Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in
:

On 5/30/2012 2:35 AM, Just Wondering wrote:
On 5/30/2012 12:45 AM, Lew Hodgett wrote:
wrote:

Waterloo regional transit had a fleet of natural gas
busses, and the maintenance costs totally killed the
project. The converted diesel engines were failing at a
very high rate. Don't know if it ws due to lubrication
issues, valve issues, or what - but the engines were
apparently good for about 1/4 the normal life of a
diesel. The cyl heads are heavily modified and they need
spark ignition - all of which could have been involved
in the failures. And
the intitial conversion price is gawdawfull too!!!
---------------------------------
Can't imagine how a natural gas conversion from diesel
could be cost effective.

L/A chose a different approach.

When it came time to rebuild and/or retire a diesel, it
was replaced with a natural gas engine.

Just one of the reasons it took over 10 years to
accomplish.


You can't simply extrapolate that experience to the entire
nationwide fleet of private vehicles. For one thing, the
infrastructure to distribute fuel on such a massive scale
simply doesn't exist.

Well perhaps it is more readily available that you might
think. Add a pump to many homes and you have your source.
Granted the pump would be an initial costly expense but I
suspect that improved fuel economy would eventually pay for
that expense.


Except the NG infrastructure is not built with the capacity to
deliver the volume required. First cold spell and everyone
would freeze their ass off... ;o}