So your car got better when you changed the distance to restriction?
Did you get the same high speed as before too?
What do you have between restriction and grate?
Yes, that’s why I’m a little hesitant when I make changes, I drive a lot on small roads and look for different animals, and also pull the transport with hay, and so I want to be able to go a little faster to keep the same speed as the others.
What do you do for mining, I usually watch TV from the US, when they are looking for different minerals in the mountains, seems very interesting, i am not little jealous that it does not work here.
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I can not say that it got better performance because when I pick up the truck and got it home. I decided to do the complete rebuild on the firetube it had 17,000 miles on the gasifier truck. Remember this is the truck that Wayne originally built in 2012 that is on the cover of the book, Have Wood Will Travel. Then Chris owned it. It has had three owners now. Only a few original main parts left on the gasifier part of it.
It does go to highway speeds 70 mph. Plus. And idles good. But from 65 mph up it excelerates slowly. I think it is the auto mixer restriction problem. I was still working on it when winter came in and stopped my driving.
The restriction open at 7 1/2" and to the grate is 6" large Charcoal reserves above the grate area.
Bob
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Ok, what do you usually keep idling rpm on your engines?
I have no adjustment on the idle, it works as it was on gasoline.
My car seems to be quite similar to yours, up to 60-65 it runs quite fast, then it starts to receive.
But my car does not like slopes, 5 degree slope then it does not want more than 45-50 mph, if I do not go up in rpm quite a lot.
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The idle adjustment is just a string that can pull the gas pedal down a litte more then the gas pedal is set at. Using a tension devise to hold it, winding the string on a spool.
I will find some pictures of what I did for this. It is also in the WK library that was just put up by Chris.
I am allright on 5 % grade it is steeper drades on up. Remember I have a V-8 with 5.2 Liter engine. So the same truck size with more hp. But I think I carry more weight with my gasifier. There is this gasifier limit of pulling the total weight of the vehicle for the hp. You develop with your engine. This is what your engine can develop using the gases that the gasifier can make using the wood that you are burning at that time. If I just switch to a softer wood like the poplar I have from the hard cherry wood I normally use, what a difference in performance. Less hp. on my engine output. The only way I can have more hp. Is burn oak wood. The problem is, it is not available for me. I have not tried apple wood but I think cherry is a harder wood, but it makes more tar from the bark then apple wood.
The only other way is to up my compression on my engine so it will only run on premium fuel. This will help with running on woodgases. I do not want to spend the monies on this. So when I hit the hill I am driving up I slow down shift into lower gear. Or just add some dino fuel and climb the hill. This does cause my fuel gage to drop.
Bob
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WOODGAS high idle setup
https://youtu.be/X4-vi9VOAJ0
This is how I setup my truck, super simple
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Thanks Marcus yours looks great.
Bob
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I like idle my engine at about 800 to 900 rpms. On Wood gas. 650 on petrol. The little bit higher rpm. works good because the have my timing advanced to about 38 degrees before top dead center. Not sure if you can do this with your engine being it is a V-6.
Is there any other members out there that know about this on timing on V-6 engine?
Bob
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I belong to a group or club of people that prospect for precious and semi precious stones and medals. We have claims in the Northwest states of the United States. Finding what you are looking for is a bonus to just being out there enjoying this creation we call earth.
Bob
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Very interesting, have you found any nice stones, to show?
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We like to give them to the grandchildren when they are polish up. Dana is more into the stones and polishing then me. I like to metal detect and do crevising along rivers and banks and old dry washes and streams and river beds. The real treasures is being out there, not so much in what you find.
Bob
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My computer camera does not show the translucency, or colors well.
Mt Saint Helens “fire mountain” agates from a stream bed gravel bank:
And my young eye-spy, pick-up, collector helpers:
Papa Steve
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I wonder if it was not Mt Saint Helens, the TV show I was from, do you live near the mountain?
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Yes. THE Mount Saint Helens of 1980.
We all current Washington State on the DOW live close to one of these:
Mt Saint Helens; Mt Adams; Mt Rainer; Mt Hood; Mt Baker.
Close enough for potential ash falls. River valleys mud flows. Easy enough to endure the one. Sidestep the other.
Much, much, better than the coastal edge Tsunami zones!!
Hey. Kindda’ like Joni only 60km from the Ukraine/Russian border.
Every place has something.
I’d 'druther my something be Natures, and predictable. Expected.
Not random constant Urban crimes. " I see it. I want it. You must give it to me. You owe it to me."
S.U.
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Steve, you were very close but a bit up wind in 1980.
Did you get much ash?
I live about 100 miles NW of the mountain and only got a dusting.
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Keeping track of things like Earthquakes and volcanoes is an interest of mine. Here’s one for you NW guys I never heard of before.
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Let talk about the hopper where everything starts in the pyrolysis of wood. Now I am a big fan of the external cooling tubes on the hopper with upper and lower gutters to help get the extra moisture and tars away from the wood and put it in a separate tank that can be drained off. This takes place as the wood breaks down in the pyrolysis process. Now heat is very important part of this process. In my hopper I like to see temperatures of 130°f to 160°f
This is a good range I think for the tars to not be as sticky, more runny like syrup. My temperature prob is located in the upper third of my hopper. When I hit 200°f and open my hopper and the smoke clears I see the wood in the hopper is at the bottom and I see hot charcoal on top of the firetube.
Note everyone’s hopper build is a little different so this temperature reading can be different in yours. My hopper diameter is a standard 55 gallon barrel with the removal
lid. I have a common drainage tube from the gutters. The gutters drainage is the lowest point when the truck is parked on level ground. So at shut down it should keep draining the water/tar to the condensation tank. On the Wilbur Smith design the gutters are level so you can tip the whole gasifier to the drainage side or park the truck so it drains. The gutters are 3" deep. When driving the vehicle, it is never level all the time anyway. Even the roads they have what is call a crown surface to drain water off the paved roads.
I like the cone shape that is made below the lower gutter it helps slides the partly pyrolysis wood to the firetube opening. There is a air gap spacing underneath the cone that helps keep the gutter warm and the tar flowing to the drain. Very important that the lower and upper gutters have ventilation so the smoke, air,gases can be circulating in the hopper. This helps with the drying and pyrolysis of the wood process.
At the top of the hopper there is a lid and it should not be locked down you need some way the release pressure the large lid is held in place by springs and on top of that is a smaller fill lid for putting wood into the hopper. This is a very basic Wilbur Smith hopper a good set up. Go to the Wilbur Smith Gasifier build for more information in the WK part of DOW site and how to build it.
Bob
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Here I am attaching sketches of a hot zone with a double size and a double upright grate made of tubes that would act as a heat exchanger, preheating fresh air with hot gases as soon as they leave the process. I have to work harder to draw sketches,…
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So your grate to hold the Charcoal is solid with vertical tubing with air moving through them? Not really simple to build but talk about some super preheated air coming out the nozzles. There is a lot of distortion in metals in the grate area. But in this design I can see a very light weight gasifier concept at work here.
Bob
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Now THAT is a good 3D skizz. TomC
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Bob, it’s going to take some work to put it together, … I will drill small holes of 6-8mm in the bottom plate so that the air is evenly distributed in each tube, the tubes will be 1/2", I will try to get thick-walled, maybe seamless tubes. It is true that the materials are exposed to high temperatures at this point , but as I have noticed with my gasifier, cooling with fresh air prevents overheating and deformation.
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