Hello Sean,
Nice video!!
Thanks for posting.
Hello Wayne,
Thanks for the comment I will keep the videos coming. I have lots of equipment down here if anyone has any requests I am more than happy to put it on film. Regards Sean
Hello all, I decided to shut off the gasoline beyond a shadow of a doubt - I took off the whole carburetor! And it still starts and runs just fine, actually better. Carb removal isnāt a great option, since it leaves you without a backup. But it still started and ran on woodgas with absolutely 0 gasoline. I was able to open the air valve halfway where itās usually nearly closed, indicating just how much leaks through the carburetor.
Hey ChrisKY
Not a good video time for me. Maybe later.
Now without the big factory gasoline carburetor to deal with re-think your system usage.
Now instead of a gasoline vehicle that happens to also fuel with woodgas supplement make it a woodgas fueled vehicle with gasoline supplement. This DEMO sales the woodgas concept Much easier. Easy to understand that NO WAY is that little gasoline carb powering this vehicle at 60 MPH. Has to be woodgas fuel.
DJ, Vesa and Tim Dowden just use a small side jet gasoline carburetor for starting up, in/out of shop trundling and acceleration/hill power boosting.
Lots of single cylinder 15-20 horsepower old riding lawnmowers being sold and parted out now. You can actually buy these small engine gasoline side draft carburetors mail order new for under a $100. bill. Get one with the electric solenoid main jet well fuel cut off for sure. Live with the minor air leakage as part of your base idle needed air.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Hi Steve,
Not ready to give up the 100% gasoline option just yet. I have more experimenting to do, this was mostly to see what happened when I eliminated the large air leaking device called a carburetor. If I can tighten up the carb a bit without ruining it, I intend to leave it on there for emergency use - and in emergencies you generally want full 100% gasoline power available, a lawnmower carb wonāt cut it.
I may get more comfortable running without a full gasoline option - but honestly right now it makes me really nervous. I did go for a drive but I kept it close to home just in case.
Hi Chris this is a great idea!! a lot simpler , you dont need a really powerful blower to get the gas to the front after it has been flared here is a link to what Paul Halvorson did to move the gas to the front, to start on woodgas
you will need to scroll down to reply#344 he has some photos and tells how he did the add on.
I dont know if I am brave enough to give up gasoline altogether either but it is a good idea though 
Hi Ron,
The shop vac is just convenient, it pulls the system into full power right away. Itās as effective as driving the truck down the road. My bilge blowers are weaker than Wayneās, so I usually use the engine draw to finish warming up the gasifier. Without gasoline I canāt do that, but the shop vac made it unnecessary - as you can see, it cranked on the first try, and idles smooth from the get-go.
Great video Chris. What size power inverter would it take to run a shop vac this size? I think it would be easier to start learning how to operate my truck without the carb and figure out how best to introduce gasoline later. Of course I would stick close to home. I like what I just watched. Has me thinking.
Couple of caveats John. remember what Wayne has said; running 95% woodgas is easy, running 100% woodgas is very difficult.
First off you need the truck to be 100% reliable especially when youāre learning. Yes I did a trial run today without a gasoline safety net but it scared me to try it - and Iāve been 2,500 miles on this stuff now. A new operator who tries it WILL wind up on the side of the road. Be prepared to break down at any point, and toss a bike in the back so you donāt have to walk. Iām serious!
Thereās no good place to mount the shopvac (itās big), you would probably have to run a long hose to the hood from the bed. Iām not sure on the power required, the label on mine says 6 HP. Probably a 5000 watt inverter would do. Itās not an ideal permanent solution, itās just handy cause Iām at my shop anyway. With more and better blowers I wouldnāt use it at all. My recommendation is instead of a shopvac just buy quality bilge blowers, and plenty of them. SeaChoice is the brand to get, they are the most powerful. The more you can fit in under there the better off youāll be. Installing pusher blowers on the intake means you can move gas to the front without needing a front mounted blower.
Another thing - direct starting on woodgas has the potential to be very hard on your starter and battery. I know because Iāve run the battery down many times foolishly. Important Rule - if it doesnāt fire right away when you crank it over, STOP and fix the problem. Endless cranking does no good, just wears out the battery and starter. Itās a major temptation, especially when it just starts to catch (weak gas or lean mix). But as you saw, with good strong gas and the right mixture it will fire right away. Be ruthless! And be patient. This is the hard way.
Or you can do what you should have done already, and will end up doing, just rig up the carburetor and get on with woodgassing.
