It still ran on gasoline, but pretty much only 1/4 throttle it less. Which is fine for 1/2 a mile twice a day to get switched over to wood!
6 Likes
No. Some kind of voodoo going on here. I canāt believe you are getting enough differential pressure out of that to pull gas out of the float bowl. What kind of carb is that? I might consider that you are getting enough gas out of the accelerator pump to keep it running on gas if you are pumping the pedal. Otherwise I go back to voodoo.
3 Likes
Holley 650, and I had to pump the crap out of it to get the accelerator pump to give enough fuel to start, then vacuum took over for the little bit of fuel it could deliver. Trust me, Iām amazed it was running on gasoline haha
6 Likes
Did you upsize the squirter nozzle when you changed the cam?
You know there are some things mere mortals are not made to understand. Iād send a picture of that to Holley. I knew a guy once that dropped a Stanley thermos 500 feet down an elevator shaft we were working in. It hit a beam at the bottom and horseshoed around it but when he uncapped it the coffee was still hot. He wrote to Stanley and they bought it off him. I thought they were going to make some kind of ad out of it but never saw one.
6 Likes
Your gonna hate me for this Tom
When I worked at the wrecking yard, this carb was on a big block chev 76 one ton. Truck was totalled and parting it out, the yard I worked for only sold oem parts, anything aftermarket was straight in the scrap bin. I salvaged all sorts of stuff whenever I could, and the big block still ran so I snagged the carb off of it and put it in the shed. When I built this motor I grabbed the first 4 barrel in the stack of carbs I had scarballed away and threw it on, to broke to do any tuning to it. It ran good and I never gave it a second thought no idea anything about it. I have never had it apart, donāt know what jets are in it, just a random carb I grabbed and hasnāt given me any problems or reason to tear it apart
8 Likes
Stack of carbs? No hate but some rather severe envy. Of course when I was working Iron, you would not believe the kinds of stuff I used to pull out of the dumpsters and drag home. My wife was not a big fan.
6 Likes
I had stacks. Carbs, headers, mufflers, stereos, speakers, amps, subs, heads, shifter knobs, k@n air filters for anything and everything, cold air intakes, HID and LED lights, programmers, gauges, airbags, compressors, air tanks, brake controllers, intake manifolds. Aftermarket =junk for the first year I worked there. Then they opened a ebay account and started selling everything aftermarket on there at cost of new, made me sick to my stomach seeing the other dismantlers cut through a header with a sawzall, or toss a set of aftermarket wheels in the gravel. I know to well how much it was all worth and what someone payed to get it. And the management just did not care! The tires and wheels that are on my Toyota right now? 17" American racing, with khumo siped street tires? 100$. I had the reciept out of the Nissan Sentra that I took them off of, less then 800 miles on them and 1600$ for the set. My last Suzuki samurai, I got a set of cooper stt still with the nubbyās on them, 100$. My dadās Toyota Tacoma has a set of Goodyear duratracs, about 1500 miles on them. 75$. Every rig I have had except the Dodge had exhaust/mufflers from that job. My house was a mini wrecking yard. Every neighbor within 10 miles knew it and I was selling and installing parts on their rigs every day I wasnāt working and most days after work. Wife was NOT happy, but I had extra cash to spend thanks to that job where I hoarded goods that would have been thrown away. And Iām pretty sure Iāll never need to buy another hose clamp again. Or a set of locking lug nuts. Or any lugnut key to any car in existence
9 Likes
Marcus. I keep thinking about that carb. It looks like the air bleeds would be completely blocked. Between that and trying to pull air through those crusty venturiās I canāt see anyway to atomize whatever fuel you are somehow pulling out and yet somehow itās running well enough to get enough vacuum to heat up your WG reactor. This all rails against what I know about such things. I wish I would have never looked at that thing.
4 Likes
Good morning Marcus ,
You understand why I try to use MPFI if possible 
7 Likes
6 Likes
I am going to agree with you 100% on the wood findings you have been experiencing. After what I have found about the type of soft poplar tree wood that I have tried to burn 100%. It Plug up my gasifer bad. It is okay to put a little in with my hard cherry wood, but thatās all.
