It definitely has a whine to it. I’ll hook my AC PWM up to it and try it out.
The screen I have in my trommel for separating worm castings is quarter inch which is the smallest I could find. Some worms get through that. I bought a plastic colander and drilled the holes out to an eighth and final sift the castings through that. Takes a little time but I have enough of that.
For updrafts l usualy just sift the dust out and leave the fines.
The amount of dust you got is about what l wuld expect for any crusher.
Those chipper blades will have lock tight on them from the factory , if you want to take the blades off then a gentle heat on the hex head and use your impact gun with a hex key in the chuck and they will spin out no worries , also pretty sure that will be a AC induction motor with a capacitor to help start , i have a old one laying around i collected from the road side , spins too fast for me for charcoal , so i use it for all my waste scraps for the worms gets it nice and mushie for them .
You never realize how little charcoal you made until you grind it all down.
55 gallons of raw char became maybe 20, 25 gallons finished product.
I guess that is because of like store-bought Ice Cream, proper fuel charcoal is mostly air. Trapped (moisture?) in little spaces that go away when agitated and crushed. That is also the secret of “biochar”. The dust that blows away is of course, lost mass. Put it in your garden if you can catch it! (Or I could be full of “IT”.)
I do see a major benefit to small sized charcoal. You can get more weight out of the same volume.
Besides the obvious gas potency and heat control reasons.
I bought a 1/2" square hardware cloth mesh so what I’m doing is pre sifting my charcoal to keep some bigger engine grade sizes and cut down the amount the grinder has to do.
The charcoal has dulled the chipper blades but I think that’s leading to slightly bigger pieces now.
As long as the feed stock stays big it lets out more ideal pieces. I need to get a big reusable sturdy bag to wrap around the exit and control my dust more. Mom gave me a proper mask so I dont get Black Booger.
Grinding the charcoal has been the biggest change. Top speed at a slight decline was 65mph in Overdrive. She’s sluggish on hills but if I pop it into 3rd and gun it she maintains 40ish.
Also changed the filter media to two tight fitting open cell foam blocks.
It’s getting hot enough to burn off the paint just above where the flutes are welded. I’m not sure if that’s an air leak or if the nozzles on each end are just a little too close. Might put in some ceramic wool to insulate that.
Did a little weight math.
About 5 gallons of my finished char weighs roughly 8 pounds or a little more. So total volume would be in the ballpark of 88-90 pounds. If I get too weak at halfway point that means I should get minimum 45 miles to a barrel using the pound a mile estimate.
I’ll have to fill this up to the brim and drive it until it goes empty to really see.
@KristijanL how far do you usually get, pound to mile?
My little 2400 lb. Geo Tracker was getting a little over 2 miles per lb. and sometimes closer to 3 in perfect conditions with its 16 valve 1.6L engine.
I’m sure in Overdrive with an uninterrupted stretch you could get better.
That’s good to know, though. I’m thinking of driving it to work tomorrow but on the other hand the reactor is still held down with ratchet straps so I shouldn’t invoke Murphy’s Law on myself too soon.
Still haven’t fiddled with spark advance just yet. The bolt holding the adjustment down is really tight so I’ll need to be careful I don’t break it.
What I might do is back it off just a hair and blue loctite it back into place so it leaves it stable but have enough wiggle to adjust with a cable.
Based on what SteveU said about pulling it towards the vacuum direction, it’s already at a very advanced setting.
I was thinking of just resetting for high test gasoline but what’s the fun in a non adjustable spark?
At least then I could use some cruddy fuel in a real pinch and get less knock.
I also need to get a reducer coupling down to a 3/4" valve. I think if I set the idle jet to as lean as possible I’ll be good with super reduced air like that. I don’t have room to tee it off with a big and little valve like originally planned.
The truck actually managed to have the air open just a hair more than last time so maybe with a smaller valve I can dial it in. Maybe that 1.5" butterfly will work better in the Sierra.
Also still planning out a downdraft. I’m just not sure if this car rim will hold up to charcoal. Going to weld sheet around the old bead seat to seal it off and use it as an air intake jacket. The rim will be welded to that 20 gallon drum, and that will be welded to a 55 gallon drum lid with just enough room to put the 20 gallon lid on and lock it down.
Nozzles of that system will be angled down like how a Mako demonstrates, I’m thinking either 5 or 6 nozzles taken from those wrist pins.
I have the dish part of the rim cut out to fit a propane tank but I could also fit those big heavy duty brake drums I squirreled away. Would give me a 5" reduction and something really good and thick to sink the heat into. Would give me less volume of char beneath the nozzles though so not sure if that’s a plus or a minus.
Thinking of a swinging grate on a really short chain, just enough to vibrate out the ash.
With the 20 gallon drum being inside the 55 gallon drum it leaves me room to make a booster hopper to attach so there’s room for tweaking with that. Wish I was a better artist so I could draw all this out for all the visual minded people like me. I can see it in my head just can’t get the hand to comply with the brain.
I had also thought to maybe make a jumbo Steve Abadessa gasifier with a refractory core. That seems almost harder to do with a big drum like that.
You have your brain in high gear thinking at full speed ahead. I like it. With what can I come up with in building a charcoal gasifer with what I have to use that is just at hand.
Bob
Ha, quite a difference compared to 30mph huh… Thats with water drip?
It seems entirely possible the downdraft version failed from same reason…
How is idle now?
Now l got too much math to do, miles, pounds, kilometers… volume is more important thain weight to me. I dont care much how many pounds are in the hopper but the volume is a limiting factor so l usualy get one kilometer per liter of hopper volume.
Yes I had it on water drip and the idle was very improved. I still had to actually turn the idle up but I was able to shut off the gasoline supply and close off the air control like last time, and when the gasoline got empty I turned the idle up and played with air mixture. Managed to open it up just a little bit. Throttle response was way better because of it I think.
I am now having one annoying event going on since I reduced the charcoal size. A lot of embers like to fall from the holes. I guess I need to find some scrubbers to set in the mouths of the flute to prevent a bunch of embers flying out of my vehicle.
Yes embers puffing back are a problem and a danger and l defenetlu hadnt payed enaugh atention to. Althugh its less problematic once a nice slag volcano forms.