Marcus, Kamil said it well.
The two-stroke Detroit diesel engine has an exhaust valve in the head that opens before the piston reaches the bottom position when the fresh air ports open. The compressor that prepares the overpressure and the amount of fresh air is probably volumetrically matched to the volumetric capacity of the engine, or rather, it probably prepares a slightly too large amount of air, so this amount nicely ventilates the working volume of the cylinder. If you imagine, the ignition of diesel fuel requires a temperature of over 400°C, which is achieved with high compression, so the cylinder must be filled with air, we must not throttle the air flow too much like with a gasoline engine, but we can change the ratio between wood gas and air, by slightly throttle the fresh air, and simply open and close the gas, depending on consumption. The easiest way to test this is with propane, well, limit it beforehand. dosing on the diesel pump with the stop lever, and place the rev increase lever in the middle, the engine will want to increase revs, and the stop lever will limit the amount of fuel so that it will run at low revs, when you start adding gas (propane, wood gas), the revs will increase. Combustion is clean and complete, because gas also ensures clean combustion of diesel fuel.
Tom,
We didn’t get any snow at all here. Down the beach, Round Lake got 52" of snow. My son in the Sault got blasted and he spent 8 hours in the loader, cleaning out the lumber yard he works at.
Fellas,
About the Detroits, to run them on gas, you’d have to disable the rack somehow so that they would just spray enough fuel to idle. You’d need a throttle valve ahead of the blower. Definitely would want the e-stop flapper in working condition. The big danger is snapping the blower drive quill shaft. The blower would need to be cared for if there was any danger of a tar event. Really though, they burn any kind of liquid hydrocarbon, so if you were so desperate to get an engine running that you couldn’t fuel a Detroit with used motor oil, I would think there would be all kinds of four stroke gas engines to had.
I find Steve’s gas bitching very interesting. For once, I am not the peasant desperate for road motor fuel. All last fall, and winter I put back barrels of gasoline, and diesel. I have also put back several idi ih diesels, dt466s, tall deck gm big blocks, and of course ford i300 sixes, and Chrysler 225 slant sixes.
I will look for the VW diesels. There were a bunch of cabriolets for sale here earlier.
I do have two Datsun SD33 non turbo diesel sixes I’d sell. They were married to torque flite 727s. Some sort of jeep tug type concoction.
Immna prolly stick with the 6.9 idi or the dt466 this summer. I don’t really go anywhere anymore so fuel mileage isn’t a concern.
It sounds like you will need it. I don’t think the snow is going to be melted by summer, if you do decide to venture out.
Spring is here! I really come to life, and want to live outdoors.
Some week ago i found the first coltsfoot, and yesterday i found blue anemone reaching for the sun.
Duck and dog enjoys the sun against the house wall.
Short sleeve weather.
Thanks for the picture Goran. I don’t think we’ll be seeing spring flowers anytime soon. Still stuck back here in the woods and the snow is slowly melting with a couple of sunny days but now it’s too solid to do much with the snow blower so we are just waiting it out. Ran out of coffee cream but otherwise we could stay back here for months.
We finally turned the corner into autumn down here. It might as well be winter. The last week of summer was rainy and we had the wood stove going the whole time. Might get a sunny break for a while though and an “Indian Summer”. I need it to complete some roof repairs. It bums me out that this summer sped by so quickly, but on the other hand it cheers me that my northern friends can finally look forward to the end of a particularly nasty winter.
Hey BruceJ., you are living example of the wisdom:
“Only having One; puts you just one step away from having None.
Having Two; then gives you a back up for the One Primary.
Now having Three; you have the backed up; backed up.”
Plus the 2nd and 3rd gives you, if same-same, available spare parts. Or versatility; in-sizing and use-capabilities.
My pump fuels in Washington State is a cautionary to head-in-the-sands fellows . . . “They” came here with their forced Beliefs systems spreading up and outwards from California; eastward from the NYC; forcing their social changes through our own pocket books.
