It is so cold up here that I work in the shop for a while then go jump in our meat freezer to warm up.
TomC
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Well, this is a 45kW genset and Iām guessing (havenāt spoken with the owner yet) that itās a four cylinder engine though it could be a small inline six cylinder but, I doubt it. I figure that it would take a beefy four cylinder to turn a 45kW generator. As I mentioned itās currently set up to run natural gas. Thanks for responding.
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Interesting.
That looks like it has a water cooled exhaust maybe this was a marine set?
Now this is much different than mine because of the size but it still a very good set.
You need to find out what brand of engine it has just to be sure you can get parts for it long term.
And your not going to want to spend big bucks on it because as your first wood gas project you might end up getting tar in it and sticking the valves or rings.
How about something smaller to start, unless this is free or near free I think its better to start smaller and work your way up.
A unit this size is also going to burn a lot more fuel than you might expect.
I am thinking that might be something like an inline 6 maybe a ford 300 inline.
Thatās a lot of fuel!!!
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This is part of a project to take care of the entire homestead. I have access to a smaller generator to play with until I get the hang of clean gas. I donāt know if itās treasonous to mention a different gasifier but, Iām building two of these Peterson designed gasifiers. When I was looking for a good design Petersonās name kept coming up and after I dug into his design it looked like a winner. He warns that this particular design is difficult to make workable with smaller one and two cylinder engines but perfect for large two (or more) cylinder engines.
He does some Youtube videos with what looks like large V twins turning the generator and says that you can expect to get anywhere from four to eight hour runtimes depending on the engine size. More if you attach an added feed hopper.
I figure with two gasifiers plumbed into a single supply line I can keep the generator running long enough to charge a battery bank and run everything that will put a serious load on the generator each day (well, machine shop, welder etc). Not everything will need to run on a daily basis but itās nice to have the ability if needed.
I donāt know if it matters but the owners manual that comes with the genset is Kohler. Iāll be certain to ask the owner about the engine make but, couldnāt this be a Kohler engine? I noticed the stack coming through what appears to be a water jacket and it never occurred to me that it could be a marine engine.
Iāve owned two vehicles with Ford inline 300 engines and, to be honest, this engine looks to me to be about 2/3rds the size of a 300. But, I could be wrong. The engine on the genset looks to be even smaller than a 250 C.I. Ford engine in an old Falcon I owned and it was rated at around 155 HP. It will interesting to see what is powering it.
One of the things I liked about the Peterson design is a programmable throttle control you can add on that helps marry the gasifier to an engine where the power demands really swing up and down.
What about the conversion from natural gas to wood gas? Whatās involved going from natural to wood gas? I realize that Iāll be giving up some power but if I can maintain 75% of the rated output of the generator Iāll still be in tall cotton for everything I need.
Any threads you can recommend to spare your time would be appreciated. I hate asking questions that have already been answered or worse, Iām the 100th guy youāve answered the same question for. I do appreciate your help and advice!
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Hi DennyM,
Iāve had my eye on this unit for some time. I was hoping someone would
show us the ins and outs.
Pepe
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That will be hard to do.
Expect 50% or less.
The heating value of the gas is low and the engine will also loose power drawing on the gasifier.
The guys with more experience in this is ( like Matt he builds turn keys systems ) they will tell you what to expect.
Turn down ratio the difference between full load gas production and the minimum amount of gas the system can produce that still tar free.
Canāt help you there, but I understand your problemā¦
Kohler made water cooled 4 cylinder engines. (L600 - L645 http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/kohler/Kohler51.htm )
But they were old flat heads rated at less than half of what you got there.
The gold paint and style of writing on the decal leads me to think this is newer than 65 ( not blue ) and possibly as new as the 80s ( style of print )
Might be a GM engineā¦
Something rated in the 90-110 Hp range probably a small six.
Nope just read and ask.
I am an engine and generator guy and I donāt mind questions keep asking and I will try my best to help.
My specialty is the OLD stuff, your set was made at the tail end of the era I tend to take much interest in
There are others much better at advice concerning your gasifier unit
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Denny, I wonāt be much help here. Thanks for posting the pictures, worth a thousand words as they say. Yes, I was looking at your photo and noticed all the easy cylinder counting bits are on the back side! (I think I am seeing 6) That water-cooled exhaust does imply marine or some standby application with lots of cooling water and natural gas available, like an emergency storm-water pumping system. I donāt see a radiator either. That is a large machine to experiment with, you seem to be preparing for a large system. Like @Wallace and @SteveUnruh have said, Make sure you have the fuel supply to feed the hungry beastie! 
