I made such a ring out of a pipe by welding together four corner bends that I bought at the store. It seems to me that this is not very difficult.
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If I ever do a Mako/Wisco hybrid I will probably use Rigid Conduit 90 degree pipe welded into a ring. But the double flute is more of a proof of concept between Bob Mack and Kristijan and a little bit of piddling from me.
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Don, l dont know for sure. Sounds about similar.
I aimed towards having the glowzone kinda squere but l think its not super important, specialy since you only plan to use charcoal.
I dont think any gasifiers jets realy meet at idle…
Joni, got it now!
Talked on the phone with Tone yesterday, he offered help with increasing the compression ratio on this engine. I have a spare one and will pull its head off and grind it to about 11-12/1. Im super curious what this brings us in terms of performance.
The engine has pushrods so it shuld be rather simple to do…
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I’m really interested in seeing how you grind that head. I think if you are going to 12-1 you are going to need about 97 octane to run on petrol.
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Tom, 95 is standard here. 100 is what we call premiupm so no worries
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Have you ever heard about changing the octane rating of standard gasoline 95 octane to premium gasoline 100 octane by adding a little diesel fuel to the mix? I have heard of this. But not sure if it was true or not.
Bob
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Can’t see how diesel work do anything Bob. However if an engine is set up to run e85 then that’s around 105 octane.
Standard octane here is 87 Kristijan. 100. I wish. Even when I was a kid building Harleys and hot rods the best I knew about out of the pump was Sunoco at 97. No one else went above 95.
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My brother use to work for Goodyear picking up tires and one of his stops was a local landing strip that had fuel on sight 113 octane that had a very short life span and they would let him take the expired fuel home. We ran it as 2 stoke mix in our race chainsaws with tuned pipes woooo doggy would that make for a ripper! I ran a few gallons into a Toyota pickup once, bad mistake. Ya it ran like a raped ape and I abused it that whole tank of fuel in the woods and blew the head gasket sort of, can’t explain how but it welded the aluminum head to the cast iron block. When we tore that motor down to rebuild it (the block still bolted in the frame) I had a six foot cheater pipe in the distributor hole and me and my brother stood up under the pipe the front suspension maxed out droop before the head finally popped free. Top of each chamber looked like it had been liquified , the valve seats were all crooked in the bore and valves were hanging open, pistons looked the same and piston rings were all seized in the ring lands and broken. Junked the whole motor. I’m more careful with octane ratings now 
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I agree Tom, I heard it and thought, hah? Did I miss something I never heard of this before. Oh ya, the internet, everything is truth on there. Lol.
Bob
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Bob, its the other way around actualy. In a diesel you want fuel to egnite as fast as possible by compression, exactly the opposite as you want with petrol so adding diesel to petrol will lower its octane rating. Adding ethanol or methanol will increase the rating, however we know that has its limitations too…
Marcus, l guess that fuel was ether based. I know guys that fueled their mopeds with the stuff, blew their heads clean off if they went too far with it…
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Guys!!! Let’s stop and think a minute. What do gasoline/petrol octane numbers relate to anyway? ‘The ability of a fuel to resist engine knock’. K, so higher numbers must mean lower flame speed. Is that right? Do you think refineries might have special engines in their labs that would allow them to test the maximum compression ratio their fuels could support? VARIABLE COMPRESSION RATIOS–NISSAN, HONDA AND THE CFR | Simanaitis Says
But how did the oil companies come up with a numbering system for their fuels? Perhaps they simply multiply the tested compression ratio by ten? Am I making any sense to you all?
Rindert
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If l remember right, and l am likely wrong, the baseline is determined in a test engine runing on pure octane (a hidrocarbon with 8 c-atoms). Hence the name.
Engine knock is basicly dieseling. Ignition occurs before it is ment to and in more thain one place, basicly the mixture detonates wick is not good. The higher octane rating doesent mean the fuel burns any slower, it just means it takes more pressure and heat to spontainiously and uncontrolably ignite, wich is unwanted
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Thanks for the crude burn with soaking water wet charco, it shows what could be made too run if one were stranded with supper wet charco, that it could be dryed out enough for make a trip back too dryer land. And yes too see that little car you named seat go too scrap still running after all the wood gas driveing vidios is amazing.Hate too see the supper star car be scraped.PS and i forgot too say, that while you were pushing the wood gas out the 3" flex hose, no wood gas burned back of flashed back down the hose, shows that wood gas is dead gas,untill it mixes with air, at the engine intake manifold.
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I took a day off yesterday, decided to get to the Škoda. Fuel prices make me dizzy…
Last time, l tryed out the double flute and it worked fine with moistened charcoal. Hadnt tryed wood mixed in thugh. But since moist char in a downdraft is preetymuch the most foulproof fuel for a gasifier, l had a good baseline. On flat, l got 60-70kmh out of the old 1.3l 400k+km engine. Its worn out, has no power even on petrol. But thats not the point!
