Got the drip tank made up. Used a step drill to make as tight of a fitting hole as I could.
It’s tapped into there and I’m using silicone to seal it up further.
The little cap on the top I drilled an air relief hole into, and the big cap is obviously for filling up.
Did a longer test drive.
The gas is still coming out weak. I need to see if I have any air leaks in my intake manifold. I’m sure there’s plenty of leaks in the PVC joints.
Air mixture still had to be 100% closed.
Barely pulled a few hills.
Basically keeping the pedal to the floor to get at any speed or maintain a speed.
I’m wondering if this little engine is really okay to run on wood. Maybe it’s just too wore out for it.
Glued some more of the PVC joints. The duck tape I’m using obviously isn’t meant for seals. If i had some true duct tape it might be better.
Some of the joints are being troublesome to PVC glue so I used rtv and duck taped them back over.
I think I’m going to save up for some pre bent conduit tubing. I already have one 90 degree bend. I can expand one mouth and lap weld one into another and make a solid pipe connection to my filter.
I’ve been studying on my Sierra again and looking at the air intake resonator.
Looks like there’s a valve cover breather going into it, or maybe it’s PCV.
I’m wondering if I can hack that off and use it to plumb the gas line in. It’s supposed to be a work truck Vortec but it doesn’t have the same throttle body location as all the other 4.3L engines. Way in the back instead of in the front.
The old air intake tubes used a bolt on air silencer but this one is molded into the tubing.
Really really frustrating.
Plus I’m not sure if the throttle by wire will play nice with woodgas. Wish it was a cable throttle.
Throttle by wire over time will gum up with carbon no different then throttle by cable l, under normal running conditions on gasoline. Intake manifolds over time have carbonized oil deposits they need to be cleaned out. Computer is always taking a reading of what percent the throttle plate is open to help control fueling and over time as things get gummed up the throttle plate will be held open I think the highest computer reading I have ever seen was 15% open at idle where normally it is 2% open. Throttle body cleanings are a quick easy upsale for most technicians in shops, special cleaners are made just for throttle body cleanings ( gimmicky crap that is “sensor safe” and exspensive) so I wouldn’t be to worried about it with char gas. Make a fair bet if the truck is over 150,000 miles and you shine a light while holding the throttle open you will see deposits in the intake and on the backside of the throttle plate as well
How fast were you able to drive on flat now?
With what you are working with l wuld not expect more thain 50-55mph top speed to be honest. After all its a big truck with a 2l engine
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Absolute top speed on flat ground seems like about 40mph. Maybe 35mph. It really hates hills and I almost stalled twice on some really long hills.
But I went 6 miles with no heat issues so there’s that.
Well that is kinda low. Im sure it can do better!
Yeah I’m not entirely sure where it’s going wrong. Maybe that flex hose is letting some air in.
Or it could be the PVC. I glued some of the joints and siliconed others then taped over.
I still need to get an adapter to see if making the air adjustment smaller will help. Maybe it will apply more suction to the gas line and allow freer air to flow.
I noticed it had better response with some air, but it wouldn’t hold idle.
Maybe once i have remote controls for the adjustments I can open the air up a tad.
Thats a common simptom. Idle is always a pain. The thing is the woodgas vs air draw dont go up linearly with engine draw
Do you have a o2 sensor on the exhausy?
I do have an O2 bung on the exhaust. The engine computer was really just for EGR and the original Carburetor. I’m going to place at the very least a narrow band AFR meter.
Thats the most usefull tool with chargas diagnostics. With a woodgasifier you realy need 3 inputs. Pressure, temp and lambda value to figure out exactly whats going on. With a updraft char gasifier only lambda is sufficient as the charbed can never get tight or loose and as long as you got fuel the temps can never rise.
What kind of fuel you use? With a downdraft fuel can vary in size and qualiti but here it is absolutely crucial you got a good mix of fine and corse char up to half a inch in size. Big charcoal doesent make a gasifier but a forge.
I made a bucket with ~1" holes and screened out any big pieces. So I have anything under ~1" cross section charcoal in there.
I’m still working on a crusher but I’m at the point I would rather pay one of you guys to build one for me and I’ll finish the rest. I have powerplants and I can make a ramp to remove the dust easily.
Maybe I could buy a cheap leaf mulcher and take some of the teeth out of that unit.
Cody , what i use is a small wood chipper , it had a 5hp B&S motor on it m i disconnected the motor and mounted a 12/24 wheel chair motor onto it and that turns roughly 60rpm it is totally adjustable to speed , slower u get less dust and this little chipper has small hammers in side that seem to crunch up the char against other char and drops a perfect mixture of 2 mm up too 16 mm through the grill , over here there are plenty for sale on the second had sale sites .
You mention leaks on your latest truck build , having your air valve almost closed is a pretty good sign of that and you would be amazed at what leaks after time of use but yours is a new build , so what i would do before touching or moving anything is take the pipe from the closest spot to where it goes into your engine , and with a mattress inflator fan or blower of some type blow back down your pipe then with a spray bottle filled with soapy water and work your way all along the line back to the filter /cooler/ gasifier all around the lid everywhere you can think off , and just watch out for bubbles , takes the guess work out of it this way .
Dave
Secondhand chippers are even still pretty expensive.
But I do have an AC voltage PWM so maybe I can slow down a chinesium electric chipper from eBay.
People complain about the Sunjoe units but charcoal will mulch easier than wood so hopefully it’ll last.