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I sympathize Tom. I have an old deep freeze outside, I donāt think itās using any power at all lately. I got a pack of bacon out of there some days ago, I think it was frozen to minus 35, very, very stiff. 
Nothing beats a good shop heating systemā¦
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Machinist want me to bring him in the kohler block and crank so he can take more measurements.
SO I stripped it all down in the cold.
found about 1/2 pint worth of ice in the bottom of the crank case and more rust inside than I expected.,
If there ever was any doubt this engine is KA-PUT well this is it.
And yet I got a Sisson choke and Repco ignitions, spares for the K90EP engine I have on my other little plant.
Guess I will take a pictureā¦
Makes it look like I am doing something productive when I post pictures.
I hope Wayneās got a good deal on bandwidth and storage because I post a lot of pictures and he never says anything.
Tell me if this is too much photos and I will cut it back friendā¦
In some senses the way they used to make engines makes more sense.
All the strength and rigidity of the casting is built around the business end of it and so there is less flex in the block.
The weakest point on these is the cylinder breaking off the cranks case in race application.
Looking at the other side you see where the stator plate ( made of cast aluminum like the base plate ) attach.
All of this makes for a more costly casting and fabrication.
But its a stronger engine, trade offā¦
Go back and look at the Honda now and compare.
The Honda is a great engine but its weakness is that gaping hole the side of the block.
The stress and flex in GX crank cases means they tend to loosen up the case bolts and then the crank case separates from the cylinder in race application.
Repco ignition, you don;t hear that name too often anymore I wonder if they are still in business?
No matter, the interesting thing here is the points are not under the flywheel on the K series engines so its easy to tinker with your timing on them.
Enough snow already.
Your not going to see too many engine with a base plate anymore.
The casting methods and fabrication have changed.
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Wallace ,
I like pictures
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Wow! I wondered when I found this site if it was you and after a quick trip to Youtube I confirmed it. Youāre the guy who got me interested in wood gas seven or so years ago. My ex showed me a video of one of your trucks and it blossomed from there. Youāre the man!
I got sidetracked with steam engines for awhile but, after exploring steam Iāve come to realize too much of the older technology was shelved for ānew and improvedā stuff that depends entirely on modern technology. The old steam engines and wood gasifiers should have been perfected not shelved. I suspect that tossing steam and wood gas into the trash bin of history was no mistake. Canāt have people to independent can we?
Itās more than a little sickening to see how weāve been steered away from the attributes that made this nation great in the first place. Now itās high school graduates that canāt read, women that want to be men and men that let it all go to hell without so much as a whimper. When the good Lord takes us to the woodshed it aināt gonna be pretty.
Very pleased to have crossed paths with you Mr. Keith.
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Denny ,
Thanks for all the kind words and welcome to the DOW.
Yes I have a lot of youtube videos but still have trouble getting tongue tied while trying to make them .
What part of the country are you ? I may have driven through your town .
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Iāve got most of the parts rounded up and as soon as I get around to the assembly I may, if thereās interest, post some videos to Youtube of the process. The air inlets to the pyrolytic chamber have to be machined and I only had one set made hoping Iād have my Brigeport set up to do the inlets for the second unit. I havenāt made it that far yet so I may have to head for a machine shop to get those done.
Whatever I do Iāll be most happy to share what I experience. This design got me because of what Peterson did. He built and experimented with every design he could find and ended up with a design that took all the good and chucked the bad. If memory serves me right he built six or eight different designs to come up with his.
I think that he became a little dismayed that the world didnāt beat a path to his door when he began to sell plans. My opinion is that anyone, Ben Perterson or Wayne Keith, who has gotten a design to production stage is fighting an uphill battle because of the Youtube guys that cobble together a contraption to run a string trimmer engine. Peterson said in one of his videos that you never get to see the stuck valves and the mess that dirty gas makes. You only get to see the string trimmer or the lawn mower engine run but never the tear down to clean up the engine.
