Charcoal may be the best way too roll with smaller transit, but would that not equal about 33 pounds of wood,or over a pond a mile of wood to make that much charco. Not that the waist heat making the charco wouldent be easy used for hot water.and heating here in our north woods state.Swem.
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Hi Don,
Errā¦ Ok, how big is one drop then ? 
Photo with caliper ?
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Hi Thierry,
I think i have to make a āmole counting tableā before answering that questionā¦
The best i had so far, in real life experience, was 1 liter water with 1 kg charcoalā¦ on the trike with the outer coil.
Maximum possible ? depends your thermal reactions in your gasifierā¦
Usable in engines ? Higher compression ratioās making it even more efficientā¦ up to 17/1 effective, no problems.
My advice to Don ?
cary on, and show us how its doneā¦ Tweak, peak and enjoy
no need for finding the limits, its when smiling start hurting, then stop modifying
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That nice weight ratio too miles.sure makes charco better for long trips on the little vehicles, than wood does.Nice Work Don, and koen all so,on the design sharing.
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High max i am just wondering if a borescope or other cameras have been tried for a visual on wood in hopper while driveing under the normal engine pull.or if the smoke would block the veiw.
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Being that close on the phasing you maybe able to just adjust it out with the governor. Would really like to see the percentage of rated output you could get out of it. Wouldnot closing the point gap rather than opening it give you more timing advance?
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Yes I saw yesterday that the governor has a round disk on the side that can be loosened and rotated and a spring from there to the governor lever will adjust the speed for fine tuning. I will play with that next time. I found a small muffler off a car that I want to hook up for peace of mind while running.
We had a discussion a while back about spark gap and if my rememberer works better than my forgeterer I think the conclusion was that a wider point gap advances the timing along with a narrower spark plug gap. I wonder if I could hook up my timing light on a single cylinder engine? I never tried that before.
Next run I want to add loads in increments to determine output limits. I am expecting about 3000 watts out of that 5500 watt genny. Maybe more with water drip?
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Hi Don, Iāve been watching your progress reports of charcoal gasificationā¦lots of fun right there!
You can get your own engine repair manual .pdf download over here: Free Kohler Service Manual Downloads - OPEengines.com They describe timing light hook ups (magneto or battery ign.), governor adjustments, but not much is said about advanced timing for your alternate fuel & how to obtain it. They do mention briefly about ignition dwell time, --needs to be substantial enough for the coil to develop enough high voltageā.
Probably not as good as a āsmall car mufflerā ābut it might be possible to route the engine EX port directly to the char burner via a metal pipe, dumping the heat & noise & engine EX fumes into the char burner for further consumption/char cooling/noise reduction? [I thought I heard somewhere that engine EX pipe gases help cool the char bed somehow, I donāt know, it may be you can dump 50% or more of the engine EX into the char bed, and still have proper system working pressures & flow, I think noise reduction could probably occur once piped into the charcoal bed.]
Oliver
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With a battery ignition, sparks when points break open, so smaller gap means cam acts sooner sparks sooner. If my rememberer works at all, it seems like magneto ignition makes spark when points first close. closer gap means stay open longer, later spark. Now spark plug gap, wider the gap, more voltage needed so longer it takes to build enough voltage to jump. wider gap means later spark.
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My Onan generator with 70s vintage Kohler has battery ignition and points on the outside that can be adjusted while running. Wider gap advances the spark for better running on charcoal gas. My engine runs better as the points widen until about .035 where it starts stumbling. Wider breaker point gap at top of cam lobe means points came in contact with the cam sooner and continued opening to a wider than normal amount as they stayed in contact with the cam ramp for a longer time to reach the top of the lobe.
For 12 volt points systems and some early electronic ignition, total resistance for coil circuit is 3 ohms. 12 volts divided by 3 ohms equals 4 amps which is a safe current for points without burning them or burning out a 1.5 Ohm coil. A 1.5 ohm coil is sometimes called a 6 volt coil, but may be labelled 12 volt. A 1.5 ohm coil needs a ballast resistor. Use a 3 ohm coil without a ballast resistor. If you add a ballast resistor to a 3 ohm coil the spark is weak. Keep in mind that a ballast resistor may read .9 ohms cold but increases to approx. 1.5 ohms when energized and hot. Bypassing the ballast resistor when starting will give higher voltage to the coil and a much hotter spark. Good for cold temperatures and weak fuel. The points and coil can handle this short temporary boost without damage. Also solid copper coil and plug wires give a hotter spark and donāt burn out as quickly as resistor wires. However, it has been suggested by some that failure to use resistor wires or plugs can cause electromagnetic pulses that can damage sensitive electronics.
