Now that it’s been exactly a month that I’ve fitted the Tomasetto Achille Italian CNG kit into my 2007 Maruti Swift Lxi model, I think I can comment little more precisely now.
My initial worry was that the entire boot will go for a toss when the cylinder will be placed and there will be no space left for any luggage. Hence I thought of selling this one off and buy 2nd hand maruti esteem but couldn’t find any in good condition. Then, I thought a known devil is better than an unknown one, i.e. I know my car so why buy another car and experiment with it.
So then I did a lot of research online and concluded that Italian CNG kits are the best ones for any car. Further, my findings are mentioned below for everyone’s benefit: -
Always put an Italian cng kit from an experienced mechanic only
Always install the kit from the importer and distributor only (because the local mechanics, to make margins, put in local parts and sell the branded stuff separately to make extra bucks)
Always be present next to your car when the kit is getting installed (its like saying when your dear one is getting operated, you always stay put next to him/her and not go party outside or do you?). This is important so that you personally make sure that all the original parts are fitted in your dear car.
All the cng kit has the auto switching from petrol to cng whenever you start your engine. However, I suggest to run your car atleast 2 kms on petrol when you first start your engine in the morning or evening or whenever to sufficiently lubricate the engine.
There are 3 types of cng kits available – open loop, close loop & sequential kit
All the K-series or Kappa engines will (fortunately or unfortunately) have to install the sequential cng kit only as the car engines will not accept the normal kit (open or close loop ones). Mind you the sequential kit will cost you around Rs. 60, 000/-
For all other older engine cars either the close or open loop would do.
The air/fuel mixture is expressed either as the ratio of air to fuel vapor or as a lambda value. The lambda value is derived from the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio, which is the chemchandru021y correct ratio of air to fuel for complete combustion to take place in your car.
With the Lambda included in the kit it is known as close loop and without lambda its call open loop kit.
Sequential (computerized tuning) kit give you optimum average but is very expensive. Close loop will not give optimum average but will perform better than open loop kit as far as average is concerned.
Now, after the above gyan, I shall now jump on to my car (swift) specifics.
I have installed Tomasetto Achille CNG open loop kit with advancer (advancer is to minimize the side effect of reduction in speed after installing cng kit) for Rs. 32, 000/- from ACE Gas Conversions Pvt. Ltd., in Mumbai (Dahisar).
I’m getting an average of 12km/kg and have not faced any issue so far except approx. 10% reduction in the pick-up (but where will you get a chance to fly your car in the city, so m fine with it). My car starts on petrol and switches to cng automatchandru021y. The boot is fully occupied with the cng cylinder, which fuels in 9.63kgs of cng.
There was only one part called Air Mixer which was a local part (not in the kit) that goes beneath the air filter. This link will show you what all parts goes where and where the air mixer (that I’m talking about) goes in the car (rest all the parts where from the kit) - mijoautogas.co.in/images/cngkit/cng-r01-large.jpg
Some fitters may ask you to put new butchers in the rare shocks of the car to lift it up because of the weight of the cylinder but I was told that it will not matter for my swift.
There are 2 main things that you need to check and change after installing the cng. Firstly change all the originally fitted spark plugs to NGK spark plugs because they are more powerful to handle cng (specially all maruti cars as the company, to save their cost, originally puts in “Champion” spark plugs which are pathetic). And secondly, check the air filter and change it or clean it if its dirty (luckily mine was a new one).
Once the cng kit is installed, make sure you collect a small paper (its valid till you get the metal plate) along with your invoice, without which no gas station will fill cng gas in your car (personal experience) because the metal plate will take some time to come, meanwhile you still have to keep filling gas, right (I paid 10/- bucks to the guy and he filled it up without that paper or metal plate and said he will not give the invoice, so I did that). Also, ask all the questions to endorse cng into your registration card (smart card) by RTO (RTO passing) from where ever you’re getting cng kit installed.
It’s been 1 month now and m driving my car smoothly without any issue or jerk, with or without air condition turned on.
Here’s from where I installed the CNG kit:-
ACE GAS CONVERSIONS PVT LTD