Charcoal Vehicles--Shut-Down and Start-Up for Brief Stops and Refills

General Discussion
#1

For those of you who are running charcoal gasifiers in vehicles, what are your start-up and shut-down procedures for stops of a 10 minute and longer 1 hour duration? Also, what is your complete procedure for refilling stops while on the road?

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#2

Steve, on my charcoal Tracker for short 10 to 15 minute stops, I just start driving on gasoline with the charcoal gas valve open and the air mixer valve almost closed until it starts running rich - then adjust the air for running on char gas. For longer stops, I shut the air off to the gasifier intake and then re-open and re-light like in a cold start.
Refilling on the road with an updraft charcoal gasifier means you have to shut the engine off at refills. Once refilled - just start back up just like after a 10 minute stop. No tar worries with charcoal!

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#3

With a downdraft its even simpler, the motor can be left to run while refueling.
For short stops up to about 15 min l just crank up on old gas stored in the cooler. There is enough for a couple of seconds and once l feel the week gas l driveoff on dino for a few yards.

Stops up to 8 hours l need to crank and drive on petrol till the gasifier gets alive agen but l do not need to relight.

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#4

On my TATA hybrid Charcoal CNG, there was a electric actuated system, gasflame on CNG, just switched over from CNG to charcoal gas.
ECU tweaked with automatic CNG injector adjustment, afr control, the works…

Now working on the next gen, with automatic refill from the hopper included, gasoline engine running hybrid with methanol, lpg or other fuels ( home made fuels that is )

Actually, with todays technology anything you dream of , can be build…

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#5

Koen, you are having way too much fun!

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04 Astro van 4.3, first timer needs advice
#6

Thanks, Don, Kristijan, and Koen for feedback on your operating procedures. The Pedrick Manual has also been helpful to me. If you have not seen it, a pdf of it may be downloaded from this website: https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/522ab4872162ef1dfcd0c94f. I got some real world experience today. If interested, check out my post under the Charcoal Toyota Project.

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#7

Thank you for this link, very informative.
Elliott

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