My twinflap throttlebody was moody for afew days now. The axle holding the flaps started to stick so l had to lubricate it before every drive with some WD40, but today eaven that didnt help. Afterall, its a mild steel/alu joint with tight tolerance. A bit of rust and dirth and sticking is here.
Doesent matter, this was experimental.
The plan is to make a new auromix woodgas carburator, something a bit more professional now but for the time l need to make one, l marryed the original throtlebody with the automixer. The resault?
Odd. I swithed the two flaps with the single original flap, so in theory under throttle there shuldnt be any difference. But the resaults were the opposite. It idled well (as with twinflaps) but for some reason when l drive (nearly) WOT the automixer culdnt find s good setpoint. I culd feel it. It searched and for a second the engine pullde realy hard but hthen the automixer lost it agen. I realy dont get it.
Kristigan; Did the throttle shaft stick after sitting over night and then once it was loosened up it would work ok until it sat in one position again. Or was it sticking while driving, so the vacuum could not adjust it?
On my TBI I had a similar problem. I cleaned the carburetor with carb cleaner. A couple of days later when I go in, the throttle was stuck. Got under the hood and broke it loose. Ok, until it sat over night again. It go so bad, I had to take a hammer to the linkage and tap it to loosen it. After loosening, I would work the throttle a few times and it got better. Finally after braking in loose several times the situation corrected itself. If you can brake yours loose and then it will operate on itās own until it sits again, I would just live with it and hope it heals up. Something about the aluminum and iron corroding as you suggested.TomC
It was as you describe at first but now it became undriveable and dangeorus. Plus l realy need to make a better twinflap, this is was just a test one and it is in no means 100% simetrical or airtight, plus its a bit too small.
JO, Max is right about that. But as l understand the twinflaps are there just for throtled driveing and idle, once you go WOT on them, its just the same as there isnt any (or to have just 2 identical suply pipes like l do now). Yet it doesent work well.
I have been looking at those bags of wood pellets in the stores for some time now thinking what wuld happen if l fill them in my wood chunk gasifier.
Well, my shift is about over and l forgot to make enough wood chunks yesterday for the drive home, so l am seriously considering buying a bag.
Has anyone got a prediction what will happen?
My thinking is lll get constipated after some time and the hopper will have to be empty at cooldown becouse of pellets swelling from condense.
Allso there will likely be more slipt char.
Tom
I fought a similar throttle sticking problem on my 460 CI Ford. I used a torch to heat it when tapping twisting became excessive.
The solution was to slightly crack it open after blocking the idle air bypass.
3 months and 1000 miles and no more sticking
We manufacture wood pellets at the mill, and bulk handle them with augers. Even a small amount of water leak will cause 2x or 3x swelling and require a hammer and chisel to remove! Couple that with freezing temps and you might end up with a ābrickā in your gasifier.
I saw no difference in performance and the dense pellets alow me to extend my range from 40 km to at least 80km on one hopper. Ill have a bag of them always in the car in case l rin out of chunks.
Carl,
This was my main concern but it looks like the hot hopper likes them. A positive thing is allso they have much less moisture thain my wood.
Kristijan,
Thatās interesting. I read so much about that it wasnāt possible. Did you mix them with wood to maintain a proper charbed or was that pellets alone? Keep us posted on what it looks like after sitting over night.
Only one thing I didnāt like about this: Buying fuel
I burned allmost the whole bag today, so its preety safe to say the whole charbed is now made of pellet charcoal. Yes, there are a few peaces of wood that were left in the hopper but not much.
It seems the hot hopper doesent alow steam to condensate on the pellets.
There is a slight constipation feel on the performance but if anything l am pleased with it. This alows me to push the engine and gasifier a bit more, l got my cruizeing speed from 80 to 90 kmh with pellets without overheating.
This shows JO was right, my fuel was too big for my too heavy right foot
Yeah buying fuel is a pain. Puts me back on the old track. A lot cheaper thain petrol but still costy.
But for a long trip to the sea with no place for woodchunks this is a preety winning solution.
I might just get bald enough some day and visit you JO, now that l found a available sorce of fuel on the road
I live 700 km north of Malmƶ, where the bridge from Denmark is. I guess itās less than half of the trip left when you reach it.
I live in a village called BƤsna, 20 km nv of BorlƤnge which is the nearest major town, if you want to google map.
I donāt know about the gasifier. I guess itās just as unleagal as running around home. No difference. Border check points are probably mostly about immigrants and drugs.
Google says 2100km. This means about 330kg of wood wuld be burnt in one way, if l buy pellets thats 75ā¬. Not so bad compared to 230ā¬ of petrol that wuld be needed
Who knows, perhaps we point north instead of south for next years vaicatuon. I always wanted to visit the north
Kristijan, so if you want some extra range when driving, just mix the wood pellets in with your wood to fill in the voids between your wood chunks, now you can still go 80km on one hopper. Have you tried wood chips like @mggibb Michael Gibb been doing in his gasifier?
Bob
The way to handle pellets would be to just vacuum them out of the gasifier. Dump them out of the vacuum and a bag them for next year, no fun after they swell up and lock in a confined place. That other 75% keeps moving into other categories. Right?
Bob
Kristijan,
Thanks for the videos, they are cheering me up (work has been a bear lately).
Have you tried dry graphite powder lubricant, or something with āTeflonā in it for your auto-mixer? I find WD-40 is good stuff, but goes away quickly.
Mike
Mike
Glad to hear that it is a buissy winter here too, along with other obligations we are allso renovateing and expanding our stables for horses, cows, pigh and poultry. But we have a saying that a buisy mind repells the devil
I tryed engine oil, greese, wd, nothing worked long enough.
But the good news is the automixer now works well with the original (one flap) throttle body. The problems from the other day was caused with a pinched sample hose, this didnt allow the membrane to inflate in time for a accurate setting.
Ok, now to push the experimental spirit further.
Has anyone burned shelled corn in a gasifier before?
My thinking is the shape of kernels is about the same as pellets, energy content too, but the price is a lot lower.
The problems l see might lie in protein contents. I have heared that corn is more corrosive thain wood pellets when burned in a pellet burner, but then agen this might be a marketing hoax.
Of corse, here is allso a etical question. Burning food. The real purpose of this experiment wuld be proof of concept.
Seems like there is a mineral in corn that when exposed to gasification temps it like to coat things with a glass type coating . plugging grates etc ā¦ I may be mistaken
that wuld be great! Sounds like a plan for next year maybe 
