I believe Mr. Sabadass did a test on horizontal cyclones. I was waiting for him to answer. He did find that they work. I don’t know how either of you collected the dust. I would think an opening in what use to be the side but now would be the bottom TomC
Here is the link to the horizontal cyclone test:
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Gravity helps but it is also a centrifugal filter so that might be why it will some what work horizontally.
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A nother question for you all… How does one meter the exhaust return? What hapens if one ads too much exhaust to the air in terms of engine and gasifier performance? I know you can set it by looking in the reaction zone but that isnt posible with my sistem. Any ideas?
Hi Kristijan, I go by watching the color of the red hot charcoal, But you cannot see that with your set up so will need a different plan. First of all, are you committed to using water vapor as an adjunct to the air? If so, I see no need for you to use engine exhaust. The water vapor will perform the same function as the exhaust gas in cooling down the oxidation zone as the water is reduced into H2 and CO. In this case you may run a problem of adding too much water which will condense out in the filters. If so, cut back on the amount used. I have also noted the humidity in the air can also affect the amount of water used. A cool humid day may have enough water vapor in it to preclude the use of injecting water vapor.
If you also want to use engine exhaust, the best way to monitor the oxidation temp is probably with a thermo couple. This is something I have not used yet and cannot speak much about. You will be dealing with temp of 1800F on the low end to about 3000F on the high end. I find only a little engine exhaust is effective, so another thought is to just use a little and see what happens. Whoops, maybe add a lot, and then cut back. If you add too much, you will cool the fire and make a lot of CO2 and not have much power. Then start cutting the engine exhaust back a little bit at a time.
My 2 cents for now, Gary from PA
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The problem is that the steam doesent seem to cool the char enough eaven thugh l use max wolume of steam as posible. I have the generator inside the car so it is most inportant to keep it as cool as posible. It is insulated with rockwool but the sides tend to ger hot in about an hour of driveing. I alsow have to mention that l converted the setup to a updraft so the problem of reduction zone being to short is not the case here. I wuld like to try exhaust injection and see what engine performance it gives to me and then decide what to go for.
Gary do you ever have to change your exhaust setting when driveing at diferent loads?
Thanks for the help!
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After a lot of testing here are my conclusions:
The steam cooled sistem gives a lot more power to the engine BUT the sistem tends to run hotter, the reaction zone is higher (meaning that l make less km before hot coals seem to apear on top of the bed) in the gasifier and fuel consumption alsow tends to be higher. It is alsow much more complicated and as the temperature in the winter gets to about -10*c here it is alsow quite unpractical. Alsow when l turned off the engine the watter was still boiling in my steamer so all that steam came out from the air inlet hose (located under the car bumper) and looked like the car was going to burst in flame on the parking place.
The exhaust cooled system gives me less engine power mainly in acceleration but at a top speed of about 95km/h l am quite satisfyed. No problem with freazing water.
I guess l will stick with exhaust for now. I will make a video when its all done.
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Thanks so much for sharing your conclusions. Since you are running without steam have you advanced your timing to get more power out of the slow burning CO?
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The car is a hybrid runing on gasoline until the gasifier gets to temp (this way l can drive as soon as l wish- no starting time needed) much like Gary Gilmore has done on his Ford ranger. If l wuld advance the ignition timing l might get some more hp out of it runing on charcoal but that might damage the engine while runing on gasoline or l shuld abandon the gasoline part completly. A price l am not willing to pay.
Most of us have adjustable timing from the drivers seat. Just loosen the distributor and attach a cable to it. For gasoline, timing down. For charcoal, timing up about 20 degrees.
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Ok i had no clue thats eaven possible! How exactly do you do that? Can this be done with every type of distributor? My distributor looks like this:<img src="/uploads/default/original/2X/1/1c70c8dc1f78f6632219c10fcc00f1e4de27fb87.png" width=“666” height=“500”
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Kristijant My guess would be you might have to cut the ears off where the hold down bolts go and just screw a bolt into that hole in the block. Have an oversized washer on the bolt so the edge of the washer will catch that ledge and hold the distributor down. The bolt would not be down tight, just enough to hold the distributor in place but allow it to be rotated.
Could we pleas have some pictures of your vehicle and of the gasifier. The only thing we have seen was the drawing, which was good, but we DO like picture TomC
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Like Tom said, you need to keep the distributor from falling out but still able to rotate with some friction.
To make it rotate, use a large hose clamp to attach a tab on the side, then the cable goes through a hole in your tab. The cable sheath is held by a clamp on a non-rotating part.
Something like this:
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Well that sounds like a plan 
Just how much power does the 20* timing advance give you?
Thanks so much guys!
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Depends a LOT on the motor. Some engines like the 318 Dakota will really pick up some power! Older engines get some boost but not so much. Some engines can’t handle the increase at all, just won’t run (thinking of the V6 Dakota).
You’ll have to play around and see what you can get. Any timing you can get will help a lot, especially with CO rich charcoal gas.
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Kristijan, before you start fiddeling, find a timing light and turn the dist a little bit (when on gasoline) to see if timing changes at all.
In most newer engines the spark is trigged by cam position sensor and/or crank position sensor. Only if spark is trigged in the dist itself it will change the timing turning it. If not there´s no easy way doing it.
Anyone, please correct me if I´m wrong.
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my 97 gmc has a crank sensor for timing and turning the dist does advance the spark the Dakotas are setup the same way it works for them also.
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Yeah, the Dakotas technically shouldn’t work like that. The manual says rotating it won’t advance the time.
It not only works, but it works much better than advancing a fully mechanical distributor. I don’t claim to understand why. I also don’t know if yours will produce the same effect.
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But yours are 8 cyl. From what I understand you only trick the spark to jump one peg (advancing 45*). Your computers then probably retard from there. Not possible when only 4 cyl. Advancing 90* would be to much.
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with a timing light and a couple of minutes you will know for sure. it looked like your picture showed slotted ears hard to tell from the angle but if so your good to go.
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