Thanks for the reply. I must purchase a vehicle for conversion, both because I have no truck at the moment (a man needs a truck right?) and because the wife will own my behind if I “mess” with her car or my Scion XB (she says the value is too high for me to be messing with them, and they only have little 1.4L engines) - What I heard her say was: “You have my blessing to purchase a truck!”
That said, I am following up on a possible 95 Dodge V10 4x4 here locally, she’s pretty beat up but that’s an ideal first truck (and winter beater, I’m in East Lansing, MI - rust belt central). $1500 is the right price too, wish me luck! If someone beats me to the Dodge, my backup vehicle is a 91 Chevy 3/4 ton ext cab 454 bb 4l80e automatic 4x4. I’ll have to go look at this one, not sure what has been done under the hood on this one. 7.4L of displacement is right behind the Dodge 8.0L and if I can find one from the 90’s models I know them inside and out. Guys in this area tend to hang onto their Fords until they are dead beyond repair, so not a lot of desirable Fords in this area (right now anyway).
Most of the chevy trucks from the 90’s have TBI (or carbs, depending on who you get one from and what they’ve done with/to it). I was searching the web and there aren’t a whole lot of features that you can program on the fly (such as timing) with the CPU’s in the pre-99 Chevy trucks (still researching that, could be wrong). The newer ones (99 and up) are wide open to everything you want (with say an Edge Power programmer) but not the 90’s models.
I was thinking that Wayne was using a cable to tweak the distributor on his ford work truck (hard to tell from his dual fuel switching video). It looks like a lawn mower throttle cable mounted on the steering column to move the distributor back and forth? The distributor-less or electronic systems have me a bit flubbed though. What is typically done with the GM “Pink Wire” or the Chrysler/Dodge (varied color) “IG bypass wire” ?
Also, a related concern is the reading I have done regarding the soot that has to be periodically cleaned or burned out of the intake manifold. - I know I want a vehicle with a metal intake or one that can easily be changed to metal, and It sounds like the multiport injection system offers much easier access to the intake than a carb system (for this task). This of course dictates the method required to handle timing advance.
My research is showing me that Wayne likes the 92-95 ish Dakotas for good reason! I do however need to be able to tow with my truck and tow more than the Dakota is suited for, so I’m leaning Dodge v10 (largely because Wayne has proved this works) or large Chevy (right in my comfort zone / knowledge base). I’m sure someone is going to ask, my towing requirements are not unrealistic. I have a flatbed auto transport ( 16’ ) that I haul everything (including cars) on, my max rated load (trailer included) is about 7500lbs. At the moment I’m borrowing trucks when I need to use it, and it’s getting old quick. Based on the information I have come across, a large displacement engine should be more than capable of hauling this size load on Woodgas, just not quite as fast as I would always like.
I just want to be sure I understand the timing issues and maintenance concerns (soot burn out) before I make my purchase. My intent is to have as much accurate information as possible before leaping into this with my wallet. I know there will be headaches along the way, but I’m hoping that due-diligence on the front end will reduce the overall frustration of the experience (yeah right).