[WanderinNomad]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Would like to add that most fuel centres in Mumbai and Pune will not allow you to refill CNG if you don't have a CNG plate / or if it is expired. There will be few bunks where you might get the gas, but they will ask for Rs. 10-20 per kg extra and pocket the excess.

The plate comes with the kit, It has nothing to do with RC endorsement.
For our own safety, we should get hydrotest the cylinder on timely basis so it will not be expired.

[WanderinNomad]

Hi guys
I have some small doubts regarding my recently retro-fitted M Sequent OBD2 CNG kit in Honda City ZX 2006 model. Many CNG reviewers on youtube say that an advancer is definitely required but my installer says there is no need for an advancer in this car .However, he is ready to install it if I insist. Have driven 190km so far on CNG and I do not feel any difference between petrol and cng. Should I still install advancer ?
Secondly, the installer has not connected the 3 OBD2 wires present in the kit ECM to the car as he says that those 3 wires are not present in such an old car. How can that be possible as the car has an OBD2 port?
Finally, has any one seen police catching a cng vehicle with cng not endorsed on RC ? What is the fine atc. as per rules.

[WanderinNomad]

This is just to guide someone who is in the same boat and is apprehensive about CNG installation.
I installed a MSequent OBD2 kit with a 14kg cylinder without RC endorsement in my Honda city ZX 2006 which has run around 1.10 Lac kms.

Here is my experience point- wise -
1 Almost no difference between petrol and CNG performance of the vehicle, There may be a 5% reduction however, if I hide the switch you will be hard pressed to tell which fuel is the car running on. The car doesn't even require an advancer.

2 Completely plug and play, except 4 holes in intake manifold and 4 holes for CNG cylinder for mounting the CNG cylinder

3 City mileage with AC : about 20km/kg
Highway mileage with AC : about 26 km/kg

4 Range : City-200 km
Highway- 250km

5 Finding the right installer who does proper work is tricky and even after finding one be sure to stand and get the work done

6 All sequential kits are good irrespective of the brand so there is no confusion in that aspect. Just make sure that the kit is original.

7 I bought a new kit with a new cylinder against the installer's advice for such an old car.

8 I expected an ROI of 10000km however as per current scenario I calculated a ROI of 8000km

In conclusion, should have left all apprehensions aside and installed CNG 50000km back , would have saved Rs 200000 which is more than the value of the car.

Would recommend CNG wholeheartedly for almost any car.
Any questions would be welcome.

[condor]

Guys, need help:

What is CNG Fitness certificate for a car with factory fitted CNG
Car in question is a Wagon-R about 3 yrs old.

What are the situations when a CNG Fitness cert will be asked for ?

If a vehicle is being transferred between owners and between RTO's, is a CNG Fitness certificate required

TIA !

[WanderinNomad]

Originally Posted by condor

Guys, need help:

What is CNG Fitness certificate for a car with factory fitted CNG
Car in question is a Wagon-R about 3 yrs old.

What are the situations when a CNG Fitness cert will be asked for ?

If a vehicle is being transferred between owners and between RTO's, is a CNG Fitness certificate required

TIA !

Do you mean the hydrostatic test of CNG cylinder ?

It is just a pressure vessel test that can be done by any nearby cng hydrostatic test centre for about Rs 2000.
Post the test, the centre hands you over the certificate as well as changes your compliance plate.

As per Government rules, it has to be done every 3 years to ensure that your CNG cylinder is safe to use.

[kedar3223]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

Quick Points for anyone who is interested in installing a CNG in his/her car-
I have been researching on this topic and would like to share my research with the forum.

I will keep the post in points for ease of understanding.

1 Basic Kit types: First of all, you should be aware that there are two basic type of kits available, Venturi and sequential. I will not go into technical details as a quick search on google will give you that.
All MPFI cars should only be fitted with a sequential kit. So, if you are driving a car which is manufactured post 2001, you need a sequential kit.

