@SteveUnruh Yes, Pacific Mandrone.
Do you have any numbers on what should be the maximum internal temperature of Ben’s gasifier to avoid overheating? Are you referring to the hearth? Reduction chamber? I never realized the cooling effect of raw wood inputs was good - I thought the idea was to get it as hot as possible and that’s why all those layers of insulation. I appreciate your experience. I’ll be cautious and I’m going to try to monitor the internal temperature. The gasifier is ready to flare gas now but I’ve been spending my time working on the charcoal retort.
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I think it’s called Madrone, a Spanish name. Possibly Madrón.
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@madflower69 I want to see how well it works too! Should be ready to test in a few days - I worked on the insulated lid today. Hookway, who supplied the original design, first had the gas pipe outside and then he more recently changed it to the inside as I have it. Not sure of the reason for the change. Isn’t it better to keep it hot and that’s why the insulation?
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Probably keeps the pipe clear of tar
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My one had a 1 inch pipe under the lid the same as yours and what i found was that when it was gassing off it came out with so much force i thought it was going to take off and most of the flames wanted to shoot outside of the drum ! lol maybe having a straight through pipe allowing it to vent top and bottom stops that , next time i shall use a 2 inch pipe so not so much pressure builds up .
Dave
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On some of my retorts I have used a valve, on others I just use a pipe cap to close off the moisture/flare vent. I’m looking forward to hearing how your improved retort works for you.
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This is the nicest/best charcoal retort I’ve ever heard of. If it works as well as I think it is going to you might even put it on trunnions to make it easier to dump the charcoal out.
Hi back,
Yes GaryT., think that I did stutter and it is actually madrone tree.
GregC, it has been said (correctly) that all woodgasifiers are heats Deficient.
And that all charcoal gasifiers are heats Excessive . . . meaning having surplus internal self-made heat.
So a woodfueled gasifier can always befit by adding heat energy into it;s system. Or strictly conserving what it does self-make. Why this Ben’sBook system has the layers of insulation and hot produced gasses recycling pathways. Even moderate system heat to incoming air pre-heating - heat scavenging.
WayneK’s woodgasifiers as he builds them; uses much, much system heat to air-in boosting. And he even pre-heats that air on his truck with an engine exhausts to gasifier air-in pre-heater.
Some of the charcoal gasifier fellows mostly just let metals levels of damaging char-glow heat out through chamber skins and external filter cans and piping.
The better charcoal guys use this heat energy for realistic amounts of final gas hydrogen boosting with as I said metere- in steam, and/or; moisture&CO2 laden engine exhaust. Pulled hard they have this excessive heat energy to work with.
I do not know at what gas volume pulling range a Ben’sBook system would overheat operating on just pure woodcharcoal.
If you wood stove for heat, next time overload fuel it, and let it burn down from open flame burning to just a super hot glowing red char mass. Feel this radiated out energy. Smell the overheated metals molecules shedding. (our cream porcelain stove will acrid stink doing this)
That is what will happen with hard driven only char fueling.
Oh. Cool down your wood stove glowing char mass by simply putting a log of wettish wood on it.
This is what in a wood chunked gasifier is happening.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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@SteveUnruh Thanks for the detailed explanation so I now understand a key difference between wood gasifier and charcoal gasifier.
I have six air jets into the hearth. What about if I plug up some of them, to effectively decrease the capacity of my Ben’sBook gasifier, so it will get sufficient air flow from the low suction of the smaller engine?
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@r_wesseling I plan on mounting the charcoal retort on bricks maybe 12 inches above ground, in the hope of making it easier to tip and empty. Thanks for introducing me to the possibility of trunnions - I’ll keep it in mind if it works well.
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Hi Greg , with my old drum that had the insulation on the outside once everything inside was turned to charcoal it was so light and easy to just lay it over on to the ground with a 1 3rd piece of drum under the open end so any char that spilled out was easy to shovel up into smaller drums ready to reduce to size , with your insulation on the inside it will be even easier and cleaner .
Dave
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Hi GregC,
I do not have the personal experiences with pure woodcharoal gasifing to be able to guide you.
A long read now but Kristijan does and expresses this in detail on his Mercedes-Benz E230, vol.2 Charcoal Gas topic.
