A top and bottom lid. I have never see one at the army surplus store. That would be really cool.
Bob
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Here’s the grate. Held up with the old ring top of the 100lb propane tank. It sits the entire inner diameter of the barrel. Since it’ll basically be a fixed grate, the charbed should keep compacting.
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I would think if you put course Charcoal on top first it would work. Is it a old BBQ grill?
Bob
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Yes it’s an old BBQ grill. I have some coarse stuff I can pile on it, and eventually it’ll develop its own bed.
I am liking this KISS design, keeping it super simple. Let the Charcoal be the insulation around the barrel. This reminds me of the mini van gasifier barrel design. But you have a better nozzle and filtering.
Bob
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I also have about 12 inches of char bed depth, so it shouldn’t get TOO hot at the grate.
Functionally this gasifier is finished. I have another 1.25" pipe that I’m going to put in for my cap and water drip at the nozzle coupler. I’m thinking a fire extinguisher to hold my drip, I have quite a few laying around that are expired.
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Maybe we should call this the DOWNright Simple. Little double entendre in the name.
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Now I just need to wait for my jumbo ammo box to arrive, and this week I’ll get more piping for the cooling rail. And some PVC for general plumbing. I need to get my strategy going for the air mixer. Not sure entirely how I’m going to splice into the air cleaner tube. It’s much bigger than 3" conduit. I have a factory recall air cleaner pipe that I will practice on, cut it open to see if I can nest the steel pipe inside and seal with silicone couplers that turbocharger people use.
Okay so luckily thank God, a 3" Fernco fitting is a very tight fit. I have a very short area where I can introduce the woodgas as far as the snorkel is concerned.
To give myself as much real estate for the gas in and my air damper I might use a regular coupler and a 3" elbow.
This area is in between the mass air flow sensor which is right after the filter, and the what appears to either be the valve cover breather or the PCV hose before the throttle body. That’s all under vacuum so I’m not afraid of soot getting in the PCV. PCV is in its own little box, one of those tumors attached to the snorkel pipe.
These snorkels are not cheap so I’m going to measure thrice, cut once.
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Here’s the actual snorkel, the MAF sensor, my real estate, and where the PCV hose is. I wish I had a few of those useless noise reducing tumors to plumb into like other trucks have. I can’t cut into this one because of the PCV.
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You said just after the mass flow sensor air. Explanation again on what you are doing simple drawing will help.
Bob
The reason I ask is this is where I am trying to put my mixer on my Subrau outback I want to use the original air filter box for filtering the air mixer. I am concerned if I cut back on the air what my mass flow sensor will do.
Bob
I’m not entirely sure, but I can’t relocate mine or risk getting soot in it. Last thing you want is a bunch of carbon messing up the sensor and throwing off your fuel map when you’re on gasoline. When you’re not on gasoline and have it switched off it may be confused and try to trim down your fuel amounts. It detects less air so it trims back the gasoline leaving the injectors. It does this as your air filter gets dirty so it doesn’t run too rich.
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My air damper will be behind the MAF, I think it will read normal air flow since it won’t be dampened until afterwards.
So this air mass flow sensor will just shut the fuel down and if you turn the fuel pump off no fuel. Okay I just need to put a control valve after the sensor for the air and find a spot for the char gas to come in before the throttle body. When the char gas valve closed and fuel is turn on everything is back to normal. I like it. Thanks this will work I am sure.
Bob
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No I have my fuel shut off at the injector fuse and fuel pump fuse. The MAF I don’t touch at all.
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Okay so my cooling rail is going to be very Bass Ackwards. Just one run, solidly welded together. Starts from passenger side front corner, runs back and across the tailgate, and then back up to driver side front corner before it turns down for the filter. The way I figure is, right at the tail gate is a lot of wind resistance, and that also means that section of cooling rail will get some seriously cold air. My truck has a pretty heavy rake since it’s never hauled anything seriously overweight besides my fat butt, the rear end still sticks up like it should. If any condensation would appear I think it’ll show up near the tailgate area and run down to the filter body. I’m going to put in a false bottom on the ammo can filter just made with some rabbit wire. Then hay and then some sawdust. Filter exit will be covered with some screen material to prevent sucking up sawdust, or I can make a little canvas bag either way.
Since the filter will have a false bottom I’m going to make sure to paint the inside to keep from rusting. I might even spray the inside with Plasti Dip or some other spray sealant. Also going to install a tap for draining, I’ll probably check on it once a week.
If I find the sawdust is too heavy and chokes up my flow then I’ll go with hay for moisture and a canvas sack filter pleated up to gain surface area.
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Added an NPT elbow and a 90 degree rigid conduit section to the Gas Exit. It’s pretty good for cab height. Going to bridge this and the cooling rail with some flex exhaust. Not a very long portion though. Unless I find some high temp 2" ish sized heater hose, that would be a nicer find.
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@KristijanL I know I’ve asked about rising hopper temps for a downdraft charcoal gasifier, but do you remember how hot yours would get once it started to run empty? Does it get hotter than a raw wood setup or is it pretty similar, like 100°C once it’s almost empty. I’m trying to see if my mechanical engine coolant gauge will be okay for my hopper temp or if it will get too hot for the sensor. I also have a digital Exhaust Gas sensor as well but I’d rather use that for cooling rail temps.
The mechanical gauge goes from 130°F to 280°F, my gut tells me this is sufficient but I’d like to install the correct one the first time around.
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HI cody, ask bob mac if he thinks you should make the grate out of something more like 1/2" rebar , because by the time you load the unit with wood, and start pokeing a rod down too the grate, the grate is red hot at TIMES, it will most likely sink down ,and then eventuly brake away. easyer by far too fix now/ 1-PS how thick is your grate steel bars.? 2 are you putting a restrictor over your grate plate peice.
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