Škoda pickup on wood

Kristijan , i am keen to see how the gas temp will go on this downdraft build of yours once you give a engine some of this gas , on the few i made i had very hot and weak gas and also hot filters downstream , so i was wondering if i could use another smaller tank next to the gasifier filled with charcoal in a filter /cooler configuration sort of way , before letting the gas go through my normal filter material , anyway i have all fingers and toe’s crossed for you and hoping it will be as good if not better than your other builds .
Dave

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is Mako a gasifier with self-adjusting refractory lining of ash and coal dust?

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The Mako used no refractory at all if my memory serves me right.

Only ones that used refractory were Svedlund single nozzles. At least as far as units portrayed in the Gengas book.

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If l remember right Mako had a cast refractory hearth with 3 nozzles.

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https://youtu.be/8BUznrYYLS0

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Played and experimented with the gasifier a litle bit. Decided to put it on camera. Its a long video, feel free to skip. At around 7 min l managed to light it.

https://youtu.be/-1RL0Qjuupw

So, l wanted to try what happens if you only use wet charcoal in the sistem. And l do mean WET. Like literaly soaked.

As expected, its hard to light and my first atempt to light it with engine suction failed. Had to bring the shopvac in. After the charcoal lit it started producing gas quite fast, and, ofcorse, a lot of steam. I was amazed it lit at all. And boy what a flare! This was the first time l tested it at dusk, on previous test l flared at mid day and l culdnt see the flame inside.

I regret not filming it but to much of my surprice the engine cranked right up on gas. And l did not excpect it to run nearly as well as it did.

Now, before anyone starts crying for that engine abuse let me calm you, this trusty old Seats life has expired and its in its last month. Only registred till October, then it will be scrapped so it can afford a bit of fun before death :smile:

Even thugh the gas is super wet and not the richest from all the steam cooling the gasifiers hearth, engine reached redline wich l dont recall ever acheaving with a updraft gasifier that was mounted on this car. Throtle response was similar to that of petrol and it even idled well for some time, untill the steam cooled the gasifier too much…

This test was primarly made to test the gasifier and cooler/filter temperature on real engine draw even with wet gas (steam carrys more heat), l dont want overheating on this thing. And it was an absolute sucsess, even after this overdraw torture the whole sistem can be touched.

I also noticed a big improvement on sistem drag compared to my previous sistem. This air control flap is from my Mercedes and l seem to recall there the the valve was set to about 25% open for the engine to run optimal, here it was 50% wich suggests both the gasifier and the towel filter are nicely flowing, even being soaking wet.

I also brought the Škoda home yesterday. Have a licence plate light to fix then its time to mount this thing on…

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https://youtu.be/OaT3w13VphY

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6000 rpm on chargas??
What percentage of water do you estimate was in that charcoal when you say it was “soaking wet?”

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:+1:
Impressive, Kristijan!
Another water question - how about condensation in the filter vessel and hose? Or did you convert it all into hydrogen? Or did you spray it all to the next village with those 6,000 rpm? :laughing:

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Wow, that was cool seeing the cyclone in action when it fired up in the filter tube. The spinning action should help keep the towel filter from building and clogging. Old red spending it last days running on charcoal gas. That a good and fitting way for any car or vehicles to go bye bye on.
Lots of steam I could hear your charcoal even wet, making that glass like sound when you were moving it around in the hopper.
Thanks for the informative video.
How about the old long tube trick for lighting it up. Push the tube down to a nozzle opening and drop some hot charcoal down the tube. This works great on the WK Gasifier when the hopper is full of raw wood. Lights up fast. I have a rod that plugs the end inside the pipe when pushing it into the hopper of wood then I take the rod out. The pipe is clear all the way down to the nozzles area. Makes for a quick easy light up every time.
Bob

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It sure doesn’t seem to be the engines problem why you have to get rid of the car. 6000 rpms no problem. Very impressed with that and on char gas. The Skoda is going to like this new designed gasifer.
Bob

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Great video! Mc Gyver is for real! Ductape grinder and a welder and you ready for take off! Maybe to the next village as JO said. Inspiring as always.

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Don, thats a wery good question. I will need to weigh it and do the math but l wuld guess the water content is above 100%. It was literaly soaking in water for a couple of days.