2 Types of sequential kits: Basically there are two types . Normal and OBD2.
Everything about both these kits is exactly the same except for the fact that OBD2 kit helps the tuner to tune the kit without connecting a separate OBD2 scanner. In non OBD2 kits, a good tuner should connect to the OBD2 port separately to finely tune the car. Do not get confused with various categories of the same brand or different brands. It is as simple as that.

3 Which type of kit from the above two should be fitted in your car?

Turbo petrol cars : OBD2
Modern Tata cars : OBD2
BS6 cars : OBD2
All other cars : Normal sequential is fine.

4 Which brand to choose : It doesn't matter as long as the kit is genuine.
Lovato, BRC, Zavoli, - Italian
Mijo,Highrise, Msequent- indian
Tomassito , Tomassito India
Motozen, Landirenzo, Egreen , Emer, Greco etc.

All are fine. Basically, all the kits have the same functioning and are pretty straightforward. All these kits have advanced in the last decade to offer an acceptable level of quality.

5 Price: Most original kits are between 30k-35k.
Lovato retails at 40k-50k
Do not worry about 2k-3k less or more as even an 800km run will give you that amount back

6 Installer : While choosing any brand is fine, please be careful about the installer. Choose an authorized distributor of any of the brand above, check how he is doing the installation on a car and remain with your car while installation. Remember this industry is highly unorganized in India. This is really important to avoid being conned

7 Cutting wires: The only OEM wires that need cutting are petrol injector ECM wires to connect them to CNG ECM. A good installed should use couplers and not cut even these wires. Ensure that no wires are cut in your car making it entirely reversible.

8 Cylinder size: Most commonly available are 12kg/14kg. They are installed as per the space available. Certain cars like Tiago are not wide enough to accommodate 12kg cylinder. In cars like Honda city, more useable space is freed up in the boot if you install a 14 kg cylinder. So choose accordingly.
There is not much difference in gas filling capacity ( A 14kg cylinder will take in maximun 700gms-800grams gas more which will give you an extra 15-25 km range.

9 RTO endorsement:
Here is the tricky part, thanks to our (baseless and confusing) rules -
a) BS6 cars with CNG- cannot be endorsed on RC as per government. Basically, the current kits are not approved and we will have to wait till the government legally allows it. You cannot fit a kit now and endorse it later since government will allow different type of kits for these cars.
b) BS4 cars - You are lucky. They can be endorsed on RC. You can either get it done yourself for Rs 1000 or give your installer 3k-5k to get it done for you. I would prefer the latter since each state has a list of approved kits and authorized installers in the state, only these brands fitted with the listed installers are passed. If the installer is getting it done for you, you are most probably at the right guy.
c) BS3 / pre 2010 cars- Cannot be endorsed on RC
d) Running without endorsement on RC:
- Although illegal, there aren't any challans as such on CNG.
- Your insurance goes for a toss

10 Service schedule post CNG fitment:
- In short, reduce it a little bit to compensate for drier nature of CNG fuel as well as to be on the safer side. Say your car has a service interval of 10000km , get your car serviced at 8000km.
- Air filter, spark plugs will require frequent cleaning/replacement. Say every 5000km
-Always have petrol in your car. ( Atleast 1/4th tank ). The kit will take care of the rest.
- CNG cylinder hydrotesting every 3 years which costs around Rs 1500 to Rs 2000
- Get your kit checked each time you give your car for a normal service say every 7500km.

What sort of kit is recommended for 2011 gen 1 ford figo? Is it recommended to go for obd2 kit over normal sequential kit? I've been quoted 52k for a tomassito obd2 kit and AEB software. It's this a fair price?

[WanderinNomad]

Sequential kit - OBD2 or Non OBD2 doesnt matter in your car.
Price seems to be high, just 3 months back it was close to 40k. However, due to the current Covid situation cylinder prices have doubled/tripled in the past couple of months. This is the reason for such a high price. If you can wait, it would be better to wait for a couple of months and the prices will return back to normal.

Tommasito is a great brand and almost all the kits available in the market use AEB Italy software, just make sure that the kit is original since tomassito fakes are very popular in the market.

