[frankmehta]

Just got my Honda Civic Automatic converted to CNG at Suraj AutoGas, Bandra. They are an RTO approved CNG/LPG installation outfit.
They installed a Lovato Sequential CNG Kit in the car and they have done an exceedingly good job with the installation and tuning bit. I also opted for the lightweight, high capacity cylinder that weighs 15 kg less than a conventional cylinder and carries 70 litres of CNG.
The experience is mentioned here, in detail:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...matic-cng.html

Pros:

• Clean Installation
• Large range of kits available
• Good, sound knowledge of installation
• Well experienced outfit
• Skilled technicians
• Good after sales service
• RTO Approved
• Delivered the car as promised, work till the wee hours of morning to deliver!!!

Cons:

• Situated in a bylane where the car is parked overnight for installation. Scary, to say the least.
• Owner is the only person who has a firm grip on the tuning for the sequential kit. The assistants cannot help tune the car if he is not there.
• Slightly expensive, but peace of mind.

Contact Details:
Suraj AutoGas
9820849519, 9324016840

Website: http://www.surajautolpg.com

Address:
Suraj Auto Gas,
next to PF Bldg & RNA Tower,
Service Road,
Western Exp Highway,
Bandra (E),
Mumbai - 400 051.

[Achilless]

Hi Frank,

Nice to hear that you have taken steps towards go green. Also glad to hear that you are happy with LOVATO. Since you have fitted LOVATO kit I know the LOVATO Sole distributor of Maharashtra, he is my childhood friend. All these garages take kits from him. He also has garage where he fits regular kit as well as sequential kit. He also experimented fitting this kits in Lexus, BMW and Merc, they are all successful. Lovato is master piece. Many of my friends have converted their cars from him. Till date no problems at all. You made a great choice going with Lovato.

Can you please share the expenses towards GO GREEN initiative.

[ghodlur]

Frank,

Good to know the place from where you got the Civiv CNGed. Lookig at the figures you are getting from the installation, I believe there will more to follow.

Does the CNG installer also provide any after sales service and if so till what period? How are the spare parts priced?

[frankmehta]

Originally Posted by Achilless

Hi Frank,

Nice to hear that u have taken steps towards go green. Also glad to hear that u r happy with LOVATO. Since you have fitted LOVATO kit i know the LOVATO Sole distributor of Maharashtra, he is my childhood friend. All these garages take kits from him. He also has garage where he fits regular kit as well as sequential kit. He also experimented fitting this kits in Lexus, BMW and Merc, they are all successful. Lovato is master piece. Many of my friends have converted their cars from him. Till date no problems at all. You made a great choice going with Lovato.

Can u please share the expenses towards GO GREEN initiative.

Thank you so much for the kind words. Yes, the kit is always important, but it's the installation that matters too!!
I spent 53k inclusive of RTO charges. I also paid 5k extra for the lightweight high capacity cylinder.

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Frank,

Good to know the place from where you got the Civiv CNGed. Lookig at the figures you are getting from the installation, I believe there will more to follow.

Does the CNG installer also provide any after sales service and if so till what period? How are the spare parts priced?

Thanks!!! He has promised me a year of maintenance. And a year of warranty on the kit itself.

[Achilless]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

Thanks!!! He has promised me a year of maintenance. And a year of warranty on the kit itself.

Frank,

If you have any problems post warranty about the kit or in related to CNG fitment, please let me know I will try my best to help you getting things in place.

[frankmehta]

Mr. Arun Jain just called me yesterday and said he has completed numerous installations from Team Bhpians who have given him their reference. I would request some of you'll to post feedback here. Negative or Positive, depending on your experiences.

