I try not to permanently glue anything. I usually put the PVC fittings together and then wrap them with Gorilla tape or Flex tape. Haven’t built anything yet that I didn’t want/have to pull back apart and change around.
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I also plastic weld with duct tape before i ever make any thing final , also silicon is also a great way to join pipe work you may want to undo one day
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Even if pvc is glued, it can be loosened with heat. I use a heat gun.
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Gave the Sierra a good chance of working but this reactor just isn’t very helpful. At least this time there wasn’t any moisture in the system. Not producing enough gas to give power. Got a few false starts but that could have been leftover gasoline in the fuel line.
Next I will try again in the Mazda but with the flutes angled down at 45 degrees or so. Maybe 60 degrees. Maybe the gas is congested from having to make an upwards burn then move downwards. Or maybe the slight upward angle is causing bridging.
Didn’t know that. Old dog, new tricks.
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What does your unit look like, do you have it in the oil drum?
Can you draw a sketch of what it looks like?
Have you checked the grate?
I have not checked the grate yet. The reactor had been shook pretty good going down the road so I was hoping it would clear any obstructions. I also took a poker and made sure it wasn’t bridging while it was running.
I’ll check the grate today.
Ha, l see the reason for confusion here. You see, this thing is counterintuitive. Shaking actualy densens the charbed as the bits vibrate tightly in to each other. A WK hanging grate is a different thing but with a fixed one you pugg it while vibrating.
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I kind of want to try plugging one of the flutes off to see if driving the velocity higher will create better gas.
It would be more of a diagonal draft unit at that rate but considering a Mako only used 4 14mm nozzles for a 2-4L engine, maybe 3 9.5mm holes is enough?
Changed the nozzle angle to roughly 60 degrees downwards. They are pointing so that they will not blast directly under the opposite flute. I’m thinking that’s what made them heat up so bad last time when I had them at a 45 degree downward angle. Maybe with the more direct downward direction the gas will react more strongly. I also checked for any places it could possibly leak and smeared ultra red on there as well. I will test it once again on the Mazda since I actually got it to make that engine run at all.
I might try to make the filtered gas exit out of two 2" PVC pipes to make more suction, not sure if that will be beneficial since the rest of the line is 2" ID before that. My line of thinking is it will just make two lines of weaker gas.
I was thinking of just making the two lines come out of a Tee from the filter box.
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It is a good idea to only change one thing at a time. That way you know what change helps.
I wonder what would happen if one of the 2 flutes was at 45 degrees and the other at 60 degrees?
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Not sure. I just remember both of the nozzles getting too hot for my thermometer gun to read and glowing red hot. I’m just hoping it’s angled down enough that it keeps the gas moving fast and won’t dwell too long. If the gas starts to get really hot I can always make a cooling rail, I have a coworker with new exhaust pipe that he’s willing to give for the project.
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Here’s the game plan.
Need to buy more PVC elbows tomorrow, route it along the passenger side up into engine bay. There’s a nice big gap I can have it come up through and this is the intake side so there isn’t any hot exhaust pipe to ruin my day. I plan to use my 2" spa valve as my gas line shutoff for when I’m in gasoline mode, and the 1.5" butterfly is my air mixture. I got it to idle okay after leaning the idle jet a fair bit.
I still need to remove the old Freon lines since it doesn’t have AC anymore so that’s even more room.
On my last test when I used vacuum cleaner hose, the hood of my truck was slightly crushing it so it didn’t have a snowballs chance of really delivering gas. I’m hoping the angle change eliminates the moisture in the gas and this hard line will allow the gas to be delivered efficiently.
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I might add another 3 way Tee at the lowest point of the gas line for any moisture draining. I won’t be gluing any of the PVC, just duct taping.
Okay! Plumbed in with hard lines ready for testing! A little late today to do it but she is all plumbed in and cinched down for a driving test.
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I’m definitely thinking of getting a helper spring to lift the rear end up, and for the front end I can always index the wishbone another spline to lift that. I’m paranoid of hitting something in the road and busting that PVC line.
Second driving test. Much better than last time! Unfortunately she died on a hill and had to go back to gasoline. Got way too hot and almost melted my rubber elbows.
She has a seriously hot gas that takes forever to warm up and really doesn’t want to stay on.
Top speed was about 45 miles an hour semi downhill in 4th gear.