Recent inputs from member TIL there too. Obviously with experiences too.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Hi Greg,
Just a note on nozzles. I prefer an odd number of nozzles built from the get go.
I have had very good results with 5 nozzles on my unit.
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Hi Steve,
Probably gonna have stick with 12hp on the Garden tractor for a while yet…
Dave isn’t gonna replace the V-twin for a while 
Gotta get the Tractor stable and reliable before I get any more changes involved.
Last summer I was in a rush to get it done for the Steam show and now I gotta make more a daily driver type thing…
I inherited an old (1949) Lincoln 200 amp welder… Belt driven off a V-4 Wisconsin (VH4D, 25 or 30 hp)… That is in first inline right now, I’m waiting on parts for the Magneto (Wico XH1343) I wanna get it up and running.
Then back at the tractor… If I can get around to to it, I’ll try some of what we talked about earlier. Gonna have to stop typing and get back to doing.
Take care
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I hear you TerryL.
I loved thouse old all cast iron Wisconsin, Kohler and even B&S small engines. Seemed you could spit on them and get them up and running. Versus the late 1960’s thru 1980’s aluminum junk (throw-a-way) replacements.
Still . . . old is old and hard to get parts for.
The newer engines to look for even if aluminum cases and heads will have cast iron bores, steel valve seat inserts and float type carburetors.
Some bad ones even in this generation from different “name” manufactures too . . . usually in the big single cylinder anti-vibration systems shedding particles wiping out then the crank and rod bearings, and journals surfaces.
Ha! I found that the 90 degree V-twins use no extra in-crankcase systems. Actually simpler, with less failure possibilities.
Yep. V-twin is NOT perfect spaces power stoke or mechanical balanced as an opposed boxed configuration two cylinder will be.
But good enough on both counts. WITH easier, and lighter more vibration resistant intaking and exhausting routing. A smaller foot print package. MUCH narrower.
Road touring motorcycles says HarleyD and Indian V’s were the best compromise after all in a 400-1000cc range.
Belt driven,eh? Probably horizontal shafting too, eh?
You know many of the HD older rider lawn tractors did do 90 degree belt drive transferring just fine. Just saying, man incase you run across a good later model verticle shaft V-twin.
Hey Mr Wallace; I am not a fan of GENERAC’s either. Too limited of production electronics dependent. Too many year to year always changing. Too much tech/service personel changing.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Woodgas slant six
AS time goes by the more I think about it the more I am convinced the Ford Lima 2.3 and the 225ci
Fuel consumption is my biggest concern on the 225.
Maybe if you slowed it down and ran a gear box to a 3600 rpm head?
Could you find a best fuel consumption number around 1500 rpm and generate 15 kVA?
I don’t know.
I think its likely.
Wisconsin, Kohler and even B&S small engines.
Antiques…
I looked long and hard at a GX340 today.
I did not buy it because its too big for what I want.
But maybe its perfect for woodgas.
Drive my little 3000 watt special project generator.
I think the design is far superior to older flat head.
And you can buy parts easy enough.
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Does that Lima 2.3 do good on WG? What year is yours? I have 91 Ranger with a Lima 2.3L. 330K miles and the head has never been off.
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Ask, and you shall receive . . .
Wallace a DOW member DID woodgas and power test load a Ford Industrial Lima engine/generator set with posted up results.
Danny Cox
docdcox here on the DOW and on his youtube channel.
Search up with the magnifying glass Icon here for his topics.
Search up his put up youtube videos.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Dan has some good ideas. He and I traded ideas, etc for a while when he was active on this site.
He lives in Florida.
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Clarification:
I did not test a 2.3 on DOW.
I have worked on them in cars and stationary applications
Quite reasonable to assume you could do a conversion.
Iike the Lima over other types because lets say there is a problem and you tar up the engine ,it turns over but the valves are stuck…
The Lima 2.3 and others in the series are free wheeling and you won’t break anything.
Its also got a belt driven cam.
If it sticks the belt breaks not expensive internal parts.
If you ran it at 1800 rpm and could get 20 hp out of it I would consider that just about perfect,
That much power could run a lot of stuff, and add a large alternator and it could charge batteries while providing AC power off the crank and you could recover heat from the engine
Well supported in the aftermarket with speed parts too.
https://www.raceeng.com/c-1-ford-2300-2000.aspx
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