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.

New Business Venture:
Due to the economic slowdown, I was laid off as the Alternate Fuel Manager at Edge Products - Too bad in some respects. Really good in others - So this leaves me with the option to join the workforce as a soldier or create a new career as a general. I opt for the general position. Although still looking for opportunities at the soldier front, in the mean time building eco-projects in order to survive.

So, working at Edge, I installed a couple of CNG conversions for testing - From the experience, realizing that we would need regulator holders, I designed a simple solution for Edge from 1 inch x 1/8 inch steel as you can see in the top picture. After being laid off - I realized a general solution would be better so a friend of mine and I built a production holder from stainless steel - Second Image - Want one? Order them through my web site: http://www.advanced-fuelcontrol.com/#

I recently finished my first beta of the MileageMinder product. You can see a preview at the same web site and order Arkon mounts as well for the MileageMInder and also for the new releases from Edge Products: http://www.advanced-fuelcontrol.com/#

The last post was about a month ago - Since then, the CNG system has performed well. During the past month, the system has been tuned using the Vogas Software; it's pretty good and the software rarely has problems such as lock-ups etc.

One of the problems that was noticed during the last month was that the regulator would get really cold especially when the weather got a little colder than it was in late August and early September. The picture shown is of the regulator after driving about 6 miles in 45 - 50 degree weather with high humidity (after it rained).

What I noticed most was the smell of natural gas. Not until after some research was done I realized that the regulator could get as cold as -70 degrees F. When this happens the seals shrink which allows natural gas to escape.

This problem was remedied by installing hoses to the heater core and branching off to the water jacket that is standard and integrated into the Belgas regulator. This completly solved the problem of the regulator being to cold and allowing natural gas to escape.

The last item that I installed was an EGT probe attached to a modified Edge Products power module. The power module originally intended to be for 1999 1/2 to 2002 Dodge trucks w/ Cummins ISB engine using a VP 44 pump. This is a very useful module since it has two I/O that can be assigned and several A/D inputs. I kept the EGT probe calibration from the original truck use and modified the module to show digital vacuum. In monitoring the vacuum I can drive conservitively and also see the EGT of gasoline fuel VS CNG. This will help me determine if I have a heat problem when adding too much CNG.

These pictures show the addition of the CNG injector wiring to / from the original gasoline injector wires. The part of the kit that was the most uncertain was where to attach to the OEM injectors. My preference would be to have a "stack" connector where one could detach the stock injector wiring and attach the kit to the injector connector so that the wiring harness didn't have to be cut. I chose the next best thing and attached a Tyco 10 pin weather seal connector in between injector wires from the PCM and the injectors themselves. This way if there is a problem with the Vogas kit or injectors, the harness can be detached and a jumper installed so that the gasoline injectors are wired the same as they came from the factory. Shown in the pictures is the Vogas wire harness detachment and the gasoline injector(s) jumper.

It's alive...Alive!

The installation of the CNG kit on the 1999 Honda Civic was successful. After what seems to have been forever, the kit was finished and tested on September 27, 2008 with the help of Jerad Hanson from whom I purchased the Vogas Propane Kit. We set his Chevy Truck up using the dealer software and the dynamometer at Edge Products. After which Jerad was kind enough to give me some pointers for how the wiring setup should be concerning the MAP and vacuum lines on the Vogas kit. In the ajacent picture, you can see the wiring of the Vogas kit is contained in wire armor. The grey armor houses an extension to the temperature sensor connector which is located on the vaporizor.

Electrical Harness Installation

During the past few days I have been working on installing the waring harness and the Control Module. The harness looks very good and capible of lasting for a long time however none of the wires are terminated (other than the injectors) and none of them are labeled either.

This makes for some challenges as far as identification of wires especially since this is my first installation of a kit like this.