I like that picture of your charco gasifier, that helps defrag my slow brain learning new projects. And your no weld design, that will help a lot of experimenters with no welding tools or experiance.THANKS
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Kevin,
Eddy Ramos’ system is a good one, too, and the best documented of all. Also, he has a DOW thread on charcoal gasifier drawings.
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Progress is slow going on all fronts.
It keeps raining cats and dogs, can’t use the plasma cutter when it’s this wet out. I have some first cuts made on the air jacket.
The burn tube is about 9.5" ID and relatively thin. I’m going off of Peterson dimensions so the nozzles will stand off a little bit and keep heat off. If I notice any scorching I’ll weld in some plate reinforcement but I’m trying to keep it all below 200lbs total. I’m thinking of adding tie rods to the cargo rack itself going to the body directly so it will flex less on the hitch adapter. Should save the steel some stress. Will also reduce a lot of jostling.
If you’re wondering where I got the burn tube it’s one of those harbor freight electric air compressors, the whole system was just ruined so I thought I’d save what I could on it. Steel is about as thick as a propane tank.
Bottom will have a half golf cart rim for an ash cone reduction combo. Just need to make a choke plate to nest on top of it.
I’ll have maybe 25 gallons of hopper space, so with the red oak I have I think that’ll be roughly 50lbs maybe of fuel? I’m aiming to keep the gasifier around 50lbs itself and I think I’ll achieve that. I’m looking at the luggage carrier my mother has and it doglegs upward to keep it off of the ground, so I should be able to cut a hole in the carrier and rest the system down with the car rim hopper extension as the load bearing surface. About ~16 inches will hang below the carrier. It all depends on how it’ll all settle with weight in place.
I’m thinking of using a fiberglass blanket hot filter. Not sure yet. I definitely need something to get the temps down a little before it reaches the cooling rail because I anticipate needing a flexible elbow connector.
I’m really going to dread having to take all the injector stuff off to replace the seals.
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Good luck with your light weight design small car gasifier/ i think i will weld some lug nuts on my air tubes, since they ended up shorter than i planed. And some plate under the the air tubes Too, I got too find a choke to drop down in mine too.
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Fixed the leaky injectors!
Replaced the seals, didn’t even have to take the whole intake manifold off to do it. Oiled the seals before installing so they’d slide in good.
One hiccup. Someone had broken a tap in the injector retainer tab bolt hole. It only uses two bolts to maintain pressure.
Well.
Couldn’t remove the tap. Someone else tried to drill a relief hole and ruined any chance of me getting it out. So I used the throttle cable retainer tab and some nuts as shims.
No leaks and I DID IT MY WAY
In all seriousness I’ll just have to get a new fuel rail. I hope it’s a separate item and not integral to the intake manifold that would really stink.
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Forgot to mention, HEET methanol fuel additive and Marvel Mystery Oil is your best friend when you have a tank of stale gasoline. Methanol will absorb any water in the tank and allow it to burn off.
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What does the Marvel Mystery Oil do. You better not tell me it’s a mystery.
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Cleans junk out the lines and lubricates the injectors some.
Also it’s a mystery.
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The car is slowly becoming the Ship of Theseus. Upper rad hose was looking old, finally blew a hole. Blew a lot of air before any coolant decided to come out, that’s a little concerning. Of course when you need them most, the bleeder screw didn’t work and just snapped.
Going to replace the bleeder screw, thermostat, upper and lower rad hose, and do a prestone flush before I replace the coolant and add some Water Wetter. I might hard wire the cooling fans to come on as soon as the car is turned on, I really don’t like how hot it has to be for a GM car to turn the fans on. People say it’ll kick on at 220 but it’s more like 250 when they decide to turn on. I miss mechanical fans. I’d rather a car be forever cold than on the ragged edge of head gasket destruction.
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Cody, It might help you if you flushed out the heater core and the radiator both backwards. Reverse the normal flow pattern just while flushing with a hose. Antifreeze that has set for a long time will separate into a stringy clear gelatinous glob that settles out. (Maybe the glycerine stringing together). I know that one doesn’t enjoy a setback but it would be even more frustrating once you are able to DOW.
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I don’t mind doing TLC work on a car. I’ll definitely be flushing the heater core out before I do a prestone flush.
I love 90s cars because of how easy they are to work on but I hate the few McDonalds Plastic fragile pieces they have. Just look sternly and they break.
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i have a cavalier i am working on, it needs subframe/ rusted out/ the fan stays on when at 185 f on the gauge / even after the key is turned off. you either need a fan temp sensor, or there is more than one sensor, not sure on how many wired in serries. should be able too google fan sensor location ,that that year cavalier. 03 too 05 have same subframe ,acording too searching results. this 05 may be fixed or become a parts car, runs and drives nice. I need a sub frame for this one.
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Only sensor I’m aware of is the temperature sender, I wonder if I swap out the fan for a Non AC version if it’ll work better.
Kind of want to delete the AC Compressor anyways, the blowers put out some decently cool air and I’m just waiting for it to throw the serpentine belt after locking up.
This car has been attacked by rats and damaged in moving, found a set of wires detached near the bottom and I have no indication what they go to. Maybe it’s from the vapor canister sensor/purge valve? I heard that also will let the fans come on correctly.
I think the easiest solution would be to just wire the fans to come on at startup.
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What year is your cavalier. Mine is 05, If i had trouble running down electricle fault in a coolent fan . wire a seperate relay from the key switch power, and run it through a known good fan temp switch. Have you tested the fan temp switch yet. or you can just let the fan run all the time the key is on.
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It’s a 1996, 2.2 OHV 4 door sedan base model.
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Hoping I’ll have time to work on the gasifier some tomorrow if it doesn’t rain. I’d like to at least have the hearth started. Just need to stop by the hardware store and grab some pipe fittings for the nozzles.
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The nastiness of this engine is appalling to me.
As soon as I get this thing tagged I’m taking it to work to pressure wash all this grease off.
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By hand sweep or hand pick the leafs and debre off first. I use a air hose first to blow the dry stuff away. Pressure washing could drive that nasty stuff into the vent areas, not good. Yes a good pressure wash will help if you have any oil leaks. And they might show where they are.
Bob
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Oh I only pressure wash the sides where the actual grease is. I also avoid the fuse box and other brain boxes so it’s really just the block that’s nasty.
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Cody you need to be working in a hot rod shop, there your attention to detail will be much better appreciated then some dealership that needs your services to turn a buck on a beater. I would wager you would be a good painter, and cars guys pay insane numbers for good paint
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