Leitinger wood gasifier

Wayne, thats not fair :angry:
ItĀ“s 4.30 am. Still at work. -17 C outside. An hour to go. I hope the starter will turn. Even if I wanted windows down, itĀ“s not possible. They are frozen shut.
YouĀ“re a lucky guy :wink:

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Hi guys,

I have read here somewhere on this site woodgas has been observed to increase cylinder compression on a engine.
So, let me throw in my observations.
When l dismounted the wood gas system off the car for the inspection, l went on a drive to ā€œclean the valvesā€ as we like to say. Pedal to the metal, something l rarely do. I was amazed by the torque and power it produced, but l thod to my self this is just a ilusion from being used to DOW for the last few months. Well, after a few days, the extra power is gone and the car drives like before the woodgas conversion.

So, whats goeing on? Is it possible woodgas does something to the engine to make it better?
A more likely and logical explanation that crosses my mind is the OBDII changed some settings to give better performance, and is now back to normal, but l think its a interasting topic to discuss.

Any ideas or experiances?

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Hello Kristijan.

When I first started with wood gas I didnā€™t know how the woodgas would effect the motor. I thought if any soot got to the cylinders it would wear them. I decided to keep a close watch on the compression of the old junker I had gasified. I recorded the compression of each cylinder and ran the truck a few hours and check the compression again . I saw no change with the compression so I ran a day then check , a week and checked and there after about once a month for a year. I discovered no drop in compression and may have seen a little increase ( I canā€™t remember right now , may be in some of my old post )

I think my trucks run just as good now as when first gasified but I canā€™t say they run better .

Although avoiding buying several thousand gallons of gasoline makes ME feel a lot better :grinning:

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Hi Kristijan,

Objective observation and subjective feeling :wink:

Objective: you removed some weight and maybe the OBD had a Long Time fuel Trim adjustedā€¦

Subjective: You have been driving on woodgas long timeā€¦( more relax) now the gasoline kicks in :grin:
Wait until you drive on woodgas full time againā€¦ the opposite feeling will comeā€¦ ( until youā€™r happy again for less stopping at the gas station)

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Koen,

I buy that fuel trim theory. Refueled today, and calculated the fuel consumption. Before the DOW conversion it was 8.5l/100km, now it was about 10l/100 km. I only drove more agrresively for about 10km and the rest was just calm drive to work so something had to mess up my consumption.
Wayne, avoiding ti buy a couple of thousant galons of gas is a great smile maker indeed :wink:
Well, a ciuple of night-afternoon shift combos and the woodgas will kick in l hope :slight_smile: sure is a sad sad feeling to see that fuelguage go down and downā€¦

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I have arranged with my friend for me to drive at his workshop tomorow, we will lift a car and asemble the new gas suply pipe. This sayd, has anyone got a idea how to shape a 5/4" plastic PP water pipe for the new gas suply pipe? Its a thick wall semi hard type. I have to make at least 2 90Ā° bends and have no place for thick fittings so it will have to be in one peace.
I was thinking to heat it with a torch to soften and try to bend without pinching. Any better ideas?

try this.

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Usually you use a spring when bending electrical pipes cold but it may be hard finding a spring in the right dimension. I think I would try sand and torch/heat gun.

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For PVC conduit you just have to gently heat it over a large enough area past itā€™s critical temperature and it will bend evenly.

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Ok thanks guys good ideas!

The sand idea looks prommising, l just hope none will stick in the soft plastic to get sucked in the engine laterā€¦

JO, l feel bad about my self right now. l was at a company that produce springs of any desired specs a few days back, needed a special spring for our manure sifter, and didnt remember about this trick then :unamused:

Wow, have a 2" spring made. Iā€™m sure you will get use from it later on.

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On the road again! Wood power finalyā€¦

Installed the new gas hose, gas mixer, and reinforced the litle legs that hold the alubox on the towbar a bit. And!
I put out the grate from the firetube. Thats right, no grate at all anymore. This means full reduction volume, and no chance of sliping char.

It was not fun standing on -10c all day, holding freezing tools, but when l went for a test drive it was all worth it.
Hadnt had so much fun in a long time.

I heated the gasifier with the new fan (12v vacuum cleaner) and started the engine with no problems.
With the help of my OBDII scaner l set the a/f ratio to stechiometric (important to say-with gasoline hose off the injectors!) and played a bit with it.
The most important observation is as soon as l plugged back the gasoline hose (with fuelpump off) the a/f ratio jumped and rpm fall. This shows gasoline does indeed get sucked a considerable amount eaven if not in idle.
The drive was a joy. I didnt had to touch the gasmixer command one time, good from idle to full power.
The gas seems cooler and dryer. No condensate after about 10 miles. This comfirms makeing the reduction larger was a good thing.

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Are you now letting the char go through the restricttion and fall into the ash ben? Does the reduction wall go from the restriction to the ash pit to contain the char? About your fuel supply. You said the idle changed when you plugged the fuel line back in. If you can plug and unplug the fuel line , canā€™t you put a valve in? TomC

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I have cut a strip of perfurated ss of a old washing machine drum about 3" weide and 30" long, connected the two ends to make a ring and lowered in to the firetube. This is now my grate. This way the char goes all the way down to the ashpit that the firetube covers, the rest of the ashpit still serves its function. The change is that rather thain gas being drown down trugh the grate, its now goeing trugh the side of the firetube.
Time will say how this works out in term of ash buildup.

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Kristijan, this is interesting. So you are actually going back to almost old Imbert style with a huge pile of char at the bottom? If you get the time, could you draw a quick scetch of how your washing machine part is installed? IĀ“m glad you finally found out the truth about your gasoline consumption. Any thoughts about what to do?

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Yes, in a way this resembles a lmbert a lot now.
Ill most likely empty it today or tomorow, will take pictures.

I have allso tryed to disconnect the injector fuse while running on wood, to see exactly what codes show up. Cyl 1,2,3,4, injector circuit low.
I am first planing to visit the LPG converting service like Koes sugested. If thats acceptible, l will go with that. If no, l will try to find a way to fool the computer somehow to not send current to the injectors while not showing codes. If that doesent work, a valve on the fuel suply line.

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I always like to see otherā€™s designs. Never know when they might spark another idea for efficiency.

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I have emptied the firetube today, the looks were as expected. Ash plugging big time on the small holes.
I think this holds a lot of promise but w sort of a scraper wuld have to be built to scrape the ash built up up on the holes.
In this weather l have no pleasure in experimenting outside.

Ps allso its worth mentioning l drove for about 250km with good performance, so althilugh ashplugging does happen, its not happening imediatly.

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250km of good prefomance? Could the ash build to point then be pulled threw the screen when restriction gets strong enough?

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No. The ash is in form of a brittle slag, you can see it in the video when l crush a litle bit by hand. It cant realy pass trugh the holes.
This happens with the normal grate too. The difference is the old horizontal grate l can easyaly reach with a poking rod at refills, breaking those clumps of ash, the new grate l do not reach. This us where a grate sctaper kicks in. The point is realy just to break the clumps apart, gas stream does the rest.

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