CNG conversion
 

I have a 97 SL1 and am looking at installing a compress natural gas conversion kit. Does anyone have any experience with these on any saturn?

thanks

You will be better served going to a CNG conversion website. An internet search should get you results in locating a site.

However - do us a favor, and let us know how the conversion comes out.

Thing is every single person I know that runs a conversion does not get close to the mileage they got with gas and every one of them says they had a loss of power.

The lower the temp the more problems arise.... Not that I'm pleased with the price of gas I'll stick with it.

Makes me wonder why anyone would want to have less power then a SL1 has burning gas.

I guess that's a possibility. I know people are squawking about the ethanol in their fuel causing reduced power and loss of mileage. Guess the conversion to CNG would be a major issue too. I just don't know ....

I've found a slight loss at the track running 10% ethanol and slightly reduced mileage. But to pay $500 for the CNG kit then pay for the install or at least a tune to make it run right I wonder how long it will take to recover the expence. Knowing that a tune does not exsist for any S-Series I then ask how will my car run, and how much of a mileage drop will I have. Now if I were driving a Chevy Tahoe I could see a reason to go with CNG.

Seems like if the CNG burns at a cooler temp, then you'd definitely need a hotter plug.

I have been to several sites researching but wanted some more detailed info and decided to check here.
http://ewsews.com/cngwhat.html (The kits are sold here for $500 as someone already mentioned)
They also have a youtube video showing how it is installed but now how to install it.
Some people mentioned saving close to $500 running CNG in just a few months after installing a conversion but on what vehicle I do not know.

exactly -- one what vehicle, and how are "savings" defined by these folks

Based on feedback above, just doesn't sound good for an SC1 -- unless you want to try to drive a go cart on the interstate

Right now in my area gas is $3.84....CNG is $2.54 If you were to have a 12gallon CNG tank that matches the tank size of your SL1 and got the same mileage from both. Burning 4 tanks of fuel a month gas would cost you $184.32 a month and CNG would cost you $121.92 a month. A savings of $62.40 a month. Over a year you would save $748.80 in fuel costs. Problem is CNG does not deliver the same mileage per gallon. Problem is no Saturn SL, SL1, or SL2 has a tuner program for the onboard computer. Now my cars computer can be programmed with HP Tuners system. If I buy the program it has a cost of $600.00 bucks. That leaves me spending $1,100.00 minimum to convert. Seeing I use about two tanks of fuel a month I'll save much less.

I looked for one car in the gov fuel ratings. I found a 2003 Honda CIVIC that came both as a gas burner and CNG burner.

Gov (EPA) ratings

2003 Honda CIVIC 1.7L GAS
31-34-39 mpg

2003 Honda CIVIC 1.7L CNG
26-28-31 mpg

A bit less I'd say................

Of course what is being forgotten, is the ability to find CNG while on a road trip. Which to me is about making as much sense as my 12 year old dog who is currently chasing her tail. But that is just me.

... Better your dog should chase it's tail, than the neighbor's car ...

or your dog huffing CNG

I can see derf huffing the dogs tail while John's dog chases them down the road in search of CNG trying to get to Oceans.

Hey I stick to high quality paints (no offense to John's dog's tail)

Dual
 

The conversions kits allow for dual fuel use so when you are going for a long trip you can just switch to gas. otherwise you can use a home compressor station and never have to go to a gas station.

I need to do more research on the MPG rating though. The prices you see at gas stations are for gge's gallong gas equivalents which should be the same amount of natural gas energy for an equivalent gallong of gas energy. Therefore the difference in mpg's should be taken into account unless cng is just less efficient for some reason.

CNG is less efficient and taking that into account gives one the cost per mile to use. Lower price, lower mileage, cost of kit, cost of install, cost of maintenance. All of this on an old car that may die at any time. Kinda reminds me of the guy that buys $500 dollar wheels for a $900 dollar car.

CNG is great but you need a motor that will optimize it's use meaning the CNG is around 120 octane so make your compression ratio around 11 and use a cam that will make peak torque at 3-5k also you need an exhaust at 2.25 in. After all this you'll find that it does not cost much different to fill the tank than gasoline but it should make more power.

Blos Carb
 

Here is a nice carb for running propane or CNG, seems with the correct carb the power is similar to gasoline. I managed to buy one of these, hard to get now. I plan on using mine to introduce vapor into engine for improving gas mileage. I think it will be great for adding supplemental gases to the intake. :D
http://firebird.fm.interiowo.pl/blos/