do straight six engines use compuvalves

[live wire]

local tech says no . factory gfi 96 ford f 250 4.9 straight six cng/gas bi-fuel

[Franz]

Re: do straight six engines use compuvalves

From roughly 1992 through 1995, Ford contracted with the Natural Gas Vehicle Technology Centers (Long Beach California, Austin Texas, and Atlanta, but eventually all went to Austin) to do a QVM program. QVM means a Qualified Vehicle Manufacturer (also called a Modifier), licenses and approved by Ford. They were almost ALL GFI, with a very few Impco mechanical and a handful of what was the best technology yet, the GEM/MESA system.

I would guess that 75% of the vehicles were the 4.9, some 5.0, and a handful of the 5.9 engines.

There were some serious dependability issues with GFI at that time but that was when GFI was in high gear. When Ford canceled the 4.9 engine with the old body style (called the Heritage, but actually, a way to get rid of all the old body style trucks) and went to the 4.6 OBD-II, the QVM program was pulled, and all the centers were closed.

Ford did some of their own development work on CNG applications and used a wide variety of off-shore equipment.

Franz

[rocketmanpete]

Re: do straight six engines use compuvalves

I almost bought a 96 F-250 straight six with automatic 2 1/2 months ago it was a GFI system but backed out when I found only 2 Compu valves in all of North America, and that Teleflex was no longer making that valve. Hope this dose not crash your party

[live wire]

Re: do straight six engines use compuvalves

sweet! any ideas? gotta make it run. i drive 200 mi a day. have tanks and lines and what i think is a regulator and some object that has the cng plumbed to it and alot of wires and what looks like some hoses that run up by the heater core that are disconnected and have some metal tees on them. any thoughts?

[wmarsden]

Re: do straight six engines use compuvalves

Yes, the 1996 Ford inline 6 cylinder (300 c.i.) used a GFI system which used a compuvalve. It was located on the drivers side mounted on the inner fender. The wires and plugs you are seeing are supposed to connect to it.

If it is a factory installation, there will be stickers from GFI on the underside of the hood, and on the radiator support.

Good luck. Finding a replacement compuvalve will be very difficult. It will probably be better to convert to another CNG kit if you really want to run on CNG.

[Franz]

Re: do straight six engines use compuvalves

One more thing:

If it was one of the old QVM vehicles, parts may no longer be available for it. These units were proprietary and NOT the same as the later Ford F-series units. These were called the GFI-1, the later ones were the GFI-2. The primary difference is the -1 wire connector is not removable, while the -2 is removable. There were a couple of other internal "enhancements".

The software was loaded at the time of installation and was unique by vehicle VIN and engine family.

Franz

[live wire]

Re: do straight six engines use compuvalves

Thanks to all who schooled me on my first of many lessons. teleflex/gfi systems are more trouble than their worth.imho (learned what that means here too) buying a new system on fri. hope to be rollin soon.