Cody i am not 100% but slowing down your ac motor will cause it to over heat and burn out after a short while unless you have a external fan too keep it cool , far better to grab a old dc motor that will have the speed needed and the torque to crunch up charcoal at a decent rate of speed with out the mess .
Thoughts on the soapy water ?
Dave
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I’ll definitely try the soapy water. I can stick my bilge blower to the system and plug the other end with a sock to try it out.
Found two air leaks. One is right as the gas enter the filter, could be I didn’t seal my weld up good or maybe the flex pipe didn’t seal all the way, and one is where I welded pipe to the nozzle. I was wondering why the side got so hot in just that area and I suspected an air leak.
Just applied that liquid bandaid we call RTV on the problem spots.
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For what it’s worth, I’ve become a fan of T-rex tape and for a lot of things, Flex seal spray.
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That flex seal sounds good Tom , do you have a brand name or a photo of it ? mind you that will be another thing we cant buy over here i bet , but sometimes Ebay does come up trumps for hard to get items .
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I prefer the Permatex Ultra Red silicone. Can hold up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Was using it at the nozzles for the downdraft with no issues.
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I’ll try another test drive tomorrow after work. That’ll give the silicone enough time to be cured good. Hopefully I’ll have at least a bit more power.
I noticed now that the sock filter is good and sooted up I’m not getting hardly any dust in the PVC.
Also I will probably replace the duck tape with either aluminum duct tape or some flex tape, whichever is more waterproof.
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Ha, do try and reduce fuel size first. Updrafts work with almost dust like fuel (not saying its doing a filter any favors) but are extremely picky when it comes to fuel being too big
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I’m thinking that they sell flex seal in Australia Dave. It Ads are all over the TV here. Anyway there are other similar products,
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Thanks for that Tom ,
I found the products that are available here in Aus , and after watching the video where he tests all 3 i don’t think i would bother with a spray ,i bought a 5 litre tub of rubberised tank sealer /roof seal for $50 and it can be used neat or to paint on you water it down 50% and it is fantastic stuff for the price , this is what i found on the shelf over here
https://www.bunnings.com.au/rust-oleum-312g-clear-leakseal-flexible-rubber-coating-spray_p4750204
not cheap but i guess if its in a out of the way hard to reach spot then a spray would come in handy
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Did another driving test. I went through the fuel and took out all the biggest pieces and topped off with sieved char.
I have plugged all the air leaks I could find.
It’s running even worse somehow. I’m ready to pull my hair out over this thing.
I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong with this build.
I couldn’t even clear 30mph this time on flat ground.
I think i will try to build a longer air intake tube to require the engine to fight over producer gas and fresh air, as well as size down with a 3/4" ball valve. Even though this 1.5" is a butterfly it seems to be useless for most measurements.
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The galldern thing only wants to idle with the air valve absolutely shut even with leaks fixed.
But I’m pretty sure this is making the mixture too rich and is robbing power from the engine.
It does not suck together the hose that sits between the pipe and the carburetor? Or that you have a stop in some of the tank (filter) after the gasifire?
Cody can you give us some pictures of your gasifer finished work, the way it is setup right now. We call it a walk around. With the more eyes looking at it some times someone can spot where the problem is at. We are here to help you to have success.
Yes, what Jan has said. Soft rubber hoses and connections collapsing or filter plugging up would cause this problem you are having.
Wrong fuel mix to the engine to rich or to lean.
Are you running your engine at normal engine advancement or have you advanced it more for charcoal gas.
Are you using damp charcoal or dry charcoal.
Remember only change one thing at a time. And write it down in a log book for reference.
If I don’t do this I can remember the wrong thing I changed and really get frustrated and mix up on what I have done.
Bob
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What Bob sayd. Also l think adding a hose pressure guage before and after the filter will help you a lot with diagnostics.
What about ignition timing. You played with that any?
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Not yet. My distributor is adjustable without needing to mess with the cap so I’m trying to figure out how to make that remotely adjustable.
And yeah I’ll take some photos.
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Some other factors come into play when DYI gasious trying to make power.
The ability to widely adjust the ignition timing as mentioned.
90% of my woodgasing experiences has been with nearly fixed timing small electrical generator engines. Once the gasifier system is fully developed. And the operator experienced trained nearly 70% of the gasoline power can be had. But one little thing changes . . . and you are down to 50% power!!
The vehicle guy with thier adjustable timing shows that timing changing can compensated some for the internal gasifier changing conditions.
Another overlooked is that until you do get good gasification going you are too often soot fouling out spark plugs. The older, more worn, and oil burning the engine is . . . the quicker this happens.
Single cylinder engine this is usually and easy one to pull-n’-read.
Your four cylinder engine find the worst cylinder and pull-n’-monitor that one.
A $500 whole old Chevy pickup engine, well worn would hammer me hard woodgasing. A real oil burner. And the fouled spark plugs would run it fine with it’s big cap HEI up to 70-80,000 volts ignition when on gasoline. But cough, spit, bark not want to start on wood gas. Running; poor power then. Clean new spark plugs was the trick.
Learning engines strongly favor the easy in/out spark plugs ones.
The much work to sparkplugs access one’s: best to just not use.
S.U.
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What Steve said, timing adjustment IN the cab, live feed afr gauge IN the cab, air mixture adjustments IN the cab. Give yourself as much instrumentation as possible, live feed inputs to what the motor is doing and what it needs. The more input information you have the easier to tune it up and less guessing in the dark what the motor wants to run well
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Cody I have been following the build but I know very little about charcoal. Not sure any advise from me would help but still thinking .
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