I have had 2 small cyclones as a filter on my Chevy. They filtred cold wet gas. The system worked about as good as a normal hayfilter and the only reason l went on looking for a beter filter is l had a plastic intake manifold and having the usual amount of soot in became dangerous.
I am real glad actualy you brought cyclone main filtration back to light. My Mercedes has a metalic intake so l am thinking to go back to cyclones. For space economy a small cyclone or 2 is imposible to beat.
Well l wuld guess not much. People including me built cylindrical cyclones with just about the same resaults. What is important with cyclones is you want them as small as you can without adding to much drag. Small = fast = efficient separation.
The cone shape is not necessary, but a 3/1 height to width is helpful, as is a hole the size of the inlet at the bottom into a collection chamber below. There are two swirls inside a straight cyclone: one along the outside wall and another one that is cyclone shaped with it’s point passing into the collection chamber. A larger diameter pipe in the top area of the cyclone improves performance because it improves the swirl speed of entering gas and slows the gas exit velocity. An air ramp around this top larger pipe also helps. The ramp only needs to be sealed at the outer wall not around the inner pipe. The larger inner pipe can be reduced to the same size as the inlet at the top of the cyclone.
The cyclone looks good to me.
About cooler, I would go with one that allows for easy flushing/cleaning and has good flow. I used the same type radiator as the one of your last pic for testing purpose, but they have rather narrow pipes in the fins. They will probably clog pretty fast. Unless you plan to do your filtering prior to cooling of course.
Friends; This is probably a crazy question but looking at Jan’s cyclone it dawned on me, looking at it from the top, he is going to create a counter-clockwise swirl. Most cyclones have the inlet so they create a clockwise swirl. Does this make a difference? Should the swirl be one direction North of the equator and reverse South. ( like water flowing down a sink drain )
Enough stupidity; I personally like the cooler JO used on his rabbit. The hot gas went into a horizontal pipe that had several tubes going straight down to a second horizontal pipe. The gas came into the top pipe and flowed through and cooled in the vertical pipes, then the second horizontal pipe took the gas AND and condensate to a condensation tank where the cooled gas was tapped off the top of the tank.
As a “disclaimer” I have to say, JO did NOT use this cooler in his Mazda. Now that I have expressed MY preference, I hope JO doesn’t come back with a comment that he didn’t use it in the Mazda because it didn’t work all that well in the Rabbit. TomC
Tom, you remember right except for the fact that the gas enters the condensation tank first and then climbs the cooler pipes. Same on both my builds. Good for melting the ice in the tank in wintertime.
Jan, if this build is for the Iller I would suggest you go wild on cooling surface area. There’s a huge difference in cooling running road speeds. I find my cooler pipes stay warmer at idle than they do at full power going down the road.
Or, if you find a way to make a compact cooler, install a cooling fan.
The two main disadvantages with a carb engine are, no1:
If you want to keep the ability to run gasoline you need to either pipe the gas through the carburator and it will get dirty over time. Or, make a mixing bowl between carburator and intake, where the gasmix is piped in via a second throttle.
No 2: The intake on a carburated engine has to be cleaned manually. With injection most of us use Mr Wayne’s method and set fire to the soot in the intake, while idling on gasoline.
What JO sayd. However the hybriding ability is nothing to be afraidof. Check my Mercedes thread, l fited a carb on a fuel injection engine with a second Renault Clio throtle body for woodfas, connected with the carb.
Probably not destroy it but certainly clogg up fast. It is best to make a T between the carb and intake manifold, and add a separate woodgas throtle body.
I dont have plesent experiances with them. Perhaps a good stainless one (they cost a fortune-70€/m!) But the regular exhaust hose will corode fast, develop pinholes that make hot leaks (gas burning in the inside) wich will destroy them. In my opinion they arent the best choice.
Jan, I used Biltema’s stainless flex from cyclone to condensation tank on the VW setup. Ran it every day for almost 2 years. Still nothing wrong with it.
The problem might be making it seal straight outof the gasifier. Too hot for the high temp silicone to hold up.
TomC