Inside the Vogas Propane Kit and conversion to CNG

The CNG conversion that I installed on my 1999 Honda Civic was in reality a propane kit from Voltran, a company in Turkey.

Here's a look inside the kit:

The kit consists of a controller, user interface containing level display, propane regulator (vaporizer), wiring harness, manifold, natural gas injectors, a fuel control link (USB to CAN), nuts, bolts, hose clamps, hose and mounting hardware.

One thing that this kit didn't come with is the Bellgas regulator. Since this kit will be used to convert the Civic to compressed natural gas (CNG), a step down regulator needs to be used. This will take the pressure from 3000 PSI to between 120 and 150 PSI. Because the CNG is a gas the vaporizer is not necessary but provides a solenoid valve to shut off the flow of CNG to the manifold. Here is a picture of the vaporizer.




I opened the controller to find out the level of integration and the approximate computer power required for operation of the kit.

To the left is a picture of the injectors, manifold and intake manifold nipples.


Research into the connector to the controller reveled a water tight connection to the wiring harness and a water resistant case. The PC board
is conformal coated to resist moisture. (under the picture of the wiring harness)


Here's a schematic of the wiring harness. Notice that the gasoline injector wires need to be cut in order to hook up the Vogas control unit for sensing when the injectors fire (referred to as benzine injectors).



Below is a picture of how the PC board fits into the plastic case.

The board in the picture is laid side-ways so that the connector is visible and how it mounts into the case.




Here's a description of the type of processor Vogas is using for their controller:
It seems to be "SAF C164G" but the closest match I found in automotive temp is:

XC164CM

XC164CM - Automotive Controller with CAN
The XC164CM is the only member of the XC164CM Series supporting extended temperature range (Ta: 125°C). The XC164CM Series offers impressive DSP performance and advanced interrupt handling combined with a powerful integrated peripheral set and high performance and reliable on-chip Flash memory.The XC164CM is suited for automotive and general purpose markets and features a dedicated PWM unit for AC and DC motors, TwinCAN and a 10-bit AD Converter.

Really sounds impressive - The core is a C166V2 core - Here is a general description:

General Device Information
The XC164CM derivatives are high-performance members of the Infineon
XC166 Family of full featured single-chip CMOS microcontrollers. These devices extend
the functionality and performance of the C166 Family in terms of instructions (MAC unit),
peripherals, and speed. They combine high CPU performance (up to 40 million
instructions per second) with high peripheral functionality and enhanced IO-capabilities.
They also provide clock generation via PLL and various on-chip memory modules such
as program Flash, program RAM, and data RAM.

The only problem I have is that all of the C164 series I found are 64 pin this one is an 80 pin version.

4 x 2 MB (8MB) of memory: ST 29F4000

Here is the entire board - In the top right, two FET drivers (i believe) and maybe injector drivers in the lower right.

Also an ST high side driver between the memory and the processor ST VN820SP
Pretty simple in hardware - Very adaptable configuration software.

In order to use this kit, a Bellgas regulator was used. The P-39 series regulator takes the high pressure and regulates it down to around 150 psi. The regulator that was purchased has an adjustment screw under the octoganal cap. The default pressure turned out to be around 120 psi.

View a picture of the regulator below. I sell a universal regulator mount from my web page:

http://www.advanced-fuelcontrol.com/


The last item I will cover is the user interface as shown below the regulator - It has a button for gasoline / CNG and an input into the control box will take a pressure senor for displaying a bar graph of tank pressure.


In operation once tuned with the custom software from Vogas, the system runs very well. Only occasionally has there been a problem with the way the system is programmed and the user interface that runs on a PC there is sufficient controls for the compensation for any type of engine.

Probably the biggest detractor for using this kit is that the distributor Fire em Up diesel: www.fireemup.com/ is so hard to work with.

During my tenure at Edge Products, we tried to partner with them as a distributor of the Edge Products propane kit from MSD Ignition the parent company. It took weeks and weeks for them to give me a call back and when they finally did, they weren't very congenial - I guess I talked to Jeff and ended up yelling at him in order for him to understand what I was proposing - Hearing damage from all of the engine work he has done? Maybe.

After that episode, Edge Products also evaluated becoming a dealer for Electrodeil - A company out of Columbia. Not a bad kit but didn't pass the NFPA regulations for 300 bar pressure for components and the tanks were not DOT certified - You can get their kits from Awesome Pool products in Clinton, Utah. http://www.awesomepoolproducts.com/

Edge Products contacted the parent company Electrodiel to try to get their vacuum valves direct, but Edge had to become a dealer - Unfortunately, even though Edge Products had some 2 to 8 million dollars in various inventory items (trying to show that Edge is a pretty big company), Electrodiel wouldn't sign them up and indicated that the pool products company was the preferred dealer - Good for them however Edge Products could have probably moved more of their products.

Apparently the local dealer gets his Voltran products from Fire em up diesel and has also had some undisclosed problems with them as well.