Hi, JO!
12.2.2016
Confirming. Stroboscope timing is always read on the flywheel or on a front-end crankshaft pulley.
Max
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Thanks Max. I just got confused wether those marks where to represent cam or crank degrees. Iâve always just read them and never thought about what they actually mean.
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So the project Seat Arosa 1.0 is near its completion! I will let pictures do the talking:
the cyclone and radiator
cyclone and filter positioned in the spare tyre compartment
the generator (still thinking how to name it
the connections
the sack type filter
All thats missing now is a generator ignition system (the spark plug on pic no 5) and the engine tyming control. Hope you like it 
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Hi Kristijan,
Please do remember to protect yourself.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acarbon%20monoxide%20detector
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Kristijan,
This so much fun watching your progress. I wish we were neighbors. Please explain your generator ignition system. Do you plan to squirt gasoline into your air inlet and ignite with the spark plug?
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What particle size does your sack filter catch? Is this your only filter? I know you are using charcoal, but I recommend filling the pipe with stainless steel scouring pads to serve as coalescers of any tars that may be suspended in the gas stream. You may also want to add a safety filter of about 200 or 250 mesh that will clog and stop the engine instead of gumming up internal parts requiring a tear down.
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Hello, Kristijan!
If you give the production year and model of your Seat, I can check through the sparepart list for ignition parts at the MOTONET and BILTEMA sparepart store chains in FinlandâŚ
The question at hand: Is the timing âswitchâ in the distributor, or is it connected to the camshaft?
If it is in the distributor, then the turning of the distributor âbodyâ gives change in fundamental timing setting.
If it is attatched to the camshaft (end) the âswitchâ has to be turned relative to the camshaftâŚ
Letâs see what can be foundâŚ
Max
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GREAT!!! Kristijan I canât really say how impressed I am with your build. First off I like the little car as I have said before. Very impressed that you did this and did not give up any seating. Man!!! Then the charcoal gasifier itâs self It is SO full of basic new engineering, that had you told us all of your plans at the beginning, I for on and I am sure others, would have said you are taking on too many unproven methods. The danger being if any one idea doesnât work the entire thing can be a failure. Any way, you have had limited tests and most everything is good so all I can do now is go back and observe and digest. First look at the pictures brought up many questions that required me to go all the way back to your first post and scroll back and forth. ( I think I wore out the middle wheel on my mouse). Absolutely a wonderful job and I am waiting for a video of a walk around and a go down the roadTomC
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On your cyclone/radiator how do you clean out the cyclone? Or did I miss something
Exactly 
all from the drivers seat.
The gas first goes through the cyclone filter, wich eliminates 96% of the dust. It then passes through the radiator and in to the sack filter, made out of towel fabric (called frutir here). It has a lot of litle âknotsâ that realy clean the gas well. It also has a big surface area so eaven with 2mm of very fine dust on the surface the engine runs well. The gas is now super clean (the gas hose doesent show a sign of dust) BUT in case of sack failioure or what ever the gas, mixed with air now goes through the original engine air filter, made of paper. I think nothing can escape that.
Seat Arosa 1.0 1998 any help is realy wellcome sir!
do you mean the âhandâ that rotates and distributes the spark? it is conected to camshaft.
There is a ball velve on the bottom of the dust colector. Open and poak with a wire and she dust siffs out.
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Hi, Kristijan!
13.2.2016
No, that âhandâ or âfingerâ is called rotor, just inside the distributorâs insulated (plastic) cap with the pegs for the sparkplug wires. It is distributing the HIGH-tension from the ignition coil to the appropriate sparkplug.
With âswitchâ I mean the low-tension 12V switching organ, like traditional braker-points!
It is now aâdays usually an optically or magnetically switching device, giving the timing for the spark to be generated by the ignition coil, either directly or via the computer.
If this âswitchâ is in the distributor, you will see one, two, three or four thin wires comming out of its
side and going to a transistorized power switch âactivatingâ the ignition coil.
They may go to a computer also, if this model is computerized for handling fuel dispensingâŚ
Thanks for the model year!
Max
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Does that one need a puffback lid or is this a test run,looks nice,you can allways tin a plexy window in behind drive seats if it suits you fancy later,looks close too driveing.
Hi, Kristijan!
13.2.2016
There are âimmenslyâ many types and different manufacturers to choose from; Bosch and Marelli, Hall-triggering devises, etcâŚ
But no complete distributors, just components.
As your photoes do not picture whole the distributor, it is hard to determine the type.
Hopefully you can make better pictures, where the signal wires from the distributor are followed up where they are going.
Is the motor an injection motor or carburettor type?
