Don's Geo Tracker Project - 2- - Charcoal

Werner, I wish I could crawl in there and watch. The best I can determine is that the burning zone is above the nozzle - not in it. I should run it after dark and take a picture of the lighting port sight glass which is about 6 inches above the nozzle. If that shows bright white color, that would indicate how high above the nozzle the burn zone actually is.

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Nice job Don, Iā€™m really liking the char gas system for its simplicity. Thanks for the tour.

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I had a little time this afternoon to play with my generator powered by Tracker charcoal wood gas. I was concerned at first that the nozzle would be to big to run a small engine but after today it looks like there is a lot of forgiveness with this nozzle size because it ran for over half an hour with no signs of cooling the reaction. I will have to make some adjustments to the engine to get the hz rate at 60 hz from the present 56 - 57. Maybe opening the breaker arm gap and closing the spark plug gap and tweaking the governor will do the trick. It ran a 100 watt light bulb and my 2 hp air compressor just fine. I have to get a better muffler on it because I canā€™t hear myself think when it is running. Stay tuned.

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Very cool my friend.

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:+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

canā€™t type less the 20 caractersā€¦ but 20 thumbs up is betterā€¦

Love this little green trackerā€¦

but yeah, love everything build with charcoal :grin:

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Donā€™t know about loving everything charcoal but do love all the international cooperation that goes with it. Good on you guys

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Don, I read yesterday that you had trouble running a small engine using your Tracker gasifier. My immediate respose was ā€œThere should be no problem.ā€ but decided not to reply at that time. Iā€™m glad to see you tried it again and got it working. To my thinking it is easier to under size a charcoal nozzle than over size one.
BTW, at Argos I used the Ford Ranger gasifier to run a small 2000watt generator. There was no problem keeping it running once the entire system of gasifier, cooler, filter and hoses were filled with good quality chargas, Keep up the good work. You are helping to lure more and more over to the ā€œdark sideā€ :slight_smile:
Gary in PA

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Yeah Gary, I was too much in a hurry Saturday because I had that car show on my mind. I did again that thing that I am pretty good at. A S S U M E . I assumed that the choke lever would be parallel with the carburetor in the off position but in reality this one is perpendicular with it, so I was playing around with it half way and back and forth trying to get it up to speed until it quit. I also did not add any water drip either time. Next time I will play with that, among other things.

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Don,
Besides a different or redirected muffler, you might also think of a sound absorbing shield. There is a lot of noise coming through the engine block itself that a muffler cannot muffle.

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I had a surprise tonight when I topped off my charcoal hopper after a leisurely 30.5 mile trip today 15 miles each way. It took exactly 10 pounds so I finally hit 3 miles per pound on softwood charcoal! The speed limit was 45 mph with about a quarter of it 35 mph. I think that had a lot to do with it. High speeds drink gasoline and eat charcoal.

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Well done Don,
If my calculations are correct, that would be 9 Kg per 100 Km, or an gasoline replacement value of 6 Litersā€¦
How much water did you use in your drip, compared with the charcoal used ?

What is your normal gasoline consumption when you drive ?

A steady RPM , with the minimum effort for the engine, will always give the lowest consumption, plus, of course, the weight been moved from one point to another.

One tip: i use iridium or platinium sparkplugs, they make a hell of a difference in low rpm torque

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three to four drips a second - a little more than usual.[quote=ā€œk_vanlooken, post:171, topic:2439ā€]
What is your normal gasoline consumption when you drive ?
[/quote]

About 30 to 32 mpg.

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Okā€¦ Don, those are great numbersā€¦
Sorry for keeping it in metric numbers but:

You replaced 1 Liter gasoline with 1,2 Kg Charcoal and 0,5 liter waterā€¦
( or 1 Gallon gasoline with 10 Lbs Charcoal and 4 Lbs water )

That is very efficient and a good comparisation mark.

i kept the drops water volume to 20 drops for 1 ml ( mili liter ), but maybe you can test a value for me, volume after 200 drops ?

Should i sent you a certificate for saving on greenhouse gasses ? some carbon credits ?

wow wow wowā€¦ :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

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Don, that sounds like a new standard for other gasifierā€™s go for. Great Job! Thanks for infomation Don and @k_vanlooken thanks for info and number statistics.
Bob

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This is an encouraging post. What is the curb weight of the Tracker and horse power on gasoline? My MGB is 2300 lbs and 62 HP.
Koen, I have heard that with old style spark plugs, cutting the ground terminal back so the end is centered over the positive terminal will give better flame propagation. Is your ignition system breaker points, semi-conductor triggered inductive or capacitor discharge?

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Hi Bruce,

I have a DIS ( Digital Ignition ) with every sparkplug its own coil installed on the plug itself, triggered by the ECU.
Cam position sensor and knock sensor in the programming.

Breaker point and or distribitur should be constructed that you only have 1 spark per 2 revs of the crankshaft ( if driving with high Hydrogen levels )(only ignition in compression stroke )

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Don you have some great numbers there! l use about the same amount but with an enngine allmost half the size of yours.

But l think l know what Koen is aming for and he is proberably right - you culd use a lot more water in there. It might give you some surpriseing resaults!

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Hi Koen

what maximum ratio (water vs coal) can be used? (without the risk of self-ignition)
I know that 12% H2 in syngas is maximum for a t: 11/1
how to convert water ml / kg of coal as a percentage of H2 in the syngas?
Thierry

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2300 lbs and 96 hp. Also 4 valves per cylinder and 9.5 to 1 compression ratio.

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I donā€™t know if I can count that high :wink:

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