Anyone who takes a serious look at wood gas figures out very quickly that there are some nuances (like tar in dirty gas) that have to be taken into account. Itās kind of obvious that most, if not all, the backyard experimenters arenāt telling the whole story. Iām all for backyard experimenters but Iā'm also for full disclosure. I think that the parts of the story that are left out cause people to shy away from wood gas and thatās a shame.
A lot of what was learned about wood gas by the end of the second world war was lost because of a pivot back to cheap gasoline. Whatās been learned since then just doesnāt get the air time it needs to generate broad interest. Even though most of the design flaws of yesteryear have been, for the most part, worked out. Hard times drives innovation and I see a bright future for wood gas (all alternative energy sources really) in the near term.
Things are getting squirrelly in the world and more so here at home. The only hedge against an outbreak of stupid is self reliance. Itās just a shame that guys like Wayne and Ben had to reinvent the wheel because so much was lost. Better late than never.
Thanks for the encouragement and as soon as I have something of merit to contribute Iāll share what I learn.
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Thanks for the welcome. I live just outside of a wide spot in the road called White Mills in Kentucky. The nearest town of any size to help find White Mills on a map is Elizabethtown just south of Louisville. If youāve traveled I-65 through Kentucky you got to within nine miles of White mills when you passed the Sonora exit.
The only folks who make it to White Mills either have kin folks here or got as lost as a ball in tall weeds. I lived in Foley for a while and had I known about wood gas and you up the road in Springville Iād have been a thorn in your side (or worse). Thereās nothing like learning from a guy who walks the talk. I love your website and I appreciate that you provide a place for other innovators to mingle and share knowledge. Like I said, youāre the man.
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Your lucky when you have privacy in the modern age.
When there are too many people crowded in a small place people get grumpy.
But when you live in a quiet place a visitor is welcome.
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It looks like I have been fairly close a couple dozen times over the last ten years . I always enjoy seeing the big dinosaur a few miles south at Cave city .
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Iāve been playing catch up at your Youtube channel and I could see that youāve been by several times.
I do enjoy the privacy out here. Iām wired a little different than most in that I thrive in solitude. When I got out of the military years ago I made myself a promise that Iād never stand in another line or get bunched up in a herd. I havenāt made it entirely but, Iāve done pretty good considering.
The next time youāre passing through Iāll spring for some grub. Thereās a decent truck stop up the interstate north of the Sonora exit a couple of miles and if you hit it around lunch time the foodās not too bad. Give me a heads up and Iāll see if I canāt break loose to buy you lunch and shake your hand.
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People are like electrons, they take the path of least resistance. I doubt that there was a master plan to cover up wood gas or that one was needed. 
Solar-Fuels, onward !
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Iāve been at this woodgas thing seriously since 2000 when I got my first computer. Because I was one who sat in a line on odd or even days to get gas during the embargo, and had read the articles Mother Earth, so one of the first things I looked up on the āinner-netā was woodgas. There were only two articles on the 'net". I kept looking over the years and a fellow finally started āYahoo- woodgas groupā. The group was fumbling with figuring out the how-toās of woodgas. The information was never buried, but was all in foreign languages. When some Europeans joined the group and started digging through readily available info in Europe, that things started to take off. But it was hard. There was so much information to sift through with trial and error. Then Mr. Wayne showed up in a farmers magazine. He offered a tried and proven step by step instruction on how to build a gasifier. That was the big shot in the arm. People didnāt really want to read and study and trial an error construction, so they jumped to Mr. Wayne and Krisās book and DOW web sight.
My point is; the information was never lost or covered up. The US never got involved in woodgas for motor vehicles so there was no information. But Europe did much work and the information was there for people that spoke/read different languages. I believe it was Sweden that continued work on woodgas after the war to be in a better position if the situation came up again. I know I have said this all before, but people keep coming up with an the idea that there was a big coverup. The people have had gasoline since WWII, so there hasnāt been any interest to look back into history. The big jump in gas prices has caused this new interest and it is only share by a few. TomC
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Yes Jeff, and everyone after the war, there was a huge stock pile of fuel coming into the war torn counties. Cheap fuel, the people were glade to throw the gasifiers into the junk piles for a easier way to travel. And the oil lords were very happy they were doing it, just more money to go to them. But some of the wise people save them and hid them away and preserve them for us today, 70 years later. So that improvements could be made. I thank them all for doing this, and all of you for the improvements in the world of gasification for the future generations.
Bob
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