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Hi all!

I know some of you may be wondering why this nutty muffin put up a new post when this topic is one that has been discussed and milked dry. Well you're right. But only so much. I thoroughly researched on Alternative Fuels on our forum and did find a lot of posts. A LOT! However, most of them were last updated at least 2 years ago! Is it that we've stopped using alternative fuels or is everyone on top of how things work? Surely with the petrol prices hitting 65 some of us are out hunting for alternatives or getting the bikes out on the road!

I for one, am stumped! I just put up my lovely lancer for sale in the classifieds section because my daily drive has now increased to 60-70km. And not surprisingly, I dont find it economical to shell out Rs.400 everyday on fuel. So the initial plan was to sell off the Lancer and buy a diesel hatch. I have a scorpio on the way, so this will not hurt much.

Currently my ever so dependable Zma has taken up the responsibility of my daily transportation. Faster, Economical and Traffic Friendly! But I miss my car. I hate coming to work with a helmet head. I hate being run off the road by ruddy cab drivers. I hate not having music while on the move. I hate coming to work sweat laden!!

So I figured - The Lancer has to go. I need a diesel hatch. Small and Economical. However, later on while talking to a friend, he asked why I've dismissed LPG. Apparently its come a long way since its introduction in India and is now a viable and safe alternative fuel.

I am interested only in LPG and not CNG for various reasons. The primary being the nightmare a friend lived after converting his Lancer (now sold) to CNG. Apparently bits and pieces of the engine started failing prematurely since CNG runs drier than Petrol.

While there are many nagging questions, my most concerning ones are -

A- Will it be sensible converting a 100,000 odd km run Lancer to LPG? The engine is in pristine condition and runs like a dream. But it may be true that the parts are good enough for Petrol but not LPG. Currently I get 10-11 kmpl in the city with AC on if I drive sensibly and upshift at 3000 rpm.

B- What about the safety? I do not want to put anyone inside or outside the car at risk.

C- What are the costs I'm looking at? I know a person who says he can source me a good used kit at an even better price.

D- How easy is it to install, tune and maintain. I dont mind if the installation is time consuming. But I do not want to make daily garage runs to get it tuned or maintained.

E- Is there a tried and trusted installer in Bangalore who knows his work?

F- Is there a smallish tank available? I wont be doing any long distance runs and would rather have some boot space for the shopping trips.

G- Am I missing anything here?

Looking forward to your inputs and hoping to save a Lancer from being put up for adoption! After all my home is very loving!!

Please do chime in with whatever information you may have! It'll be much appreciated!

Tassem!

@Tassem, first of all, 95% of lancers you will find, atleast in Delhi, are now running on CNGs and most owners have not compliant about any issues. Its may be the installer or the wrong car in your friend's case.

If CNG is readily available in Bangalore, I'd suggest you find a right installer and get CNG. Ofcourse, LPG, as a fuel is better but CNG is a more prefered alternate fuel for most cars these days including lancers.

Please find my replies in bold.

@Gaurav: Thank you for your detailed answers. I'm inclined more towards LPG and you have just ascertained that. I dont think I'll be able to do couple of runs to the garage every month.

As far as upshifting at 2k, I do that most of the time except when the AC is on. But I almost always drive with the AC on and hate the lag. Hence the 3k upshifts. Wish it was a perfect world :)

At this point I'm not worried about the performance much as far as I have an economical daily drive.

You wouldn't know any good places in bangalore to get this sorted would you? And are there any particular kits you would suggest?

Thanks a ton!

Tassem.

2-3 trips a month to the garage?
Is this really true? What for?

Earlier today I had a long chat with Mr. Samuel of Gaz Kars in Kormangala. They have an offer on LPG Conversion kits where there will install it on your vehicle and you have the option of returning it in 30 days if you're not happy with the installation.

An Open Loop system without a tank costs Rs.6500. He has multiple options available with him.

Will the open loop system work on a 99 Lancer? The 30 day return policy is enticing as I don't have to bear the loss if the system starts giving trouble. Judging by my 60km daily drive, I'm pretty sure anything that can go wrong will go wrong within a month.

What do you guys think? Yay or Nay??

Tassem.

Adding to the above. Me too am running my Chevy Optra on CNG for the past 1 year now and have done 26k kms. I would say that in all since the 1st day I got the CNG installed. my vehicle has been to the installer 6 or 7 times, In TOTAL. Not more than that. I agree that there were some teething issues in the begining and at one point of time I was even considering removal of CNG, but all in all after the initial niggles were sorted out, its been a breeze. Simple funda is fill it, shut it and forget it.
Plus in winters the FE has gone up by 2 km/ KG.

I too have been using CNG since the past 1 year and it's been a fabulous experience. Till now, I haven't been to the installer even once. Occasionally I have to adjust the air fuel ratio (since my installation is without the lamda). Running costs are 1/3rd that of petrol, engine is running perfectly and no problems at all.

^ I second that, have fitted CNG in 5 cars and combined mileage would be around 2 lacs with Swift alone has done 80K+ on CNG (1.1 lac in total), none of my car has seen the garage (for CNG) since fitments :)

What CNG System did you fit in your Swift & how much did it cost?

Is it possible to install an LPG kit onto a Fiesta 1.6? While there are quite a few reports of succesfull installations on cars like the Cedia, Corolla and Civics, I haven't heard of anybody reporting success with a Fiesta 1.6.

The closest I could find on this forum was an Ikon 1.3 and that too had problems in switching over from LPG to Petrol.

Just curious to know if anybody has successfully fitted a Fiesta 1.6 with a LPG Kit? Does the Sequent kit from BRC work on a 1.6?
Thanks

@Taseem- Gaurav is right. The lancer is hugely popular on CNG. Infact, it's one of the best cars when it comes to CNG, the baleno fares very well too.
I'd suggest you find a good installer in Bangalore and good ahead with your install. A good install is trouble free.
I too have had various cars running on CNG and have hardly ever needed to make a visit to my installer.

Can any one suggest a good LPG installer in chennai for my Palio 1.6?
Checked a few auto gas converters and they all quote around 40-45k for BRC and lovato sequential kit. Zovali being the cheapest at 35k.
But they keep on recommending the ordinary kit fo rs17k so i am not sure about their expertise.
Thanks.

I dont think Ford cars can be used with sequential kit. Ford uses signal based sensors as opposed to voltage based sensors with almost every other car. Thus incompactibility with the ford cars.

Regards,
Vijay

Hello friends,
I have a EECO and want to convert to cng.
My earlier car was a OHC 1.3, converted to cng by Greenglobe Mulund.
It was a Advanced Closed Loop and it dint give me any problems as such except for some sluggishness in pickup.
I talked to Ashish of greenglobe that i want a Sequential kit for my EECo.
But he flatly discouraged me not to spend that much on it and advised me to go for a Advanced Closed Loop kit like my OHC.

Now we all know the benefits in terms of performance of Seq Kits.
But now that the installer himself is discouraging from Seq kit, i am confused.
He told me that there r some problems in Seq kit after installation as the ECM doesnt fully match.

Please guide me whether to go for SEQ or CL.

Interestingly a LOVATO installer also discouraged me in the same manner.

Highly confused.

Regards,
Dr.Abhay Shah.