[SAS]

Frank, I too visited him when I wanted to install CNG on my Alto. I found a better installer (Suman Auto, Goregaon) and went there instead. Suraj too seemed good, just that I preferred somebody closer to where I stay (Borivali). Been using CNG since past 2.5 years and have done over 60k kms without any problems

I too recently bought a honda civic 2007 (1.8V manual) and want to get it CNG'ed. A few questions for you (I hope you don't mind the large bunch of questions):

1. How's been the performance on CNG? Are you feeling the power loss, etc?
2. What's your average on CNG on the civic?
3. Can you post a few pics of the engine bay post installation? Would like to have a view of how neat his work is. Has he soldered wires wherever he has tapped connections?
4. Please let me know the brand of your lightweight tank. You should see that on the tank itself or on the RC book endorsement
5. Have you installed spacers, etc for your rear suspension? I'm fearing that the rear shall really bottom out with the tank and 2+ people in the rear. What are your thoughts on this?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

I also opted for the lightweight, high capacity cylinder that weighs 15 kg less than a conventional cylinder and carries 70 litres of CNG.

How much kgs of CNG can you fill in the 70 litre cylinder?

[k2max6]

Originally Posted by carboy

How much kgs of CNG can you fill in the 70 litre cylinder?

It is basically a 14Kg cylinder. You can fill around 10-12 kg of cng subject to the pressure available at the cng pump.

Originally Posted by frankmehta

I also opted for the lightweight, high capacity cylinder that weighs 15 kg less than a conventional cylinder and carries 70 litres of CNG.

What is the weight of this cylinder ? Around 54 Kg ? Which brand is it?

[frankmehta]

1. How's been the performance on CNG? Are you feeling the power loss, etc?
A revelation, really. I stomp my foot on the pedal every single time someone sitting in the car asks me this question, and the person stops asking such questions once they are thrown back violently into the seat.

2. What's your average on CNG on the civic?
I have a 11 kg max filling capacity. I get about 160 km out of it (maximum). On a bad day with lots of traffic and hence lots of idling or less pressure at the CNG booth, I get 120 km also sometimes.


3. Can you post a few pics of the engine bay post installation? Would like to have a view of how neat his work is. Has he soldered wires wherever he has tapped connections?
Please check my thread. I have posted a link in the opening post.

4. Please let me know the brand of your lightweight tank. You should see that on the tank itself or on the RC book endorsement
RC endorsement is in process. Our RTO takes a minimum of 45 days to endorse a CNG tank on the smart card. As for the tank, see the attached photo


5. Have you installed spacers, etc for your rear suspension? I'm fearing that the rear shall really bottom out with the tank and 2+ people in the rear. What are your thoughts on this?[/quote]
Naaaah, ABSOLUTELY nothing. I haven't done anything. Haven't scraped ANYTHING yet after installing the new Michelin Primacy MXV4s.


How much kgs of CNG can you fill in the 70 litre cylinder?
I have filled 11 litres to the max. Technically, I can stuff in even 18 kgs but that's not possible in India.


It is basically a 14Kg cylinder. You can fill around 10-12 kg of cng subject to the pressure available at the cng pump.
What is the weight of this cylinder ? Around 54 Kg ? Which brand is it?
I was told it's 15 kg's less than the usual tank. I don't know what the actual weight of the tank is.

[SAS]

Thanks Frank for the detailed responses, really appreciate your inputs. I saw the pics on the other thread (page 4 for those interested) and it does look like a good install. Regarding the cylinder, it's manufactured by Everest Kanto Cylinder. On their website (http://www.everestkanto.com/products..._cylinders.htm) there is no reference to the lightweight tanks, so that must be a new product of theirs....

I'm in two minds whether to convert my civic (mine too is in very good condition and similar age as yours, except mine is a manual V variant). Reason is that I use the Alto as my workhorse since it's a bit easier to drive in the city v/s the civic (personal opinion since my civic is manual). I'll probably use mine on petrol for now since I use it for highway drives and convert it to CNG in a couple months from now.

Regarding ground clearance, have you checked the scraping issue with people sitting in the rear? Sorry for the question again, but the civic has a very soft suspension and I'm fearful it would touch with a full load in the rear. I installed oversized spacers for my Alto which helped a lot. They give around 1.5 inches added ground clearance at the rear. Not sure what's available for the civic though.

