Wood Gas Chainsaw

I kind of like the air pump…

Jeff

would be fun for a concept show.

I agree I like the bellows.
I was actually thinking about doing the same for a project of my own.

But chainsaw on wood gas is a foolish idea.
The piston will outrun the flame front in the combustion chamber.

A saw must turn very high rpm to make any power and that does not work with lazy burning wood.

Also you would need an air oiler of some kind and I have no idea how to rig that on such a tiny engine.

I didn’t realize 2-strokes worked with woodgas. Could you get away with like an evaporation pan for the oil, like between the gasifier and the engine?

Now I just wonder who is going to be the first gasify one of those hovercrafts made from leafblowers to bring to Argos.

I suggested i’ts a bad idea.
The video also says and shows it does not work very well at all.

The only 2 stroke I am aware of that does run on woodgas reliably was the old Lanz Bulldog
( A giant 2 stroke semi diesel )

Listen…
Its not actualy a great running engine at that unless its loaded and at the right rpm…

Koen Van Looken is running small two stroke engines:

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Ouch… That is that last time that chainsaw is going to run…

That was an extremely tarry looking flare, by my eye, and it wasn’t even self-sustaining. Also, note that his system was so leaky that the engine was running (barely) with the air side fully closed, and died as soon as he cracked the air valve.

Granted, the guy has run (and destroyed) a lot more engines on woodgas than I have, but I’m not trying to teach people how to trash good engines either. :confused:

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Koen’s runs the best. :slight_smile: Are you dripping oil in?

I don’t think Mr. Teslonian had a very good reactor. He usually only has good enough equipment to demonstrate the principle so I am not that surprised. :slight_smile: He would have much better results with charcoal like Koen, or even a better reactor design, I would add a comment but I don’t feel like dealing with the youtube login stuff. :smile:

I have a 2-stroke rototiller that would be a prime candidate since the gas ate through the tank somehow.

I ran a 2 cycle glow plug model airplane engine on woodgas or maybe it was corn gas. The glow plugs didn’t seem to work after the first run.

Mother Earth had an article about a corn cob gasifier generator. You could not see the engine very well but it kind of looked like a 2 cycle Detroit Diesel. But I kind of doubt it…

Jeff

Its a question of speed of combustion.
The piston moves down faster than the flame speed.
This means fuel will still be burning at the bottom of the power stroke.
This leads a major loss of power once you hit the magic RPM.

3600 rpm is fast for wood gas.
If you have a short stroke ( very small engine ) you might get higher rpm.
But once the engines are large enough your RPM to maximum power extracted start to drop.
This also happens in liquid fuels ( much higher rpms ).

A chainsaw trying to turn 7000 rpm where it makes its power will be challenged just to turn that fast.
A 3600 rpm utility 2 stroke may do better.

A detroit would probably work well as long as you did not coke up the injectors or tar the turbo and super ( no intake valves to tar up so thats a plus! ).
The Military version used what was called an M pintle type injector and special multi fuel pistons that would make them an excellent engine to experiment with.

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Wallace, I have a 353T but I kind of thought unburned gas would shot out of the exhaust at the very end of the exhaust stroke. I loved putting that old cornbinder down the road with Mr Detroit under the hood… :grin:

Jeff

The screaming Jimmy was designed to turn diesel into noise and smoke lol.

What little you loose out the exhaust valves is probably not a big issue once loaded.
Remember efficient engines are loaded to their rated HP and RPM.
If you are outside the envelope you are just making noise and smoke.

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VERY SCARY!!! perhaps you should be wearing really good protective gear with this, lol

I always find it curious with his stuff that you don’t always see it running well… in this case even cutting some wood… Hmmmm

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I look at his postings as taking ideas and showing that they can or can not work. Now that you know it works he leaves it up to you tweak and perfect to a daily usable process. He is off to the next subject, not perfecting the process but on to the next theory and expanding possibilities.TomC

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He is a doer, unlike some… :hear_no_evil:

Jeff

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I guess my idea of it works and others idea of works are two different things… lol… most of his stuff, sorta works… and only sorta…

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Here’s my next saw:

My Next Saw

Now if I only had the time to give them a call. :yum:

Jeff

woodgas chainsaw

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