Hi Ron and Dave
I have just immigrated to Aus, we are in South Western WA if you are ever this side let me know.
Thanks Patrick
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Hi Patrick , i hope your settling in well over here , i for one would love to drop in,and say hello if we can ever decided where we will go for our next holiday , but coming from the coldest wettest suburb of Victoria we tend to jump on a plane up to the tropics 
I hope you will be doing something in the gasifier line over there in WA please let us all know how your getting on .
Dave
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Hi guys, bit of an update on how I’m going. It lit my new gasifier last night with a bit of success, I improvised a few things being eager to try it out. It has no cyclone, the second drum is empty, the gas enters the second drum through an internal pipe at the bottom and is collected at the top then the third drum is 1/4 full of small volcanic rock then filled to the top with hay. It flared for over 3 hours Uploading… Uploading…
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Looking good Ron , how was the filter looking after the 3 hour flare . much crap in it ?
Dave
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Cheers I haven’t looked in the bottom of the hay filter but the top looked clean with a bit of soot underneaththe lid, the hay was damp. A bit of water collected in the second empty drum and was much blacker but surprisingly little to no ash in it, I’ll show a pic of the two lids together for comparison
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I did have some success last night running the Ute for the first time, in the beginning I don’t think the computer liked what was happening but it eventually was idling and revving ok, I think the drive by wire throttle had its own ideas and wouldn’t respond a lot of the time especially when trying to lift the revs up off of idle,
I’ll persist with this car for a bit longer otherwise I’ll find something older and simpler
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Hi Ron, on the newer vehicles with a OBD2 system it can be rebooted, so the relearning of the computer will except the wood gas, not sure how you are piping it to the engine. Hope some of the DOW members will chime in and give their knowledge on how they did it. I have a OBD1 system on my 92 Dakota truck.
Bob
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Hi Robert, yes it’s a 2004 with obd2, no dizzy, no throttle cable. I also have a 1979 ford transit van with a 4.1 litre motor but it’s underpowered even on petrol but I’ll see how it goes with it because then I can cancel out any computer issues. i suspected an internal air leak because occasionally the gasifier would vibrate like it was pulse jetting from a bad weld at my ignition port, I’ll show a pic, I don’t think the air would have been getting past the threads but I’m not sure
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Ron, congratulations to your success.
I don’t know how much the camera lies but it looks as if you found the leak. Your internals do look light brown, as if air was present. Should be pretty much pitch black.
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Thanks Jo, yes I was surprised how much a small leak can upset the whole show! It couldn’t have been more than a bit of slag in the weld letting air creep past, I’m not ready to give up on that car just yet. It was a crude setup I had rushed together to satisfy my urge to hear an engine run for the first time and it did show a lot of promise so I’ll keep at it
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Nice one Ron , even though it did not run 100% to your liking i bet you were still thinking about picking a few lemons off the tree , there’s something so satisfying about the first engine run on something you have made from your own hands .
Dave
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Ron, Is that a lighting port? And is it sealed well on the outside drum? Just thinking by typing…
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Hi mike yes it is, I have fixed it up and improved it so hopefully that sorted the leak. It was still pulsing though I till I gave the reduction a good stoke so maybe that’s all that was causing it
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Hey Tom it sure does haha especially your 45 degree pipe joiners at the bottom! But I swear I’ve looked at thousands of pics and started piecing together what I thought would be the most effective way using mostly off the shelf parts. I even brought some eyelets because I was concidering hanging a grate just like yours but mine has a fixed grate at the bottom now. I’m using copper pipe I couldn’t find that flexible stainless stuff that’s used in the gek, your pipe appears to be stainless?
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Your 100% right dave it was a good moment for me, I think an au falcon would be much better, they still ran a dizzy and throttle cable. I noticed while cranking the engine at 1/4 throttle that the butterfly would snap shut on its own till the engine fired then return to what ever position you had your right foot at. I don’t think that is very helpful for woodgas. I’ve spent many hours flaring this gasifier and learning lots along the way, I haven’t noticed any tar downstream so far so that’s a good start
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Hi Ron , i was shocked at the price of flexi stainless pipe here in oz, being a Pom we are used to being able to get that stuff real cheap in the UK , we have been getting off cuts of scrap flexi tubing coming into the scrap yard every now and again but non longer than about half a meter , , but i came across this a few weeks ago , just in case your ever in the market for some , they say its Aus stock but i think its really in china looking at the comments .
Dave
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