[gomzi]

Originally Posted by SAS

I'm in two minds whether to convert my civic (mine too is in very good condition and similar age as yours, except mine is a manual V variant). Reason is that I use the Alto as my workhorse since it's a bit easier to drive in the city v/s the civic (personal opinion since my civic is manual). I'll probably use mine on petrol for now since I use it for highway drives and convert it to CNG in a couple months from now.

Unless you plan to do a LOT of highway trips, or pack really light = very few bags in the boot, you may not need to convert to CNG. CNG conversion breakeven is ~12k kms at current prices so you'd be best to check if its worth it.
The best savings would be to convert your daily driver - Alto - to CNG since I do more city running than on highways.

BTW, I too have a Civic AT converted to CNG. The boot space is not great if you need to pack a lot of luggage.

Originally Posted by SAS

Regarding ground clearance, have you checked the scraping issue with people sitting in the rear? Sorry for the question again, but the civic has a very soft suspension and I'm fearful it would touch with a full load in the rear. I installed oversized spacers for my Alto which helped a lot. They give around 1.5 inches added ground clearance at the rear. Not sure what's available for the civic though.

I've got 205/65 R15's tyres on my civic and the car hasn't scraped anywhere on full load yet. Full Load = full tanks CNG + Petrol, 5 relatively hefty adults, boot full of luggage for a weekend.
Ofcourse I dont take many chances and go over large speedbreakers at an angle and always very slow.

[SAS]

@gomzi thanks for the experience share... My Alto is already on CNG, hence the dilemma. Alto's now done around 110k kms and is 7.5 year old. Hence was contemplating whether to convert to CNG. Since I have bought the civic, makes sense to use it and hence would need to keep running cost down.

Also Gomzi, can you share your experience with CNG: which kit, which installer, what cost, feedback of your kit, how many kms on CNG, etc etc

[Frontosa]

Hello Frank ! Thanks for your really informative and encouraging post on CNG Conversion.

Hello friends
I have some questions & looking for your advice, kindly help

1. I have got a pre-worshipped OHC now for a very good price from a known person which I got as our 2nd car for day to day running around in the city. Its a 1.5 EXI Automatic and is working really well.

2. I need to convert it into CNG as I was used to my Polo and was never ever bothered about fuel costs but this one is burning deep holes in pocket.

3. I spoke to Suraj Autogas and Mr.Jain the owner spoke to me with quite a few 'seemingly' technical details for more than 20 minutes on the phone. He said as a rule his workshop will NEVER fit non-sequential kits on any automatic cars. He was talking more about his quality and customer satisfaction etc.. more of marketing - Thats OK

4. I spoke to some another knowledgable guy closer to my house in vashi, he had told me earlier why do you need sequential kit and put 20K more on it when he can tune it up properly.

I'm confused now as I was ready with spending about 30-35K for an old used car OHC Automatic, but spending between 53-59K based on the type and size of cylinder seems expensive.

I plan to keep this car for good some time, like maybe even 5 years as i love this classic and we dont have issues keeping good cars for ever

Can someone help me out of this dilema?

[chinmaybaikar]

Originally Posted by Frontosa

Hello Frank ! Thanks for your really informative and encouraging post on CNG Conversion.

Hello friends
I have some questions & looking for your advice, kindly help

4. I spoke to some another knowledgable guy closer to my house in vashi, he had told me earlier why do you need sequential kit and put 20K more on it when he can tune it up properly.

I'm confused now as I was ready with spending about 30-35K for an old used car OHC Automatic, but spending between 53-59K based on the type and size of cylinder seems expensive.

I plan to keep this car for good some time, like maybe even 5 years as i love this classic and we dont have issues keeping good cars for ever

Can someone help me out of this dilema?

I suggest you go with the sequential kit because the there is a power loss with the normal kits. And tuning the car is not that easy job. I think they change the ecu map.
@Frank correct me if I am wrong.