And with no more new made simple, easy to understand and use, small internal combustion compression engines allowed imported . . . then the old ones still existing, become the only diminishing-quantity, way.
Fortunately most guys are lazy and not willing to spend out on anything but a turn key solution.
USA and Canada we are lucky. Still old gems to be had.
S.U.
Hello everyone,
I’ve had to put my gasifier project on hold for the time being to prepare the vegetable garden for spring.
I would like to share my work with you here.
First, I reinforced the concrete borders with Corten steel.
This allowed me to improve my arc welding skills (fixing the brackets to the concrete), but the vertical welds were done by my cousin, it’s his job (he owed me a favor).
The bending prevents slugs from getting in.
And here’s the horse manure I had to add to reach the correct levels.
All that’s left is to use the rototiller at the new moon, weather permitting.
Auw Bruce, now you made me do this. Didnt want to share but now I have to compensate your puctures.
We are at Curacao for our 25 th wedding anniversary.
Got my Padi here 25 years ago and now with the boys. Same instructor. Eric and Yolanda, living legends in the diving world.
Very very nice week this was. How would my life have been if we stayed here 25 years ago? For sure I didnt work that much
And also very surprising, gasoline is less then two guilders/ one dollar a litre. Less then half the price back home, how is that possible?
Very nice David, impressive! Are you sure that works against snails? Our garden is a mess, nice timing, thanks.
Those are very nice beds and your area is beautiful, David. Kind of surprised to see the Corten steel. Earlier in my life I did structural and ornamental ironwork. US steel brought out Corten in the early 70’s and were looking for markets for it so they convinced the owner of a office tower I worked on in Ann Arbor Michigan to use it for the outside skin of the building. (curtainwall) Installed raw, and after a while it began it’s oxidation process but the surface rust started bleeding and stained all the masonry and paving around the building. Big lawsuit. I don’t know how that came out. Pretty much ended the advertised material of the future for exterior cladding. Haven’t seen any in many years prior to your photos. Supposed to last a lifetime. Automakers rejected it as a frame material because they didn’t want their cars to last that long,
Hi Joep,
Congratulations on your 25th wedding anniversary!
I’ll let you know if it works later, but I have a feeling it would take a brave and athletic snail to avoid falling headfirst and having to do a 180-degree rotation.
Another solution I had before this one was two metal ribbons side by side connected to battery.
It’s drastic but less aesthetically pleasing.
With a good zoom on the photo, you can see the device; I had used 2 stainless steel strips.
Hi Tom,
Where I live, Corten steel is widely used for its rusted appearance in exterior decoration.
We’re seeing more and more Corten steel planters in private homes.
Normally, Corten steel should stabilize in terms of rust within the first three years unless moisture gets trapped inside.
Otherwise, a rust accelerator and then a special varnish can be applied to stabilize it and avoid rust stains (I hope I won’t have to do this, but I’ve considered it).
Also used for industrial chimneys here, the 210 foot ones we have at work for the steam boilers have no maintenance needed except for the occasional check for cracks caused by swaying in the wind but to my knowledge none has been found. Outstanding material.
The oldest one now standing for 44 years.
But yes, there is some discolouring of the ground around them.
I have never heard of that, but i see why. It is a neat idea.
It looks great. I didn’t know what corten steel was, and I was going to mention you could use tannic acid to help prevent rust and give it a blue-black color. (it needs to have rust on it to work as it binds with the rust to make the coating.)
joep, curacao…honestly, in this way when your gasifier projects will get finished…
david, really nice environment on your place…the horse is a belgian draft horse?
the snail fence should work i think, i have tried a lot of years ago with a little model about 10 cm in square, bended to the inner side, and than i gave some snails inside, and they could not escape…
only the metal was very fine, the edge therefore was more or less sharp
Thank you for all your kind words.
The horses are half-draft, Black Forest horses, originating from that region in Germany.