JO´s 8" gasifier

[JO_Olsson]

That’s what I like about the Mazda. It has a real frame. Much easier to repair. Not that it’s needed now but the day will come eventually.

[taitgarry00]

And the other good thing about the Mazda trucks of that age is that they used galvanized metal for the cabs, makes a huge difference. Too bad that wasn’t made a requirement for all manufacturers.

The VW trucks aren’t built on a frame?

[JO_Olsson]

The VW trucks aren’t built on a frame?

No, these small ones are built like a car and so are even newer small VW, Scoda, Fiat, Opel pickups.

[taitgarry00]

I didn’t know that they built them unibody. Fortunately the Suzuki 1990’s vehicles were built on a frame.

[pepe2000]

A month or so ago Toyota sent me a form to have my 2009 Tacoma’s frame inspected. It failed and they are going to replace it FOC!
Last week they sent me an invite to have my drive train inspected if I had noises. Just recently when I approach 60 mph and above I get (what I think) is a driveshaft noise (universal joints I think). When I let up on the gas the noise subsides and starts again when I resume with the gas pedal.
What do you think, Steve?

It’s official, Toyota will replace my frame, FOC, march 6, 2018. They’ll have it 4 days, I’ll have a loaner.

[Jeff]

Good choice. It would be much worse to loose that nice garage!

[taitgarry00]

That will be a matter of body integrity / structural integrity then? Is that even repairable, unless done by a certified garage or welder?

Actually, all the Japanese trucks were built on frames, maybe still are.

[JO_Olsson]

That will be a matter of body integrity / structural integrity then? Is that even repairable, unless done by a certified garage or welder?

Rust in places important for structural strength is the only reason for a “rust remark”. Funny enough inspectors don’t care much about the quality of the repair as long as it’s welded. I once tried rivits and a lot of coating. Not very popular
If my vehicle had a real frame, a rusted doorstep wouldn’t be a reason for a remark at all.

[MikeR]

J.O. Your inspectors got a lot of nerve taking a hammer to your VW pickup!
I guess they have your safety in mind, but like @TomC said, they could fail almost every vehicle on the road here. I guess fiberglass is out, you will have to weld on new metal like @taitgarry00 . Do you think they are more picky with a uni-body like the rabbit? (and most every other car made these days)?

[taitgarry00]

Do you think they are more picky with a uni-body like the rabbit? (and most every other car made these days)?

Here you can’t transfer registration of a vehicle with rust holes in it. Some things you can get away repairing with Bondo. And if police took exception to your vehicle, it could be called in for an integrity inspection, fail that and it’s off the road. And any serious structural work has to be done professionally, or better look like new if you do it undercover.

[gasman]

Hi, Kristijan!
30.1.2018

Don’t put bad ideas to germinate! Hope for the best, that he can find new treshhold beams for both sides! Better that he renews both sides when being at it! That is more in line with wishing long life for the “dear” Rabit!

[JO_Olsson]

Do you think they are more picky with a uni-body like the rabbit?

Mike, I guess you could say that. The difference is, on a framed vehicle they will check mainly the frame for rust. On uni-bodies more or less the whole vehicle counts as structural.

[KristijanL]

Here is a nother one. Tell the inspector the holes in the floor are for your legs to help kicking the car down the road in case you get constipated make them scrach their head

[JO_Olsson]

Guess what´s wrong.

Leaving home for work today everything was normal. Good power, 4:1 vacuum ratio and a normal 300F outof the cyclone after a couple of miles.
Suddenly I lost power and my first instinct was to richen the mixture, but power was still almost zero. After looking at the guages I discovered the vacuum ratio was down to 2:1 or maybe even a bit worse. I leaned the mixture out but couldn´t find power anywhere. A quick glance at the temp guage showed the cyclone temp had suddenly increased to 650 F (higher than I´ve ever seen). By now I was almost almost out of momentum and close to a standstill. I shut the valves and flipped the gasoline switch. At the next exit I stopped to get out of the car and take a look.
So, what had happened?
Clue: The hopper got a good cleanout the other day and I´ve driven about 50 miles since then, without any maintenance.

[Bobmac]

Hi JO, did the hopper drain connection to your water/tar container come loose, and started to leak air into the Hopper?
Or you had a loose connection from the hopper to your cyclone filter, letting air in a causing the hot gas to turn your clycone into a furnace to heat it up.
Bob

[Wayne]

Hello JO

When something goes wrong with my gasifier it is usually operator error

If you had reported that the hopper temp also shot up I would think you had run out of wood.

If the post gasifier temps went high, the air flow resistance at the char bed fell and the hopper temp stayed normal I would think you had a fuel bridging problem or after you clean out the gasifier you didn’t add back enough char .

If your condensate happen to flow over into the fire tube it could also make the temps jump high from the steam and loosen the char bed. .

[Bobmac]

I didn’t think of the possible over flow of water into the hopper causing steam and loosening the char bed. VERY INTERESTING. I was thinking he had weak gas and heat in the cyclone area being air/gas mixing and burning.
Bob

[TomC]

I’m not very good at this game, but I’ll take a kick at the cat. ( if I did win the cigar, I don’t smoke soo) You “re-mentioned” that you had cleaned the hopper 50 miles before. From that I think you are hinting that the problem was in and/or around the hopper… The theory about loosing the char bed doesn’t sound right or the vacuum in the hopper would have gone up. The time element doesn’t help my theory, but I am going with the simplest theory---- ash lid on the cyclone came loose causing an air leak.TomC

[Bobmac]

Okay I got one more JO, you said you cleaned the hopper and drove 50 miles and no maintenance. I see in your pictures above you did not disconnect you cyclone from the gasifier.
So developing a leak there is not to likely. One more, Did you dump your ash out of the cyclone and did not get the ash dump lid sealed correctly?
Bob

[JO_Olsson]

If your condensate happen to flow over into the fire tube it could also make the temps jump high from the steam and loosen the char bed

did the hopper drain connection to your water/tar container come loose

Yup, this is what happened.
After cleaning crust/tar from the hopper’s lower regions circulation improved a lot. I now collect about 2-3 times the amount of condensation.
I was in a hurry and in the back of my mind I felt like I could go at least one more trip to work and back before emtying the condensation can. I didn’t even check (operator error).
But the can was probably about full when I left, and by the time things started to thaw and also putting some vacuum on the system the plastic can was squeezed enough to overflow the gutter. The amount of steam down the charbed was enough to cool the char below gas making temps.
Also the can was so heavy the connection to the hopper drain let go at some point in the process.

So, I guess Wayne won the gold medal here. Silver to Bob with a partially right answer and @TomC as the lucky looser with a bronze medal without being close to the truth