You all are the coolest people on the planet and our guy Wayne here is seriously a man beyond his time.
With that said, I can only hope one day to join such high ranks as my fellow seasoned gasifier people, and until that time, I’ve got some serious beginner questions. Bear with me.
I have read the Have Wood, Will Travel book, watched all the videos, and am scouring the forums for answers to my questions, but as yet, to no avail. I will appreciate any and all discussion/direction/advice, etc. Thank you in advance.
Question #1: I scored some awesome stainless steel at the junk yard when looking for a 12" diameter fire tube. This stainless steel tube is 10" diameter and 1/4" thick. I know I can make a fire tube/gasifier system based off the size of the tube, it just might not be hefty enough to run my dodge, but maybe a generator. With that said! If i extend the length of the 10" diameter fire tube to 24", i have the same amount of cylindrical area as a 12" diameter 18" long fire tube. Will a 10" diameter 24" long fire tube equal the power output of a 12" diameter 18" long fire tube and if not, why???
I do plan to find a 12" diameter tube to build a system, i just have not found it, yet.
Question #2: I have a 2003 Dodge Dakota 3.9L V6 175 HP truck. I am getting a little freaked out reading about the OBDII and the on board computer reprogramming that may be involved in converting to wood-gas. IS IT POSSIBLE?! IF so, like how difficult of a reprogramming are we talking here?
On your first question I do not think an SS tube will be the way to go on a WK system unless you are a very good deep pentatration thick stainless steel welder capable.
This is the hottest part of the system with much temperatures gradients center out to the top and bottom edges.
And on the 2dn question you will have two different challenges. Your 3.9L V-6 is the chain driven single overhead camshaftS design, right? One member here did a woodgas conversion on the same-larger 4.9L V-8 SOHC engine. Neither of these have ignition distributors, so no-longer an easy, easy cable while driving ignition timing twist-forward, twist-backward is possible. Ignition timing on these is strickly computer controlled by the OBDII system.
He could never get anyone capable/willing to do a computer hack on his system for selectable ignition advancing . Chevy V-8 “offroad-use” computer hacks, yes. Ford V-8 “off-road” computer hacks, yes. And I’m sure plenty of Dodge Hemi V-8 computer hacks too.
I do not mean to be off-putting on your efforts. Hopefully that member, or someone else will, chime in and direct you to his conversion topic so you can read about it. It did work. Just without the ignition timing advance unable to match earlier distributor engines woodgas power.
WayneK’s Dodge V-10 has no distributor either. But his OBDI system seems to do timing advancing just fine.
Hey Mr. Steve Unruh. My name is Jordan, I am from Arkansas. I just discovered the wood gas technology a couple of days ago and want to build one of Ben Peterson’s design as soon as I can. Please contact me on my email: [email protected] or on my cell phone: 501-690-3848 as soon as you can. I want to plan a trip as soon as I can to come and build one of these machines with you or with Ben. I want to dedicate a big part of my life now to this technology.
Hello JordanP, welocme to the DOW.
I will call you, promise. After 6:00 PM your time be O.K.? I’ll call Monday eveing if that is O.K.
I have a deteriorating nuro/brain condition making it very difficult anymore for me to do extended personal e-mails anymore. Just asked some tried to puzzle out my e-mail scrambles. On the DOW I can go back 2-3 times over 2-3 days when in full meds flush periods to re-edit for words and leeters scrambling.
I no longer do any active building anymore. Reached my goals. Only do some very local travel-to gasier operator “advising” now. And these mountain folks do not want visitors knowing them.
BenP. no longer does any active gasifier developing/building either. He is onto intentional self-subsitance creative artis community building now. Wood-for-power was a needed sub-set for that life-goal. Ha! You a hard working creative artist in real materials and not a vapor-poof and you can find him.
The VictoryGasWorks shops, and get-togathers were his that a few of us regionals did help him with. That ended in 2012.
No matter for you.
You are much closer to see-it-real to WayneK, CarlZ., and SouthernYankke Billy, and a few others long day trip regional drivable to you…
The real see-it-to-belive-it for you would be tripping up to the Argo’s IN, May get-togather. Follow the topic on that for sure.
03 don’t appear to be programable but if it is one of the last years with a dist you wont need to do anything with programing.
welcome wihelm and god luck. paul
Hello, Wilhelm,
Welcome to the best gasification site on the web. I think I can safely say,
“we love pictures”. Please post. The comments are overwhelmingly “positive”.
You’ll find a great “learning and teaching” attitude here, which makes you
kinda “feel at home”.
Pepe