The distribution spare parts have type markings ending with an âiâ indicating injectionâŚ
My guess is it is a TBI = throttle body injection, or one-point injected fueled type.
If you have a workshop service book, all details would be identified easily.
One way to identify if the distributor has a centrifugal advance mechanism, is to check if you can rotate the distribution rotor some 10-15 degrees forward in the rotation direction.
Easy handling!
Only a two-finger grip and slowly feeling if you can overcome the small centifugal return-spring force, normally countering the weights when RPM is retarding.
Max
2 Likes
I never realy experianced a puff in any of my charcoal generators so l didnt bother to put a puff lid on it. In case of a big puff the lid helt down with a spring steel rod can still lift a few mm to relive the presure.
Max there are some thin wires goeing to the distributor cap. In side it looks like this
the rotor
the distributor with connections. You can see the sloted screw holes. The black box is where the thin wires come in.
Each cylinder has its own fuel injector.
There is alsow a thin pipe that conects from the original air filter houseing to the stering wheel mechanism and i do not have any idea of what those are. Maybe the engine read vacuum from them?
Just how does the computer correct the timeing? I mean when the piston comes close to the top the rotor in the distributor comes close to the pin and it sets a spark to the spark plug but it is all fixed in there. The computer shuld fisicaly move the part holding the pins right? Since it can not move the rotor wich is fiked to the camshaftâŚ
The computer calculates when to release the high voltage from coil to dist. It wants to know for example coolant temp, throttle position, air flow, rpm but most importantly crank position. It seems that info comes from the switch in your dist. And thats where you are lucky. My old -88 Volvo mpfi has only crank position sensor on the flywheel. When I turn my dist nothing happens. Dist only distributes the spark, nothing else.
Iâm very impressed by your compact build. Looking forward to see more. But as mentioned before: CO-detector!!! Always run your inlet vent fan and see to that rear outlet vents are free.
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Kristijan,
Something was bothering me so I just reread the whole string and found the troubling part, âNo problem with freazing water.â Since you are no longer using steam are you no longer using water to cool your tuyeres? If so, how does the copper avoid catastrophic oxidation?
I have used a 7 mm thick walled copper tuyere successfully because the highly conductive thick copper carries heat away from the reaction zone to outside the reactor. Just a green patina on the nozzle, no deep corrosion. I have also seen 3 mm thick copper tubing corrode quickly in one of Garyâs reactors without EGR. I came across some research claiming 1/20 the oxidation rate for copper that was nickel plated so I plan on nickel plating thick walled copper for my next tuyere.
Some times the basic questions are the hardest to explain. We âacceptâ something as working but donât ask the basic question how. I am with Kristigan on this one. The only moving part we have in a computer controlled distributor is the rotor. The distributor and cap are fixed at a certain potion when we do an initial timing. Now the spark comes from the coil into a distributor and into the top of the rotor. As the rotor comes past the pin in the cap the spark goes into the pin and out of the cap into a spark plug wire that arks in the cylinder and ignites the fuel. In the âoldâ distributors we had a plate that could be moved by either centrifugal weights or vacuum.to change the timing.
Now in the computer controlled distributor, I only see one way of adjusting the timing in a running engine. We have no points so the build up and break down of the coil is controlled by the computer. As previously stated the spark goes from the coil to the rotor and then to the pin. Ideally the pin and rotor are lined up directly, but if the computer activated the ccil a few milly seconds soon the rotor and pin would not be in the ultimate place but close enough that the spark could ark to the pin.
Am I understanding this or is my impression correct???TomC
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The damn light bulb on my head just went on! The rotor has this long metal part seen on the right on the uper picture that alows the computer to have time to decide when to set a spark becouse it takes some time for the metal part to pass by the pin in the destributor. Is the light bulb on my head glowing right?
There is alsow one thing l have noticed here. The car sometimes does NOT have max power on full throtle but a bit sooner. My guess is that the changed vacuum when driveing on chargas and maybe something else messes with the timeing. Is there a way to overryde the computer completly?
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Kristijan, scroll up and youâll find this suggested by Bruce.
And Tom, Iâm far from expert in this field, but your explanation seems fine to me.
Christian, I think I can see your bulb glowing from here 
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I did see that suggestion but l was thinking more like unhooking some cables rather thain buying an expensive tool 
[quote=âbsoutherland, post:96, topic:2181â]
Something was bothering me so I just reread the whole string and found the troubling part, âNo problem with freazing water.â Since you are no longer using steam are you no longer using water to cool your tuyeres? If so, how does the copper avoid catastrophic oxidation?
[/quote]
The reactor was rearanged and it now has 4 nozzles made out of one heavy steal pipe with more thain 1cm thich walls so it has so much mass that can not heat to the point of oxidizeing