[geekyengineer]

A friend of mine is looking to convert his wagon R AMT which has clocked 70000kms on the ODO to CNG.

As such maruti doesnt offer this as a company fitted option. Considering the rising fuel prices, he is looking to CNG conversion.

Question to fellow TBHP members, has any one on this forum converted Wagon R AMT to CNG and any potential issues that we should be aware of?

[kedar3223]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

Sequential kit - OBD2 or Non OBD2 doesnt matter in your car.
Price seems to be high, just 3 months back it was close to 40k. However, due to the current Covid situation cylinder prices have doubled/tripled in the past couple of months. This is the reason for such a high price. If you can wait, it would be better to wait for a couple of months and the prices will return back to normal.

Tommasito is a great brand and almost all the kits available in the market use AEB Italy software, just make sure that the kit is original since tomassito fakes are very popular in the market.

Checked with the official lovato installer and even they are quoting the same price. Worth waiting for prices to drop or will it only keep increasing? My monthly running is around 1600km and the fuel prices are really stinging.

Another query is wrt to advancer. Do i need to install an advancer in my car? The installer is suggesting lovato exr blue with no advancer.

[WanderinNomad]

Originally Posted by kedar3223

Checked with the official lovato installer and even they are quoting the same price. Worth waiting for prices to drop or will it only keep increasing? My monthly running is around 1600km and the fuel prices are really stinging.

Another query is wrt to advancer. Do i need to install an advancer in my car? The installer is suggesting lovato exr blue with no advancer.

Regarding cost you can do a ROI calculation, if the extra money bieng asked for CNG kit can be recovered by your running during Covid, it may make sense to install it at increased cost.

Lovato EXR is one of the best kits, go ahead.
Regarding advancer, it should always be installed unless your model is incompatible with it. Installers shy away from installing it due to the extra cost involved. Do get it installed even if you are asked to pay 1000-1500 more.

[hands-on]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

Regarding cost you can do a ROI calculation, if the extra money bieng asked for CNG kit can be recovered by your running during Covid, it may make sense to install it at increased cost.

Lovato EXR is one of the best kits, go ahead.
Regarding advancer, it should always be installed unless your model is incompatible with it. Installers shy away from installing it due to the extra cost involved. Do get it installed even if you are asked to pay 1000-1500 more.

Guy's I am from Delhi and wanted some advice.
Can I convert my 8 years old diesel car to cng and continue to run it past 10 years limit in delhi. Is it possible and legal?

Please advise as my car is in mint condition and don't want to scrap it.

[HimuraKenshin]

Originally Posted by hands-on

Guy's I am from Delhi and wanted some advice.
Can I convert my 8 years old diesel car to cng and continue to run it past 10 years limit in delhi. Is it possible and legal?

Please advise as my car is in mint condition and don't want to scrap it.

Unfortunately no. Diesel passenger cars are not permitted to be fitted with CNG as there are no approvals from ICAT

[WanderinNomad]

Guys as mentioned in my previous posts, I recently installed sequential CNG kit in my Honda city zx 2006 model. However, I am feeling quite a lot of lag in performance. I wanted to install an advancer however my installer says that it is not compatible with this model. Has anyone installed an advancer in a CNG city zx.

[HimuraKenshin]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

Guys as mentioned in my previous posts, I recently installed sequential CNG kit in my Honda city zx 2006 model. However, I am feeling quite a lot of lag in performance. I wanted to install an advancer however my installer says that it is not compatible with this model. Has anyone installed an advancer in a CNG city zx.

This is incorrect i think the Spider Timing advancer model is compatible with this model.

[self_driven]

I've finally decided to go ahead with CNG installation in my 7 year old Swift.

As per my calculations, I'll be saving around Rs. 5 per km. Monthly running is around 1300 kms.

Can anyone point me to some really good installers in Delhi NCR area? Not worried about initial cost but want the kit to run reliably for the next 5-6 years.

I've heard good reviews about Tara Dutt Automobiles near Defence Colony. Any experiences?