Thanks for the good advice. You are probably rightā¦I will end up with a carb at some point. Thinking I would get to woodgassing sooner if I donāt have to mess with a carb, 2nd. gas pedal, etc. I am really itching to do something with my WK gassifier. I have been tempted to load it with wood and flare off some gas before it is even mounted in the truck. Patience is not a virtue I possess a lot of! Is there a flow diagram somewhere I have missed showing the flow of gas and blower installation in the system start to finish? I donāt know for sure where blowers install. I know Wayne has one installed backwards also. Is it in line with the other 3 or is it in a different flow stream altogether?
Hi John,
Blowers are teed into the condensate tank, all inline and one (or two) is turned backwards. To save space he made two rows of blowers.
On the Dakotas he also has blowers on the intake air, to speed up start times and enable 100% woodgas startups. Remember that once rolling all blowers are shut off and the engine does the work. No blower can keep up with an engine, unless itās a supercharger.
Wiring is set up so that blowers can be switched on from the cab and the bed. Both have to be on to run the blowers. This way you can start the blowers from the bed and shut them off in the cab.
The videos of the blowers are coming soon, in the meantime hereās a video I did on a visit to Wayne, V10 walkaround. Shows most of the plumbing and the blowers. This was before we decided to do the website.
If air leakage is a problem, you could use a big ball valve between carb and plenum. You will be amazed about the top speed of a V-8 truck fed by a single barrel small car carburettor. Throttle operation by a manual pulling cable on the dash seems uncommon, but you get used to it quickly. I like the safety of a backup fuel, even when it is only needed to move the car, say, 50 feet.
Horizontal carbs allow you the most freedom of positioning it. I used a Stromberg/Zenith of an older Volvo model. The idle bypass canal of this carb can be plugged easy and the throttle closes very tight.
Regards,
DJ
Due to space requirements between the manifold and the hood a ball valve seems next to impossible to fit between stock carburetors and the plenum if left inline and horizontal to the manifold (which must be the case if using float type carbs from my understanding). however I see you got around this by installing a diaphragm carb installed vertically?
Instead I was wondering if a ball valve could be installed not between the plenum and carb but on the air filter opening. most stock air filters have a metal case to encapsulate them, one could just weld a ball valve to the opening/openings and use this to stop any air passing through the carb. Only thing Iām not sure of is if the high vacuum would effectively pull the fuel out of the carb reservoir. On TBI (throttle body injection) however one could splice in a switch to each injector as Wayne has already mentioned which would stop any fuel entering the plenum due to high vacuum. One could then install a small stromberg type carb for running in parallel with woodgas.
I have studied DJās under the hood photo for some time now and believe it to be an incredibly smart and practical way to have a winning hybrid combination.
hope itās ok to re-post a picture from DJās project thread. Thread found here http://driveonwood.com/forum/156
Hey nice picture tie in DustinM.
The carburetor DJ is using and the small four stroke engine ones I recommended are all float bowl type. Really, really avoid any multi-positional diaphragm type. They really hate the new mandated ethanol spiked gasolines.
Another point: I have moved in and out of repair shops fully hand controlled vehicles. This means for brakes and throttle. Not bad once you get used to it. These controls as take offs are available out there for a song (and some times with attached vehicle needing scrapped out). Go ask your nearest driving paraplegic neighbor for a demo drive for a different way to solve the multi-fuel control problem.
Thanks for the ForestryForum link to PaulHās rig RonL. Very interesting and informative. I especially like seeing systems using my own PNW native woods.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Blast gates for air control maybe worth taking a look at. Here is a link to a cheap ABS one. They also come in metal.
http://www.woodcraft.com/PRODUCT/2001668/3007/212-ABS-BLAST-GATE.ASPX?refcode=10INGOPB&gclid=CNuB-ajYrbECFUgDQAod1SwAPQ
Chris, you can always install a Kirby under the hood. One fits pretty tidily once you customize it a bit. I ran my Mitsubishi with no carb once the carb quit working. I removed the carb, like you, and sucked the wood gas right up to the mixer bolted in place of the carb. Everything controlled from the cockpitā¦it usually worked. I can do the same with my prehistoric van. Have you seen it? You can see the Kirby and also the blow off pipe where I can poke my head out of the window and see if the gas lights.
JohnS
Looks great John. Love the prehistoric van. Now if I could just find a Kirbyā¦
Hey Chris, I had to burn out my reduction today. Second time ever(first time was accidentally at Argos). It got me thinking, Once you get your gasoline problem licked you will be pulling a lot harder on your burner. You should be able to cut down your back burning drastically!
KAWBM!
Terry
Box under carb. See my post in the Fab Shop