ray,
thanks for the food for thought! I’m on a small island in BC, canada. (its pretty flat and quiet around here). for me its a learning process. i don’t have high expectations of uber-performance. (i still have a stock gasoline bike for going fast!). i was hoping to avoid a side car and try to mount most of the gear as possible on low rear pannier racks.
Has gary gilmore posted any of his technical specs?
steve, you’re saying that the pulse of the single-cylinder actually has a useful function? i suppose the next step is to start sizing components…
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Hi Peter,
Yes, the pulsing “can be” used useful… if/for… but…
Its quite difficult to explain what it does or don’t do, but once you can imagine yourself the picture its easy to use / avoid
ok, i give it a try to explain:
your car consumes more fuel when it have to accelerate and stop frequently, compared with a steady speed.
imagine the flow of the gas… its only sucked in YOUR engine during the intake stroke… = 25% of the time on intake.
Now, that gasflow have to start at the beginning of that 25 % and slows down before the end of that 25%
Next is to imagine the inertia of that gasflow…
each time the intake valve closes, the gas continues its flow, bumps on its own pressure and bumps back to the gasifier…
Old 2 strokes do use a kind of solution to prevent the bump back, but use the inertia to fill a “flask” with that building pressure, releasing just in time when the 2 stroke “asks” again for the next filling…
If and if… the design of your gas mix intake , hose lenght, hose flexibility is well tuned… there is a huge amount of that puls energy used to “extra” fill your cylinder… hence more power available.
special for low rpm.
So, to recap, a multi cylinder engine gasifier has a steady stream of gas, a one cylinder engine will only take/have 1 quarter off the time to produce the amount of gas needed.
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missed to reply on this one…
as myself, using the basics of a Gilmore gasifier, i can advise you to some extend if you want to build a charcoal gasifier.
Your gas flow need will only be 5 to 6 liters per second, 3000 rpm @ WOT
This due to the filling grade of your single cylinder.
If you design for that flow, nozzle speed 25 m/s at 3000 RPM, then you’l have a reasonable idle gas quality with good gas quality around 3000 RPM and above
Now, what kind of a build would i do ? for this kind of bike …
a box , rectangle, on the luggage carier, bottom one side going into a pipe downwards, pipe being the reactor.
Reactor pipe 8" or 10", 24" long
The rectangle box having 2 or more compartiments, where as the compartiment above the reactor is the hopper, the second compartment is the filterhousing with startup fan.
If someone wants to see a sketch, i can make it, but later on.
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Gary’s basic Simple-fire plans are in the library of this forum under the topic of gasifier plans. Library / The Simple Fire | Drive On Wood!
Gary, Koen, and Kristian have many videos on charcoal gasifiers. It seems that Koen Van Looken has offered to assist you in the design of a small unit that will fit on the rear of your KLR-650. Yes, Yes! This is your key to getting it done right.
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Hi Peter,
converting a bike to charcoal has been done occasionally during the war.
Here are some examples:
Moto Gazogène Peugeot 1942 (Salon Retromobile 2009) (you can scroll between the pictures with clicking “Précédent” and “Suivant”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-XQgebbPEs
Hope you find it useful.
Best idea is to mount the gasifier on one side and the filter on the other to balance things out.
Good luck with your project!
Til
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Excellent 15+ picture set of this motorcycle charcoal system Mr Tilman. Very balanced low center of gravity layout.
One picture even shows well the system layout components flow graphic.
I tease here intentional. LOOK all of you “must have a cyclone” fellows: no cyclone used or needed.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Great pictures and very enlightning
Notice the long stroke from the 350CC 15 HP engine ( the P112 )
On the system layout you see a “water or Oil drip” ( thats what is marked on the photo) just before the intake. On the bike however its located just left below/behind the seat. ( I did find the valves for the engine so its not a 2 stroker. with 2 stroke oil ) Trying to find more detail on the pictures.
Nozzle pointing frontwards, , flanged type with nice cooling fin’s
Crossdraft system with grate shaker and cleanout on the backside.
Hot gas filter with steel wool
After the cooler a simple cloth filter in the box
Those old days… most important lesson? they teach us that it can be done…
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I was just talking with an investor the other day about adding an oil mister in to the gas. The reason, is from working the GM engineer that helped me on the V8 machines. He came from development of gaseous NG engines and said the valve seats will crack over time. They used the GM 5.7 HD vortec truck engine with the hardened seats to overcome this issue. Later on once I am manufactured developed I may add on oil mister like quads and snowmobiles have for this reason. This could be a way to recycle waste engine oil.
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Great idea for any waste oil… if injected in the hot gas stream to carburate the gas, as described in old style gasproducers, you’l get carburated gas…
Kinky dough for filtering, but it also cools down the gas to lower temperature…
Maybe hot filter, then oil mist and cyclone ?
Thinking of building a bike similar as the KLR 650 project… i have a not so old CRF250 … i have to ask my wife first 
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Just an idea, woodgas and straight ethanol both run best on higher compression and advanced timing. If it isn’t too late, you may want to check into a higher compression piston. I have no idea if one is available in that the KLR/PIG isn’t known as a performance bike. Yeah, I have one. They may not go fast but they do go forever!
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Tilman, thats a beauty. i really appreciate the builder keeping everything mounted low
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todd, a motorcycle mechanic was just recommending an aftermarket high compression piston for my rebuild so sounds like it might be a good idea…
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hey koen, thanks for the technical advice. i’ve been busy with work and haven’t had the headspace to engage for the past few days. ill look over your recs soon and probably have some questions!
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okay so i understand the simplefire (Charcoal) concept and design decently now. i definitely appreciate the simplicity. and…can anyone provide any links/info on what a straight wood system would look like on a bike? Has it been done recently? i’m curious how much more hardware it would add to the set-up.
one thing i’m surprised about with the simple fire is the use of foam filters and plastic pipes. intuitively i would have thought the gas would be hot enough to melt them!
The ascending gas from the gasifier gets cooled down with the descending fuel… all the process heat is used to preheat/cool down the fuel/gas
In my farmer setups, this plastic pipe also act as a passive , cheap, safety. if the temperature exceeds the melting point of the plastic, that will melt and glued together by the vacuum, shutting down the engine and gasifier.
Max damage = 10 cm plastic hose… no damage downstream…
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hello sir, i’ve finally got the free time to work on the gasifier. could we text-chat briefly about sizing components to get me off to a good start finding materials?
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@PeterBJanes Hi Peter, you can just continue this thread so you can keep all the information together on one thread. It is easier for all the members to follow your build this way.
To continue just hit the blue box Reply below.
I see that there is already some great information above.
Bob
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ok, yes that makes sense. koen has suggested an 8-10" wide and 24" long combustion chamber and xoie has suggested keeping all the piping the same or larger than the carb diameter. That’s a decent start. any other suggestions?
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Some of you may have seen this video on “My first small engine run” in the Small engine section. You can make several of these and add one as you remove one for cooling. You can do as many as can safely fit in the stove. I’ve only room for 2 or 3. NEVER leave these in the overnight operation of your stove!!! For those who haven’t seen it, here tis:
Thank you, America!
Pepe
Here’s some great info on gasification that new comers should watch. The answers are here from an expert.
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