We want to convert a 1939 Chevrolet car to run using charcoal as fuel. This is being done to educate future generation of India on how during World war II crisis cars where run in India. Can any one help me to develop this system for the above car?
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Hello Venkatesan,
I’m probably not the best person to be giving any technical advice concerning your question, but I have gained a lot from the people on the forum, so it’s high time for me to welcome you here. I’m glad you’re interested in such a project!
You may have studied a good bit already, and studying will give you the best foundation in gaining an understanding of what’s going on.
There’s tons of stuff on the forum regarding charcoal gasification and a lot of builders—especially for smaller engines.
A lot of them have powered cars as well. I can think of two immediately off the top of my head, Gary Gilmore, and Eddie Ramos. There are many more, but these two have furnished a fair amount of video and plans to help you start something simple.
Really, after you’ve gained an understanding by building a Gilmore style (or the like), and have successfully powered a small engine, you could scale it up to a car engine.
At some point, you just have to take the basic parts that every gasifier needs, and dive in and experiment. Unless you have a gasifier from that era as a pattern, it’s going to be all custom work.
In 2023-2024 I learned the principles by building a wood gas powered truck, following Wayne Kieth’s wood gasifier build (and other’s on this forum).
This past January, I began to study about charcoal gasifiers, with the primary purpose of building one for a 48 year old Yamaha XS 650E.
My “Charmaha” was completed three weeks ago, but I had to leave the country the very next day. This is my first day back and within a few days I hope to deal with the few minor things left before I can fire it up.
I’ve not seen a downdraft built like this before so to be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure if it will fire up and work, or if it will have much power or range, etc.
Like I said, at some point, you just have to experiment and then make the necessary changes. You’ll learn perseverance, and patience will be your friend.
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To add to what Barry said, here’s the link to @ramosedmundo website auto a basura or Drive on Waste. He has manuals in English. It is very good documentation if you’re wanting to go with a charcoal system.
Welcome to the forum, there are plenty of builds you can look for on here to get inspiration.
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hello venkatesan, welcome in the forum…here two links of my charcoal projects …gasiFIAT crawler - Small Engines / Charcoal Gasification - Drive On Wood!
and how to make charcoal quickly and simple in the right size…i see just now a second link not works since we have the new system on the forum…so look on my topics, there you can find a lot of things with foto documentation…ciao giorgio
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Try this link:
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Thank you for your support. I will get back to you after doing some more homework from my end.
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I am delighted to hear about your efforts to run the 48 year old Yamaha XS 650E. If it is possible please share your experiment on this subject. Eagerly awaiting to hear from you. I am a retired Engineer from a Two wheeler manufacturing company in India. Thank you once again sharing your experince.
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Hello Barry Miller,
Thank you for your response. I will take the lead given by you. we want to make the vehicle run on Charcoal and demonstrate to youngsters for their education.
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I’ll try to post some pictures early next week. I’m still fiddling with just a few things and I hope to put some charcoal in soon. Like I said, it may not fire right up, or even run at all.
I might have to do some more fiddling after my fiddling —ha ha. We’ll see. Good luck on your project!
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