truck or large SUV. We installed the kit into a 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 as well as a 2004 GMC Yukon. Both engines were a V8 5,7 liter engine and both produced ample power to make it literally seem like there was no difference running on either fuel.
Problems
The biggest problem we encountered was the computer, but much of this i’m sure was due to our technicians lack of experience with the vehicle we installed it in. The Dodge Ram that we installed it in had an engine saving feature which meant that it would sometimes only fire half of the cylinders if the power was not needed to save on fuel. This proved to be problematic as the Natruell kit did not have a setting on the kit computer to be able to effectively talk to the truck’s onboard computer. We actually had to turn off the feature on the onboard computer to allow the kit to work flawlessly.
With many newer cars coming out, Natruell should update their software or make a change to allow for support for these types of vehicles that have these engine types. The other issue we ran into is that if the battery is unhooked, there is no internal battery on the Natruell computer that saves the settings. This means that each time the battery was unhooked or died, the computer had to be reset in order for the kit to function properly.
Conclusion:
While the problems we experienced were mainly our fault as we picked a tricky vehicle to put it in, we would give Natruell a solid 4 out of 5 star rating as we are hesitant to give it a full 5 star rating as the computer has no internal battery. Without this internal battery, you will have to find a technician any time your battery dies or gets unhooked to be able to drive your vehicle in CNG mode. CNG cars are definitely here to stay and this CNG conversion kit is a winner in our book.
If you are the type of person that wants to start saving some serious coin, you have probably heard of and have been looking for cng conversion kits for cars. There are a few important things that you need to know before you just buy the first CNG kit that you see. Having been in the CNG business for a few years, we have seen some kits work and some totally tank, so there are a few things to look for before pulling the trigger and buying a CNG conversion kit for your car.
The first thing to look for is the intuitiveness of the install. A proper CNG kit has the CNG injectors that attach to the engine, an onboard computer add on, and a CNG aluminum composite tank with a fuel line that runs up to the car engine. By installing the CNG kit, your vehicle will run off of CNG and gas with the flip of a switch, which is installed on your dash board. If the CNG kit that you are buying is lacking any of these parts, it is probably a scam and don’t buy it!
The next thing to understand is that once the CNG kit is installed, you need a way to access your on board computer to configure the CNG. This process can be very touchy, and if it is not done right, your CNG tank will not release gas into the engine, and the engine can actually blow up if too much CNG is injected into the engine. The kit should either come with an on board computer adapter, or if you are like me, make sure you take the vehicle into a professional to get the on board computer configured correctly. Having been in the business, it is important to note that whenever your battery goes dead, your on board computer is re-set, meaning that you should not flip the CNG switch until you have taken the vehicle into a CNG installer and has the computer re-configured to safely work with your CNG.
While there are several kits out there, it is important to know how they work before you run out and buy one that looks super cheap. If you are set on doing it yourself, the computer adapter is essential along with software to be able to make the necessary changes. If the kit does not come with it, make sure you know of a CNG kit installer in the area so that you can have the kit safely installed so that you can actually use it without ruining your car. Good luck and i hope that you will start reaping the benefits of CNG kits soon as gas is just so much cheaper! You can click on the links in the top right of this article to get information on specific CNG kit installations and products.
