Problems with Flying-J's CNG pumps may compromise safety

Questar installed new updated CNG pumps at Flying-J Truck Stop in Ogden Utah, sometime in late 2012 or early 2103. Consequently, they removed the aging non-electronic fueling stations from across the street at the Kicks-66.

The Kicks-66 pumps were old and needed minor maintenance occasionally, but the new electronic pumps don't appear to be much better as far as needing frequent maintenance.

In the several months I have been using the Flying-J filling stations, there has been a lot of problems just trying to get the pumps to fill my tank. I have only approximate dates but:

• Sometime in July, the number 4 pump valve knob  broke
   
• Sometime in July, the number 4 pump connection would not work on my CNG fill valve
   
• Several times, the number 2 pump would flash "E 1", I interpret as Error 1 and would not completely 
• fill my tank; just stop filling and flash E 1.
   
• I just noticed that the high pressure line on Pump 2 is wearing through - This is a 3000 PSI line and I don't want to be around when it wears through!

Picture of the "E 1" Error that stops the fill station from completely filling the tank

Picture of damaged high pressure CNG line (the black one sorry)

Here's a close up look at the CNG controller

Or maybe it should be titled "Here's a look inside a Chinese controller". Actually it's not too bad, it hasn't been on the car yet so I can't tell how well it performs in a working situation but from an evaluation standpoint it seems good enough - At this point I would give it 2.5 out of 5 stars; 5 being the best.

The CNG controller case has a two piece case made of cast aluminum containing the PC board

 Although the case isn't all that good, it's sealed with clear silicone in the molded two piece inter-locking U channel and screwed together with four machine screws. Looking at the case, it's obvious that case is good enough but not very high quality. A General Manager I used to work for in product development had a saying "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough" - This is certainly the case here - That is, the casting is good enough.

 Rear of the case - The mediocre casting quality

 is evident on the lower case seam shown

Back cover of the controller 

and attachment screws

A close up view of casting quality

It's obvious from this picture that the plastic on the shells for the interconnects have shrunken during cooling due to lack of attention paid to plastic thicknesses - Also note that this also means that there is a marked absence of  glass filling used in most automotive connectors to stabilize the plastic and ensure that it functions well in the automotive temperatures under the hood.

Here is a view of inside the CNG control module - This module uses a Freescale micro-controller. In closer inspection it was reveled that the micro controller is rated to Industrial temperature range (-40 to 105 C) rather than Automotive Temperature (-40 to 125 C) as most under the hood control modules are - Clearly implementing the "good enough" principal. On the right, the "U" channel is visible. This channel is loaded with silicone sealer before placing the inter-locking back plate in place. Although the casting for this unit is mediocre, the application of sealer seems to make a pretty good water-tight seal.

Installation of the Exon CNG kit

DMC / Exon CNG kit installation

Exon CNG kit - Not including the CNG tank

Main Features:
Easy to install and calibrate
Excellent performance & high quality
Waterproof connector
Euro III/IV emission & OBD compatible
ECE Certified ---R67,R110

This kit will be installed and evaluated on a 1992 Honda hatchback to check the installation and the functionality of the kit.

The Components

First some evaluation of the task at hand - Shown below is the car with the spare tire removed, ISO listed / tested CNG tank (more on the tank later).

After a few considerations and some measurements of the tank and the location in the back of the Honda to ensure that the tank would fit, the tank was test fitted by just sitting the tank inside on a metal spacer to check to see where the tank would fit best.

Once that it was certain that the tank would fit in the approximate location in the back, some measurements were taken as a preliminary exercise to get an idea as to how high / low the tank should be mounted. Obviously, the tank should be mounted as low as possible but because the time to install the kit is short, it was decided to install the tank inside as apposed to inverting the spare tire metal and mounting the CNG tank outside. Outside would be better, just not enough time to make it work.

Here are the height measurements sitting on top of a piece of scrap metal.

Test Fitting the CNG Tank

Spare tire and cargo compartment

Measurement between strut towers

Now that some basic measurements have been taken, a rough draft plan is created on engineering paper for reference and to save the measurement numbers.

