Success today! Fixed all the leaks I could remember, lit it up, waited until I could get a good flare and went down the road. I drove a couple loops on my relatively flat 8 mile courser where I am no more than 4 miles from the house in case something went wrong and I needed to walk home. It was a little balky until my grate thermocouple read above 650F, then it started picking up speed on woodgas, when grate temps were above 900F I could cruise at 60 mph on the flat, 55 mph on the uphill. It idled well on my turnaround spots and picked up speed well back on the road. Even made the steep hill just before the driveway with no problem.Grate temps at cruising speed were 1050F - 1150F. Temp at the rail when I checked was 475F. Vacuum while cruising was 5" - 10" at the engine, 2" - 7" at the radiator. I did use the timing advance.
Next step will be to fix more leaks that became evident at shutdown and do an interstate cruise to Syracuse or Cortland and back. Maybe then a visit to Paul’s place in Martville.
That sounds very successful. Those little leaks are a bugger, and shut down is a good time to look for smoke where it ought not to be! Congratulations.
Thanks Tom and Carl. Herb, I did lean back in the comfy seat but I was listening for odd noises so didn’t have the stereo on. Next time, maybe. Unfortunately there is no longer any functioning climate control other than putting the windows up and down. As it is hot outside I had the windows down. Thanks for the support,
I had hoped that no reports were a good thing . hard to type and drive time to start processing more wood if you make it this way with all the dry weather ive been a cutting fool I can spare a few bags to get you home . hope to see you out and about congrats.
Thanks, Paul. I’ll have to get back in the fuel making mode soon myself. I anticipate making an intermediate distance, maybe Syracuse, to work any other bugs out before venturing as far as Martville, which I’ll try maybe by next month.
Had an interesting trip today with the Caddy. First, some operator error. I was wondering why it was taking so long to come up to temp with the blowers after lighting when I finally remembered to take the tennis ball out of the air intake. Picked up a couple of friends on the way to Highland Forest 18 miles away, got up to about 600F at the grate, switched over to wood and it ran great, temp at the grate stabilized at 850F - 900F. Made the turn up the hill to the Forest and it went up the approx 1 mile hill gaining 500 feet or so of elevation with no problem until at the end where it acted like there was a blockage somewhere, vacuum at the engine was 20", vacuum at the radiator rail was 2", grate temp still 800F - 900F. Lost power and eventually stalled, we coasted into the parking lot. After an enjoyable hike with refreshments later we drove back down the hill on gasoline, reestablished the gasifier temps and for a couple of miles ran well under wood until it acted like a blockage was present again and I switched back to gasoline.
Then a heater hose T broke and I coasted into my buddy’s driveway with a cloud of steam billowing from under the hood. Found that a 1/2" copper T worked OK instead of the OEM plastic T, refilled with coolant (I owe my buddy a gallon of antifreeze along with a copper T) and went home. This week I hope to figure out what the blockage is and hopefully correct it. During his earlier visit Paul had showed me photos of how his firetube cooling fins warped, shutoff the incoming air and collapsed his firetube on an earlier version of his gasifier. He also said that this has happened to others. Here’s fingers crossed that this didn’t happen to mine today.
I don’t think its a one time thing that causes that problem something else probably got warm and collapsed . do you have any rubber under the car maybe.
Wayne, I agree, that’s why I think I developed a blockage somewhere. I don’t think it’s the filter as it’s relatively large and I only have less than 100 miles on it. Paul, I hope that you are right, I will investigate further probably later this week.
On the plus side, it sounds like your blockage is on the down steam side of the rails. If your fire-tube was what collapsed, you should see roughly the same vacuum across the system: e.g. engine=20", rails=20", and hopper=20".
And don’t forget, the engine is pulling on the hay filter, back tank, rails, heat exchanger, cross over pipe and char bed. Any one of these can get restricted.
Thanks, Brian and Carl. Took a cursory look at the system this afternoon, nothing obvious. Shutoff the line to the filter, turned on the blowers like on start up, got a good draft out of the blower stack, plenty of air flowing in the input so no big blockage through the radiator anyway. Then opened the 3" line to the filter, the flow seemed more so the filter seems OK. Will investigate more later. I’ll have to get the car up in the air some so I can check the plumbing underneath carefully.
Today I looked more carefully under the Caddy and found one obvious problem. One of my 2" heavy duty pool hose lines runs underneath the Caddy about 10" from the catalytic converter. The portion of it adjacent to the converter was melted, burned looking and collapsed. I started replacing it but was chased inside by rain. Later I will hopefully finish and I will add an aluminum heat shield to prevent it from overheating again. I guess what happened is that during last Sunday’s hill climb the engine was at high rpms and WOT so the converter must have gotten very hot and melted the line.
However, there was another 2" line on the other side of the collapsed line and it did not collapse, so why did it act like it was almost completely plugged? That line must have some obstruction as well but I don’t see where yet. Oh well, one thing at a time I guess, I’ll do another run after I fix the obviously collapsed line and maybe I’ll get some more clues.
On my trucks I usually have two wood gas lines running to the motor with shut off valves . I can close one valve at a time and read the vacuum gauges and see if there are any difference ( restriction ) in ether line .
I don’t know how much moisture you’re dealing with, but I’ve heard of people having water condensing out past the cooling rails and in the gas pipes to the engine. Look for pooling in the low spots that might act as a partial blockage.
I had a little bit of water in the low spot of one line, maybe a tablespoon or two, and none in the other. I replaced the collapsed line and put some aluminum flashing over the section closest to the catalytic converter (easier said than done, I hate working on my back with my nose almost hitting the pipes, I’mm going back to a truck for my next wood burning vehicle).
Also discovered that I’m slipping way too much char, looks like 5 gallons for my 30 mile trip. I would post a picture but something is wrong with my phone to computer connection, I’ll have to wait for my son to fix it when he visits next week. I noticed the excess char before, too, but was hoping it was from the initial filling of the firetube process.
Above are photos showing how the grate hangs below the firetube and the size of the holes in the grate. I am not sure if my grate holes are too big and/or it is hanging too far from the fire tube. It looks like from the picture that it is hanging 2" or so from the firetube, maybe a little more than Wayne recommended. It also looks like I might have gotten carried away with some of the holes. Looking at the slipped char, about half the pieces are 3/4" - 1" in diameter and maybe up to 1-1/2" long, with the rest being smaller. Very little ash is visible. I’m thinking that the bigger chunks are spilling over the side of the grate, the rest could also be spilling over the side but might also be going through the holes.
I guess I could first try reaching up through the ash dump and raise the grate somewhat by inserting bigger bolts through the ends of the chains. If it still slips too much char maybe I could put some stainless mesh or expanded metal on top of the grate and see if that improves things. Any suggestions appreciated,