A narrow plug gap increases the spark current and duration. Wider gap is used with capacitive discharge ignition which punches up the coil voltage or even gives multiple sparks without overheating the coil. Indexing or using the new iridium pinpoint plugs can aid the flame propagation as can modern high intensity discharge ignition with wider plug gaps and higher voltage.
Some have found using higher voltage systems to be too much for some older coils, wires, distributors and rotors and lead to unwanted arcing. This is especially true with wider plug gaps. Ignition systems may be capable of producing say, 50,000 volts, but will only produce the volts necessary to jump the spark plug gap. With a narrow plug gap there will be know extra voltage to do damage. Some older or inferior modern coils are more prone to failure with a wider plug gap because the required voltage to jump the plug gap may exceed the optimum output voltage and corresponding internal insulation of the coil.
While we are on the subject, condensers tend to fail quickly rather than with age. Old timers recommend keeping the old working condenser when replacing points rather than risking failure of a replacement condenser of undetermined quality.
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Hi Don,
Yes , the timing light can be hooked on a single cylinder engine
Yes, the timing advances with widening the gap, also the dwell time from the coil is importantā¦
( time that the current flowās in the coil, releasing its load when the contacts break )
Yes the gas needs a forcefull spark, but less with waterdrip
There is less or no need for advancing timing when running with waterdrip, even retarding might be possibleā¦
Test your genny with gasoline first , load measurement untill a certain rpm drop, then repeat again on gasā¦ ( certain rpm drop would be 2-3% on the Hz or whatever value is indicated on your set, between 58 and 62 Hz ? )
I did get 1800 real watts on a chinese 2500 watts , on gasoline, chinese rating on 50 Hz factor 1.0
and 1350 watts on gasā¦ ( and i have not tweaked the set yet ) at 3000 Rpm,
i am sure i can get more out of it at higher Rpm up to 60 Hz at 3600 Rpm
The waterdrip playās a big part in getting at the power peak, but i am trying to get max at only gasā¦ ( how to teach someone to convert water into energy ?)
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Correct as usual king friday! I had it backwards.
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Ran my generator tonight for 45 minutes after adjusting the governor to get 60hz. The car muffler is mounted now and the noise is much more tolerable. The Wisconsin engine is 28.6 cubic inch displacement and at 3600 rpm it keeps the gasifier temps right up there. Next time I will try loading it up to see what wattage it will handle.
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Looking Good, Don!!!
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I was afraid I would have to walk home from the car show last Saturday. After I packed up I ran the blower to get back up to temp. I tried to start on gasoline but it would not stay running. It would catch for a second or two and then die. After trying this a few times unsuccessfully I closed the air butterfly and then it caught and revved up to 3500 rpm before coming down to a fast rough idle, so then I turned down the fuel pump voltage and it ran fine on wood gas all the way home. Tonight I had a little time to look at it and it repeated the no start on gasoline scenario. I cleaned the IAC and checked voltage on the TPS and everything checked out. Then I dropped a screwdriver and while bending down I happened to look sideways at the MAF connection and saw this.
Standing in front and looking down it looks normal but not from the side. I think somebody leaned on it at the show and misaligned it and broke the tape joint. It is all fixed now with a short piece of pvc pipe inside secured it with a screw and sealed it with tape. Should not happen again. Runs good now!
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I would say you owe a āthank youā to some power that knocked the screwdriver out of your hand. Funny how little things can just āsort of happenā at the right. time. How did the car show go for you. Were you able to get the attention of any younger people?? That was my big disappointment, that kids in school and maybe could have learned something walked way around me so I didnāt make eye contact.TomC
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Yes Tom, I know what you mean, the young people are so brainwashed, that all they can think about is whatās happening on my phone media programs. Talk face to face with you, no may be though texting. For most of them it has to be easy 1,2,3 got it with the finger tips. Really sad what has happen to this Day and Age.
Bob
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Thanks Don for sharing this, someone leans on it and bingo it doesnāt run right. Glad it was a easy fix and also what Tom said. Things happen for a reason. Getting the other 75 % under your belt really helps too.
Bob
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Yes Tom, I noticed the same thing with young people. A lot of disinterested glances and walk by from the young ones.
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Sorry but I donāt buy thatā¦ I know of a 16 year old who based on a description given to him found the site and built a charcoal unit in an evening. ā¦ blame the parents not the kidsā¦
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