This is an important step to ensure that the fabrication stays on track with the design idea. Nothing is worse than starting off with a general idea and not staying with idea and / or changing plans part way through.

Rough draft of plans for mounting CNG tank

A Letter to Checker / O'Reilly auto parts to inform them of a problem obtaining information on their crate engines gets no response from corporate blunder heads:

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Hello,

I just wanted to let you know of a lost sales opportunity for Checker / O'Reilly Auto parts. Clear back last year maybe June time frame, I asked one of your sales associates for recommendations on crate engines from Checker / O'Reilly Auto parts. I told him (Mike – I don't know his last name) that I was looking to purchase a crate engine for my 1988 Chevy K-1500. I asked him for his recommendations and he wasn't sure about options even though we looked in the Checker / O'Reilly parts catalog, so I asked him if he could talk to the manager and have him email me some recommendations since his manager was busy and he didn't have access to email..

A Month or two later after no email from his manager, I asked Mike again to have his manager email me some recommendations for Checker / O'Reilly Auto parts crate engines. One reason I wanted to investigate Checker / O'Reilly Auto parts crate engines is that 1) I have been a loyal customer for going on 20 years 2) your main distribution center is at 145 Washington Blvd. in Ogden, Utah and I am about 5 miles away so if there is a problem I can talk to someone or get additional assistance unlike a mail order company where I have to ship things back if I have a problem.

So, the idea of this email is to let you know that I just received a 383 crate engine from Jegs – This is not just a replacement engine but an upgrade from a 350 to 383 approximately a 2 x price difference. Jegs provided recommendations, assistance and quick delivery. Unfortunately for both parties Checker / O'Reilly Auto parts were a no-show when I asked for assistance.

In this instance if Checker / O'Reilly Auto parts wants to do better in the future, they need to empower their sales associates the ability to service customers; including giving them access to email and knowledge of crate engine options – In this case 350 to 383 engine replacements.

Sincerely,

Tracy Johns

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The Populous should wake up

In response to Clifford's letter to the Ogden Standard Examiner Editor

There are plenty of conspiracy theories that would suggest subversion by government agencies or the Petroleum agency but the bottom line is that the populous is in collective denial about our way of life and the petroleum we use. I am not sadistic enough not to enjoy the benefits of our modern life just not naive enough to believe that it will last forever nor that we shouldn't do something about it. We have the choice to educate ourselves and pick the fuel that we want to use. But it starts with us.

First, we as a society are in collective denial about how much petroleum there is in the ground. If you ask most people about how much petroleum we have most say that we have enough for so many generations. They may even site new discoveries. However; according to scientists, that's not the case. Most people haven't heard about Dr. M. King Hubbert, but his studies have been largely ignored and most haven't heard of Professor Emeritus Al Bartlett's, nor his famous “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy” lecture and why would we do research if we believe our lifestyle will last forever?

The second part of the equation is that most public officials chart a careful path around the facts surrounding petroleum and would much rather talk about taxes or environmental issues – If our elected officials were doing their job, they would help bring about change by educating the populous but the fact of the matter is that they would be perceived as dooms day messengers; if they bring up the demise of petroleum, they probably wouldn't get the campaign funding from the big corporations, that means they will get sent to the side-lines like Jimmy Carter. Remember the solar collectors that President Carter put on the White House and President Reagan removed?

The bottom line is that we are completely passive about the future of energy and believe what we see on PBS from the big oil companies that they are developing alternate energies for the future but according to opensecrets.org, the American Petroleum Institute spent more than 7 Million dollars in lobbying moneys – And I'm pretty sure it wasn't for alternate fuels or new batteries technologies – And to be fair, they don't have any moral responsibility to yell “wolf”.

The bottom line is that we don't have an energy source as dense as petroleum to replace petroleum and most people don't want to give up the convenience they enjoy anyway. Every other energy source we have available has less energy density and therefore isn't as desirable as petroleum. Let's face it, our society is already setup for dispensing petroleum products and if you put it to a vote do you think the populous would foot the bill for changing to let's say lithium borohydride, hydrogen or electricity or another alternate fuel with less energy density or a substance that we can't readily use? If an official were to be elected that talked bad about the petroleum industry he / she would be out of office before you could say decatherm.