To fully test the double flute idea, l wanted to test it compared to something prooven. So, l fited in a old 8" WK hearth l had laying around from my Mercedes. Its small but boy is it hevy! 9mm thick firetube with 6mm sacrificial acid proof plates inside, and finns out of 3mm steel. Its tiny yet it weighs about 50 pounds…
After welding on a air supply jacket, wich is what l belive is the most ugly metal job l ever did, l quickly installed it in and burry it in ash to hide the uglynes 
First fire.
Now l wuld lye if l wuld say all went smooth. I am used to filling and lighting a new gasifier and having burnable gas in less thain a minute. All this made was steam and unburnable gas, engine wuldnt even think of runing. A afternoon passed with me trying to figure whats wrong with a gasifier that ran a engine twice the size of this one in the past but doesent want to work now! The saying of seasoned wood gasers is “dont blame the gasifier”. It usualy leaks or operator error. Here, leaks are preety much impossible. Operator error too, since it ran on bulletproof fuel. Had to be the gasifier and it was! Turned out it was the grate. It was too low and it slipped too much char, emptying the glowzone and alowing fresh wet char to steam off in the hot WK hearth.
Fixed that, then it worked as it shuld!
So, resaults. Compared to the double flute, there is no difference in power. Still 60-70kmh flat. However the hevy hearth and big stored gas volume provide excelent flywheel effect and l can say l never run such a smooth sistem. No hasitation. I cranked up after a hour of standing shut and l had enaugh gas to rev it up. Idles indefinitly.
How long it realisticly takes to warm up to this point is what is yet to be discovered thugh. I got a feeling the flutes are at an advantige here. Not to mention weight and ease of fabrication!
Anyways, l now know the gas part is good. Now its time to atend the engine! 60-70kmh is not good enaugh.
Rotating the distributor does nothing. It seems its the Mercedes story again, distributor for selecting the cilinder but the computer seting the timing. Im hopeing Mr Tone will bless me with some help from his knolidge bank and that we get this engine in good condition, increase the compression etc.
But even if not, l rather have a weak engine that doesent stall on me when l take off rather thain the opposite…
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I like it Kristijan! Finally you have your prioritizations right 
Are you able to hybrid with this “mono-TBI”? It’s one of those, isn’t it?
Did you use mixed fuel (char/raw wood)?
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True. The wood is ready for the Kursk too!
I hadnt yet installed the hybriding resistor bit so far the computer seems to do an excelent job at figureing the fuel amount and since the injector is above the throttle plate, no syphoning! I like this sistem so far!
Yes, l tested both moist char and char/wood mix
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Tone kicked me in the ass today, thank God he did, otherwise l wuld keep procastinating this engine job forever. I dont know what l feared, its a few minute job!
Guys, what do you say about the cylinders? Not bad for the age and mileage huh? Im curious of the new engine thugh, it has near half a milionkm on it…
This is now the operating table!
Doing a valve job and compression increase
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Ahhh. That is because someone has been in this engine before you Kristijan.
Look at the top of the cylinder in picture #2. There is a ~10mm edge line showing where the piston rings have never traveled. We call this a ridge.
The ball honed lines cross from below in the rings travel area across into the ridge line.
No matter on this. Someone previous has had the piston and connecting rods out of this engine.
What matters is if the piston rings are carboned seized in their piston grooves.
What matters is if the piston rings still spring out exerting minimal wall pressure.
The majority of the rings sealing is done by gas pressure getting to the back sides of the rings pushing them out into contact with the cylinders walls.
Since you intend to increase in-cylinder pressures you really, really need to oil pan drop and pop out the pistons and connecting rods and caustically clean in place the piston heads and rings. Or remove the rings and manually clean the piston ring grooves.
IF new replacement rings are available good time to install a new set, just-in-case. Every little bit of wear you can restore will help.
No need to re-hone these cylinders.
Hey. Yes an easy, easy engines. Not at all like Tone’s Suburu’s. Shudder look at youtubes pistons removing on those!
Just chant to yourself, “It’s all just Nuts and Bolts”. Easy as making babies.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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Hmm, the upper compression and the lower imitation are chrome-plated, these rings hardly wear out, only the other is plain
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Mr Steve, l suspect this also. But l can not see how the edge line proofs it? What am l missing?
This engine (on the pictures) ran great. Excelent low rpm torque. Unfortunaly the truck is wrecked…
I since bought a new, younger one with fuel injection and catalyst, same motor rated for less hp. Some 300k miles. This one drives completely different now l dont know if its worn out or its just the emission controll… Anyways, both were and are dayly drivers so l dont think stuck piston rings are a problem?
Be
First l need to see how this Škoda looks inside, the one l currently drive. If it looks good l will swap the head and try it as it is. If the old engine seems better l will temporairly fit the new head on, then rebuild the old engine and swap it. Will see…
Anyways, Facebook can be a marvel sometime. I asked on a Machinist group if someone wuld do the machining for me and within minutes l got two phone numbers, both within 3 miles from our home. If l get gaskets and valve seals in time, this old girl culd purr again tomorrow after lunch!
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