Great grate Jakob!
Same same. Shortly after burning the intake I have a hard time keeping the idle down. A little soot buildup is required to get back to normal.
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I wonder if a brass butterfly would hold up better?
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JO had brass butterflys in his rabbit truck. Woodgas ate one of them so half of it broke off and went through his engine.
Rindert
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The brass butterflyās in my throttle body looked brand new, the bores were heavily pitted with corrosion.
My ford mechanic son advised that the factory bores are coated and mfr reccomendation to not damage that protection.
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My guess is the VW had a cheap brass alloy. Also, the cooler was tiny on that setup. The tb was often wet inside. That motor was fed lotās of acidic water 
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Oh, I remember those days. When we got married Erika was still in her last 1/4 at Auburn. I was working at an independent shop in town ā¦paid by book time, which makes a young energetic guy work too hardā¦I would go in at 6:30 like everyone else, work all day until about 7pm. Go home for a little while for supper, etc, and go back to the shop at about 8:30pm ā2 am.
I didnāt help that I had my own 3 bay shop to work in. and the keys to the whole place. All the other techs worked in the big building. I had my own.
Probably my addiction to cigarettes and coffeeā¦and back then we still had amphetamines over the counterā¦And whole could leave out the endless gallons of Mountain Dewā¦and all the energy God gave a young guy.
After Erika graduated it got worse because she got a job at the hospital childrenās psych wardā¦at night. Then there was almost no reason for me to quit working at all. There were quite a few 40 hour shifts for me then. Fortunately for me I guess, 9/11 happened and we moved home to the woods where we belonged.
Wish I had done it differently nowā¦especially on these sore morningsā¦ But I did pay for a house in the city in less than a yearā¦was able to trade that for the farm a couple years laterā¦and never had to go into debt in my life.
Fortunately my love affair with the dirt track came and went while I was still a teenagerā¦before I had enough money for it to cost me too much.
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Good morning Jakob, I see you are awake out there at 4 AM. Ready to head east this morning? Weāre leaving out to deliver ice to Roanoke Walmart. Iād rather be with you. But then, who wouldnāt.?
Did you get everything put together yesterday? Did you make a test run after reinstalling the firetube? Or did you pull the firetube? Maybe you put the grate in from the bottom?
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Yes we are up about to get on the road. The truck is lit and loaded.
Sorry you have to deal with that, hopefully it wonāt be too much of a PITA.
We pulled out the tube and rebuilt the grate.
Took it on a test drive last night first run it was plugged second after a good grate shaking it loosened up and ran great.
We will see how it goes today. We are hoping to make it to Bill shillers Saturday evening but we will see how we roll.
Tune up we put: spark plugs, cap, rotor, starter, distributor which was broken, and a throttle body. This thing will actually idle again.
I can tell the difference between running on 6 and 8 cylinders.
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Jeez, itās like you know my life story. Caffeine nicotine and and work. Iv slowed it all down and take time for my wife and kids now and working on kicking the bad habits as we speak, still chew and smoke and still buy mtn dew by the case. Red bull in the morning and coffee throughout the day, and just recently became shop manager so now itās just me running the whole show maintaining the whole fleet across western Washington state
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Hey Jakob, quite the difference in scenery once you cross over Snoqualmie pass isnāt it from full of Life and green and evergreen trees and alders and all sorts of water almost into a barren desert but since youāre up early and moving keep an eye out for them mule deer they jump on i-90 like you wouldnāt believe seen many an accident on that highway with deer collisions
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Here is a update, we are about 60 miles from Spokan Washington now. I one more video.
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Yeah. A not uncommon Auto-Tech story Billy.
Me too. Except for the no cigarettesā; no-power drinks; actually no Mountain Dew working (my home beverage). Just lots and lots of coffee continuously in a thermal cup.
Flat Rate . . . . Book Rate. These were set on newly assembled vehicles. Average of three times done. So ābolt memoryā was a factor then. No rust. Not previously cross threaded, or missing fasteners. No age hardened brittle plastics then.
ONLY way a fellow could make-time was to hours in the day extend and buy/make time savings tools. Try and favor done-it-before repairs.
