Anybody try using a oil bath air cleaner? Overkill??
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Definitely been done. Works great, but it’s a messy cleanup. Some use water instead of oil.
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One really easy filter for a charcoal gasifier is the towel sack. Just buy a cheap towel and sew it into a bag or sock shape.
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Finland made “Otso” wood gasifier used oil bath filter, worked good, but as Cody says, really messy, especially with wood gasifiers, because of the moisture in the gas, makes a goo, looking like mayonaisse.
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English-Manual-V3-PDF.pdf (2.1 MB)
look also here, eddy ramos, also here on the forum, uses oil bath filter and towel filter for cleaning…others use big volume hay filters…
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John, I bought one of those with the same idea in mind, but have not used it yet. I’m wondering if it has adequate capacity for the oil to drain back down or would it get sucked all the way through. Many WWII era gasifiers did use oil bath filters.
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The oil bath is a great filter, but if you have mass air flow sensors and even oxygen sensors the problem is they can contaminate sensors. More so if the sensor is before the cylinder. You end up cleaning the sensor constantly and it is really noticeable when they go off normal operation, the engine goes haywire, based on corrupt input.
These were popular in the 1950’s but not after sensors were put on cars to control running. Even if you wet your filter such as foam with a few tablespoons of engine oil to work better, it can cause a contamination problem.
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Will be running a two-cylinder Wisconsin air-cooled gas engine. No sensors at all LOL
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You’ll want to empty that oil bath filter every time if you use oil. Like Goran says, moisture in the gas will turn to a milkshake of sludge. Charcoal gasifiers also have moisture in the gas most of the time.
The bath filter will also add resistance and need more force to make and deliver the gas.
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What about a antifreeze mixture instead of oil? Will want to use this in the winter also.
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Picked up (well next week) two shop trucks, carts. One is a Taylor dunn and the other is a Kalamazoo speed truck. Both have 2 cylinder Wisconsin engines. One already has a oil bath air cleaner, that is why I was wondering if needed a extra filter. Thanks!!!
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I think on charcoal it may not be as messy the only contaminates you should get will be fin dust and that is exactly what they were designed for , so if you already have one on the engine just try using it and see , its a good secondary filter anyway as long as you have a foam or sheep’s wool filter before it sure it will work great .
Dave
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Should I put a wool filter ahead of it?
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Retired veteran, have a few old green wool blankets laying around lol 
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I use wool and a foam filters as its very easy to clean but you should have a filter before it yes it will help keep cleaning the oil bath to often .
if you have wool blankets i would look at making a sock filter like Cody mentioned , the wool i have is what i think is called carded its not been woven yet and really traps all kinds of stuff.
Dave
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Thanks for the info! Right now still in the planning/gathering materials stage. I live in a fairly remote area, hour and a half to the nearest Walmart. Me and a buddy are going to try to run these two vehicles on chargas. One has a chain drive so will incorporate a generator head on that one. The other one is much heavier duty, thinking of a boom for hauling logs. Will keep posted with pictures. Love this forum, everyone is so helpful!
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