Also seeing what happened when Jakob North tried to burn 100% poplar wood, when he came through on his drive across the USA. He had the same problem. So it was not the gasifers fault. Two different gasifers with different types of grates. His having larger holes then mine. Now you are having simular problems. Now three different gasifers. Yes the wood you burn is a big deal. If all you had was one kind of wood you could design the gasifer to work with it. In your case, try to find a different wood for the time being, until you get the big V-10 On the road. It will have the needed 2" clearance between the gasifer insulation barrel and firetube housing.
Just a idea here for the cross over area that is 10" with the 2" pipe going through the middle of it. How about a blow out hole there that you can unscrew a cap. Just blast it out with high pressure air, this will clean the grate with back pressure and the cross over area out of any built up ash/char. Instead of digging down from the top to the grate messing with your char bed.
My electric blower motor shaker for my grate is still working and it shakes the ash off my grate while I drive down the road if it starts to plug up. But because I am now using only cherry wood I do not need to use it at all. No pluging up with hard woods.
Bob
6 Likes
Sounds like I need to mail some black walnuts to you. They grow like a weed and you canāt kill them with coppicing. I have recurring pest walnuts over here.
Maybe some acorns for good measure.
5 Likes
Thanks for the video Marcus.
One thing I noticed with my Rabbit gasifier was the space under the grate was just enough to make things slow down enough to make the slipped char stay put. Only soot was past on into the cyclone. This was using denst wood.
With bulky softwood on the other hand, small char started to get airborn with the slightest hard pull. With denst wood it would only happen if the dump was full, up to the grate.
So, what Iām trying to say is - I think youāre on the right track - the combination of bulky fuel and tight tolerances in the lower region makes char climb the gasifier walls and get stuck. Of course, lotās of soot doesnāt help either.
But hey, youāre DOWing 
7 Likes
Thanks much for the video Marcus .
I quit using pine about 3 years back because of soot. Also I havenāt had a motor burb or back fire in as length of time .
8 Likes
Bob
Iām surprised Jakobās truck was able to clog up with his heavy foot 
Cody
If I owned a piece of land I would take you up on that, I know the black walnuts grow northeast of here very well in Canada and they are pretty useful as trap die and general steel protection for things left outside. Now that I am moved I have a lot of oaks around me, but they are protected so I cant harvest them for the gasifiers 
Jan
That is exactly what I am guessing is happening the char is so light and fluffy it can easily get sucked up into that space. i have noticed watching your guys cleanout videos your char FALLSemphasized text** while mine tends to floatemphasized text** to the ground, and with the soot contents from the pine it is quick to plug the char bed. But Iām still smiling!
Wayne
Maybe it is strange but I have YET to have a burp at the carb? Not a single one. I have no clue as to why? The only hopper farts I have had are at light up occasionally if I donāt let the blowers run long enough to purge the stored gas out and I get a little thump, but usually I am forewarned by a slow dancing blue flame right at the fill lid and the flame of the torch pushing back up and out, then I know to wait a few seconds and I wont get the thump. Other time it happens is if I shut down for a few minutes to talk with someone and I donāt close the air intake then start back up on wood I get a small thump. But no big bangs of any kind for some reason?
5 Likes
Norman can you prune the trees? Limbs have less tar than the trunk wood anyways. Maybe thatās Bobmacās secret is almost all of his fuel is cherry prunings.
4 Likes
I donāt think I can, I am backed into army base on one side and tribal land on the other, and they have a forestry program with all the land owners around. Oaks are a now oddity in western Washington after about 60 years ago a bug came through and decimated them. A few hold out areas like Yelm where I am at now, but local ordinance cant remove the oaks unless a danger to a structure
5 Likes
I know Koen uses bamboo for charcoal. I donāt know if the PNW has a rivercane infestation like we do in the South East but that would be an interesting experiment to try as a WK fuel. It being a grass I wonder if the ash content is really high. Might be even worse than white pine. Find people on your trapping route and ask if you can chop some problem trees down for them.
Just spit balling at this point.
4 Likes
That is right Cody, the bigger 5" limbs and tree trunks become lump charcoal for my charcoal gasifer and rocket fuel mix in the WK Gasifier.
Bob
5 Likes