And if you could not make 8 hours a day chargeable then you got starved for assigned work. 110-130% producers were fed the more work. Short term 150% producers got fired sooner or later for come-backs. If candy-asses and shlock-workers, not management/ownership gotten rid of . . . then time for a reasonable fellow to start lining up a new shop to work at. That one is going down the tubes.
Diffnernt fellows used that make-money with Life Hours traded away blood-sweat-and- tears/pains, for different purposes.
One fellow to put his two daughters through very expensive Parochial schooling.
'Nother fellow at the Buick dealership got addicted to personally owning Audiās, and Mercedesās.
My team-lead at the Chrysler dealership got addicted to taking his wife for week long Alaska annual cruises.
Me? After married I weened of my weekend shooting habits (firearms - not needles); and hunting madnessās; and focused down on clearing the married into in-town house mortgage. Getting my traveling Nursie wife from old worn out vehicles to brand spanking new ones cash paid for. Bought me 7 years - ~175K miles of just fluid changes; easy brake jobs and one battery change out. She is really very reasonable vehicle expectations. Only dreams of a high line Lexus. Gets sticker shocked every time looking to buy.
Sorry to say this hot-rod fellows; and dedicated speed freaks:
You will never clear off a home mortgage to actual real ownership.
You will never own rural property.
Life just does not give the hours and personally energy to support $, $$,$$$'s habits and save back for ownerships of real propertiesā¦
I was nine years shaking my speed-demon-driving BEFORE I got Married and could then become a true home and property owner.
One year walking/bicycling/transit bussing. Iād become uninsurable.
Eight then years driving an old GovāMint GSA Chevy 2500 with hard rubber, 19.5 inch steel wheels that would kill me if driven hard aggressively. Ha! Was good practice for the new 1987 Suzuki Samurai I finally allowed myself, bought new. 14 years with that I-will-flat-spin-180ās&360ās IF you pavement push me.
So if I never OORah the hot-rod speed stuff youāall put up.
Understand. I can not. I must look away. Walk away.
Now woodgas smoke, tars and condensates, drool loving. I can do that.
Steve Unruh
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More solid Steve wisdom! I love this stuff!
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The first line there sounds pretty good. I highly recommend it. Dads come home and raise your children. Not to mention moms. I know not everyone thinks they can do itā¦maybe not everyone can. But I am a huge believer in it. For Thousands of years of human history it seemed to work ok.
Now weāve bought this idea that we have to go away from home and send our children off to other people who are away from their homes and families to be trained. We definitely get the best results when we raise them ourselves instead of hiring someone else to do it for usā¦But thatās all another big topicā¦
My advice is to quit the nicotine and other habits asap. I once added up what I would have now if I had put the money from my tobacco habit in a simple savings account through all those yearsā¦Not to mention what it would be if I had used it to buy Amazon stockā¦It is ridiculous how much it comes to. Not to mention the health effects, and probably the worst partā¦being a slave to a chemical.
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Iām blessed to have been born into property owning family. The way grandma split the property was smart too. Nobody owns specific plots of the land so they canāt piecemeal sell it to someone. Itās split into voting shares. Mom got the house so itāll go to my sister and I when she passes, and Iāll have a 1/10th claim on the 40 acres. One of my uncleās is going to will his land rights to me since all of his children own homes or live across the United States in Spokane WA. Other family members have no interest in the old farm. If I ever find a good paying job Iāll buy their shares off of them or just keep them on my page. Iāll die before I let my personal Eden go to someone whoāll just bulldoze the woods and build a Dollar General or eyesore McMansion on.
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You make me think of the episode of The Waltonās when John Boy sold his 5 acres that he inherited to some mining company in order to buy his printing press or something.
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My current 44 year marriage excluded, the only things in this life I never regretted were those rainy days and spending outrageous amounts of money to weedle tenths of seconds from my ETs.
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We made it to Bozeman Montana today.
I ran really well for all but the last 100 miles of the trip when it started getting running hot. I ran a lot of soft small poplar through this morning and i over filled my drop box I think with a cleanout it will get back to running right. this was a close as we could get for the pics.
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Heading for the Rocky Mountains.
There are two passes to go over just to get into the State of Montana, we will see how the WK Gasifier does.
https://youtu.be/rHVXZ5c1yUI
Bob
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