Sadly, getting off petroleum probably isn't as sexy as it sounds and remember there is currently no silver bullet - Technology (inventors) can help but more than that, we need the collective to do it. First off we have to be smart in the short term. How much petroleum does it take to build a new car (about 0.27 gallons per pound – www.thetruthaboutcars.com)? Does it make sense to buy vs drive the car you already have. Remember, we already have cars that rival the economy of hybrids (Civic VX) and in most cases have chosen to ignore them in favor of bigger vehicles. We can make it along way to getting off petroleum by simply driving a smaller car. Also, read the governments web page on how to drive - don't be a jerk when driving and realize that if you are impatient and pass someone out of haste, you are wasting an enormous amount of a precious non-renewable resource just because you can. Don't believe that “green” will save the world. It's just our collective “feel-good” phrase to allow us to continue to waste resources. Think about converting your existing car to natural gas – it's still non-renewable but it is a transition technology and can be used until we have a more clear transition path.

NGV's are interesting but still out weighed by Petrolium

During the height of the petroleum spike in 2008, a lot of people became aware of alternative fuels, especially since many of them were less expensive than the artificially inflated price of petroleum and gasoline in particular. Shortly after prices of gasoline came down and stabilized, I went to fill up my 99 Honda conversion to CNG an quickly noticed a 50 cent per gallon increase. I didn't even bother to fill up my Honda - I quickly re-calculated the cost / benefit and decided to remove the CNG kit from the Honda.


Here is what I found on Questar's website
(http://www.questargas.com/FuelingSystems/NGV/ngv.php)

The article starts out with "With growing public concern over high gasoline prices, dependence on foreign-oil imports, global warming and air quality, Questar Gas is focused on providing safe, clean-burning natural gas for vehicles."

CNG News

CNG to increase 50 cents per gallon July 7, 2010
On Jan. 1, the U.S. Senate allowed to expire a long-standing 50-cent-per-gallon tax credit for those who dispense natural gas for vehicles. Questar Gas continued its practice of passing along the credit to NGV drivers for the past six months assuming Congress would extend it. This now appears unlikely. The 50-cent-per-gallon credit will be removed July 7, 2010 and the per-gallon pump price will increase accordingly. We apologize for this price increase.

We apologize for the increase??? That's nice, but somehow, the US Senate was convinced that they needed to add back the 50 cent per gallon tax on to CNG used for transportation. With all of the arm waving and begging for people to cut-back on driving because of air pollution, we just made the situation worse. So, I wonder, who or what entity would entice the US Senate to replace the tax on CNG? Or, who would gain by making CNG vehicles less cost effective? I have only one candidate for that.

After the gasoline price drop

Bringing the AltFuel Blog up to date is the conversation I had with Joshua of Logan Utah yesterday while filling up my Civic with CNG. Josh is the owner and manager behind the www.123cng.com company which uses and re-sells the Bugatti kit.

Just a little background: In talking with Mr. Gordon of Technicarb, Mr. Gordon who has been in the automotive industry for many years indicated that traditionally Toyota vehicles are not easily tuned using CNG. Keeping this in mind, got me talking to Josh during the filling of his Toyota Tundra truck. The main point of the post is that he was making progress in his business of selling and installing kits. He said that since the price drop, he hasn't had any inquiries about installations.

Josh has gone back to his property management business as his main source of income. During the conversation we speculated at the future of the CNG business. While in South Jordan one day in January 2009, I spoke with Chris of CNGConcepts and indicated to Josh that according to Chris, CleanCities is putting money (I suspect millions of dollars but don't know the exact amount) into CNG infrastructure.

To add to the confusion of the future of alternate fuels and the "Green Car" concept like the Hybrids that are being touted, I spoke with Mr. Gale Banks of Banks Engineering who indicated that his contacts indicate that Hybrids "are not moving". There isn't a concise conclusion to the issue other than as prices "normalize" for gasoline, obviously there is a lot less emphasis on alternate fuels.