JO's gasified 92 Volvo

Thanks JO. From nozzle to restriction, what do you have there?
You have a con that holds restriction, as before?
The grate is also 12 "?

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Nozzles to restriction is about 12".
The grate is only 6" wide, leaving about a 1" vertical by-pass gap.


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With a good welders glove try holding the rod like a pencil, not the stinger. This is used for tacking but can help to get a rod started.

6011 can be hard to start on inverter welders that do not have the start option. But was always easy to start on AC and those old tombstone welders.

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I’ll have to try the pencil method.

I have a little lunch-pail sized inverter welder. It starts easier than the harbor freight buzzbox I gave to my dad but I think the issue is the vanilla gorilla behind the welding mask. I need to get out of my flux wire hot glue gun comfort zone eventually.

I also have my dad’s old old old tombstone buzzbox. I need to re insulate the leads before I go using that though. 220 Volt big boy and the amperage is set by plugging the stinger into different sockets.

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Great self-analysis J.O.
S.U.

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It looks like you put a lot of thought into this build JO. After looking at your pictures, I have some questions.
Is that ash cleanout spout removable that goes out under the car?


If not, how did you get it through the hole in the trunk floor?
Do you insulate below the floor?
Do you still use those little battery mattress blowers? Where do you attach it to at start up?
Can you store enough bagged wood in the trunk space for your normal planned trips?
Where do you keep your poker rod?
A start up video would be nice when you get around to it :smiley:

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Thanks Don.
It was nice to hear that there are more than me who are curious.

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Nope. It’s welded and short enough that I’m able to tilt the entire unit and snake the spout into the hole in the spare tire compartment when lowering. If I remember I’ll take a pic when I get home from work.

The gasifier sits on a sheet of rockwool and rockwool around it as well.

Still using the 12V mattress blower. I attach it to the pvc before the gas enters tank and filter. Pic later.

I can still fit a few 25 mile bags in the trunk. Longer trips than 150 miles I may have to choose passengers or fuel :smile: The poker takes up very little space in the trunk.

These are startup pics from the other day. Video later.


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A simple rack storage with sides on top of the car to store your 100 miles plus fuel, and you will be styling with the car of the WW2 era, maybe even make a canvas top to keep wood dry.
Bob

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Roof rack or see if someone makes a square hitch adapter to bolt to the frame and then you could have a detachable cargo rack.

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Bob and Cody, all good suggestions.
I’ve given this some thought - lot’s of people around here keep their ski boxes on all year around. A ski box would keep the fuel dry, make the ugly cooler less visible and cover medium long trips. But I’ll put some miles on the Volvo and make sure it keeps running good before I make that investment.

And then pics for Don.

Ash cleanout under the rear bumper. Tips: Pineapple cans are made for a snug fit around 3" ss tubing :smile:

The air mattress pump replaces the red rubber compression plug at lightup. I just turn the pump around for reverse mode.

Welded a 4th outlet on the gas-mixing-T today. There was just enough room for a tennisball puffer valve pointing down. Springs on the outside.

Edit: Btw, I found all four halfs of the plastic butterflies in the slingshot department :+1:

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Wow, better there than in the intake or by a valve intake. Any further down could mean damage to the engine.
This is a good thing to learn on the butterfly valves we make. My next on is a 3" throttle body valve off a 350 cu. in. Engine. Just by pass the servo motor by pulling one gear out. Lots off these types off throttle body valves in the junk yard.
Bob

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I went scrounging for a few of these today apparently I missed the memo that all junkyards in pierce country are closed on Sunday now :angry:

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JO,
Was your filter bucket originally a closed lid one?

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Steve, that’s right. It’s a closed type ink bucket from work. Two actually. I saved the upper tapered part on one bucket and on the cut off “lid” on the other one. Slip fit connection to 2" pvc with bicycle inner tubing.

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Is that Volvo front wheel drive? Multipoint fuel injection? 2 valves per cylinder? Fuel tank over back axle?
Do you plan to scrape the ashes out or vacuum when cold?
Sorry for all the questions but I like your work!
EDIT
Is this removable plate an access to the fuel pump in the gas tank so you do not have to drop the tank to replace it?

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Ni worries about questions. I’m happy to answer them.
The old Volvo is RWD, standard MPFI with electric airflow meter and oxygene sensor. Two valves per cylinder.
Downside is timing. It has a crank sensor only. I can jump a couple terminals on the computer to advance 3° and another 3° if I shift polarity on the crank sensor, but that’s all. I haven’t looked in to it properly yet. I get the feeling the motor bogs down a little on woodgas when pushing the pedal more than half. The computer probably retards the timing too much.
The plastic fuel tank sits in front of the rear axle on the driver’s side. The hatch in the trunk gives access to the tank inlet and the fuel guage sensor. Pump is mounted under the driver’s seat floor.
I plan to just partially scrape ashes out. I made a tool so that I can reach all the way under the heatexchanger. Only when flushing the heatex I may park in slope and let the most part flow out.

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I looooooovvvveeee older Volvos. It’s nice to know you can get fairly good performance for the old red block on wood gas. Hopefully, you can get it dialed and drive that thing forever on wood.

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So true. When I first started welding, I saw people on Youtube saying things like “If you’re using a stick welder, you don’t even have to clean the surface first. It can burn through anything.”

While that may be true to some extent, I have learned that regardless of what type of welding you are doing, the cleaner the surface for the weld and the ground clamp, the easier and cleaner the welds will go. Once I started cleaning the metal, my stick welds became infinitely better.

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I love them too. Free spinners, low rpm tourqe work horses. Impossible to kill. Very popular among young racing guys.
Only downside with woodgas is the crank sensor on all ordinary mpfi. I would have loved to try an early model with the Bosch K-jet injection. They still had dist timing and even higher compression, but they were mid 80s and not many left.

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