JO, the next vilage probably had a sudden spike in humidity yes :smile:
Most of the water had to pass trugh the sistem. The sack filter was wet but the nice thing about towel material is it doesent clogg even if soaking wet.

And l failed to mention, all the damp air/gas mix had to go trugh the original paper filter so the fact that the engine reved to redline amazed me.

Yes Bob the pipe lighting method shuld work in this case. Problem is its not gonna work on the truck, since l will probably leave the bed cover on. So not enaugh space to put a pipe in, even the refueling will require some time spent on the thinking chair…

Talked with Tone on the phone yesterday, we discussed some woodgas things. Since l have a wrecked Škoda at home for parts, l am thinking to pull of the engine head and increase the compression ratio. A but thats a project for a nother time…

Ok guys good news! FINALY l got the thing road legal again. The only thing now to do is mount this gasifier on. Its been raining tonight so l cant get to the woodlot with the tractor as was the plan for today so…

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Put a small opening in the bed cover on top so it can be opened for refueling and lighting up the gasifer.
Keeping it stealth is really good.
Bob

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So l built the woodgas piping and connections, was kinda PITA turned out. Specialy the part where l had to fit the woodgas to the tb/injector part. Had to make a 3d jigsaw manifold out of sheet steel that took all afternoon to make.

Today l lit up, just an unofficoal run. No remote controll yet over the a/f ratio or gasoline metering, but here is what l learnt. The engine computer seems to do a excelent job at regulating petrol in a wide range of hybriding scenarios, reminds me of what JO saw with his Rabbit. Might even be a similar WV “brain” with this and his truck.
I struck luck with the air seting the wery first time trying 100% woodgas and the performance seems promissing. But later l wasnt realy able to hit the sweetspot anymore and it was time to go to work, so no real drive test yet.

Second, the bed cover is a no go. Too much heat inside. Time for plan B.

Third is a bit of a problem. I dont want to jump to conclutions but it seems after l dissconnected the woodgas part, the engine refused to run well on petrol. It was constantly lean l belive as it reved up when l poured some petrol in the air intake. One possibility is l run out of gas :smile: my gas guage doesent work and its been a while since l fueled it and did run it under around 3000rpm for quite some time, some pure petrol and mostly hybriding. I poured in anout 2 gal of petrol but it took many atempts to get decent power again. So l dubt fuel shortage was actualy the case.

Wich brings us to the next possible scenario, since l ran rich most of the time for a long time (testing hybriding, so woodgas plus O2 sensor metered petrol) is it possible the primitive computer remembered the condition? @JO_Olsson did you notice this on yours?

I know the injector or anything for that matter culdnt get dirthy in half a hour and looking at them from above didnt show a trace of dirth so…

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Was it running through the whole test key on? I know here in the states many early OBD1 systems have short term memory where if a problem occurs it will self compensate untill corrected or if the problem can’t me corrected by the computer then the cel will illuminate. But if the key is turned to the off position it wipes the computer bank memory and turns lights off and resumes the factory fuel map and timing map as if there never was a problem. I know ford and Honda of the 80-90s era were this way. My old Honda crx would go lean and set o2 codes under wot hard pulls up hill and pull fuel and timing, when I crested the hill a quick clutch in and key cycle would reset and take off all good again. Perhaps the Skoda memory is the same?

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Kristijan you will need to learn how to do a default reset to your computer system.
Erase all of the adaptive/learned values and fall back to factory base values.
S.U.

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Steve said what I meant in way less words :joy:

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Ahhh. Maybe. But I did not tell him the best way to discover the easy methods. You did.
User/Enthusiasts’/Groups. Just like woodgas.
S.U.

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No l did turn the key off a couple of times. So thats not the cure. I think l saw a video once about how to reset the Motronic injection computer, need to find it again. But either way, l wuldnt like to do this every time l like to go full petrol, wich will be plenty with this 1.3l engine living in the mountains…

What about disconnecting the battery?

Thinking about it, in real life, l will probably have the opposite problem since engines run on woodgas best when the mix is lean. The engine will remember the lean condition and next time when going 100% petrol flood the engine??

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