Technocarb Kits

Technocarb offers a wide variety of conversion kits for automotive and stationary applications. You may find Technocarb products at our e-commerce site. Products not listed there may be special ordered.

Generally, the most economical alternative fuel system for spark-ignition engines is the SVIS (Sequential Vapour Injection System), which is an effective way of running a modern fuel-injected vehicle on either propane or natural gas. If you have CNG readily available along your commute, a CNG conversion will generally be cheaper to run and have a faster payback than a propane system, especially if your CNG station is run by a gas utility. Otherwise, propane will probably be the better conversion. Injection conversions work better than fumigation conversions on multiport fuel injected (MPFI) engines and do not run the risk of intake manifold backfires due to fuel transport delay.

Universal systems based on the premium SVIS controller require the SVIS Configuration Kit and an OBDII scanner to calibrate the system. Even vehicle-specific systems may require fine-tuning with the Configuration Kit. Your local propane conversion shop may already have the SVIS configuration kit so check with them first. Technocarb has a variety of model-specific SVIS kits available for a variety of vehicles.

LPG and CNG Fumigation kits are generally only recommended for vehicles with TBI (Throttle Body Injection) systems or carburetors. However, due to decreasing demand for these products and increasing manufacturing costs for the EFS600 controller, Technocarb has discontinued their fumigation kits in January of 2012. For older, pre-OBDII MPFI vehicles, an SVIS injection conversion works better than the old EFS600-based systems. For a very limited number of TBI applications (such as the GM 5.7L engine), Technocarb has developed conversions based on their SVIS kit.

Although the Technocarb systems we have available are NOT EPA-certified at this time, it does not mean that they produce more tailpipe emissions than a certified system. All certified systems start off as universal systems and require vehicle-specific components and programming before undergoing certification testing. When a system successfully passes the requirements of certification, it can become a certified system. The manufacturer of alternative fuel systems must pay an annual certificate renewal fee afterwards to maintain the certified status of the conversion kit. Due to low demand, Technocarb has not renewed previously-obtained certificates for their EPA-certified systems. When properly calibrated and necessary components are used for the application, a universal system will be at least as clean on propane or CNG as it would be on gasoline and quite possibly as clean as a certified system.

In addition, EPA and CARB certification do not ensure the alternative fuel system is safe. All Technocarb systems and parts packages meet the safety requirements of NFPA 52 and NFPA 58 in the USA and CSA B149.5 and CSA B109 in Canada.

Before considering any alternative fuel conversion, please discuss your project with a local propane or CNG conversion shop. You will need to obtain tanks and other miscellaneous parts from them and they can inspect your work BEFORE you put any fuel into it. You should also verify that you have readily available supply of low cost propane or CNG available. CNG is generally advertised in Gasoline Gallon Equivalent or Gasoline Litre Equivalent pricing. Propane contains less energy per gallon or litre than gasoline so it should be substantially less than 74% of the price of gasoline for the conversion to make economic sense.

Although more expensive than DIY diesel dual fuel systems, the EcoDiesel System is an extremely robust system for substituting LPG or CNG for diesel fuel. Again, if CNG is available from a public station run by a gas utility, CNG will generally be much cheaper to run than propane and will generally have a much faster payback even though the kit price is slightly higher.

The EcoDiesel System is available in both a propane and a natural gas version. The natural gas version of the EcoDiesel System can be a Diesel-LNG rather than a Diesel-CNG when appropriate tanks and regulators are used. Natural gas is almost always cheaper to run than propane and will have a quicker payback. The price of propane should be less than 65% of the price of diesel fuel to be cheaper on a BTU-basis. Natural gas (GGE or GLE) should be less than 88% of the price of diesel fuel to be cheaper on a BTU-basis. Notable advantages of the EcoDiesel System over DIY diesel dual fuel systems include:

• Load-based fuel control (ie, taking both RPM and boost pressure into account).
• Post-turbo fuel supply (ie, in the intake manifold) for better fuel control and no turbo lag.
• Exhaust temperature monitoring to ensure engine safety.
• Fully programmable configuration with a laptop computer.