Hi, been lurking here for awhile, finally signed up. Want to build a chargas system for this cart I acquired. It is powered by a 2 cylinder Wisconsin engine. Was wondering about adding a hand cranked blower to get the gas to the engine for hand cranking. I want the end product to be useful without any extra power (battery, electricity, gasoline). Is it better to push with the blower or install on the outlet side? Will also be returning some exhaust gas back to the nozzle. Thanks for any and all replies!
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Hi John and welcome , You can go both ways but i have found the having the fan on the outlet makes starting a little easier , but once the charcoal is glowing you could always move your hand cranked fan to blow into the nozzle just see what way suits your machine .
Are you planning on keeping the fan in line all the time or remove once the gas is made ?
We also love photo’s or video’s of builds if you have any so keep us informed of your progress
Have fun
Dave
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Still in the planning stage, will bring the cart home next week. From my reading on here most start with a little gasoline then switch to chargas or use an electric blower. I am trying to eliminate both. Want to light charcoal and with a hand operated blower hand crank the engine. Am I crazy?? Lol
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Want to keep fan permanently installed, just use for starting.
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Nope not crazy just doing what you want to do is all , we all have our ways and this is yours , me i’m lazy and prefer to use a battery fan and leaves me hands free to be doing the other bits needed .
Dave
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Just working on the premise that all I have available to me is my hands and good clean dry charcoal and I don’t want to walk 
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Its early morning here so please excuse if i read that wrong , so you want to keep the fan permanently installed so its part of the unit ? or use it just for starting ? if its going to be a fixture built onto the system make sure its on a T piece with a valve that you can close off once your ready to start engine .
Are you planning on starting with a simple fire up draft build or going to start with a downdraft ?
Dave
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Simple fire up draft build, just want to get the gas to the engine before hand cranking. Will be on a tee so once started will be out of the system.
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Welcome to the site John. Gary Gilmore has a video of him starting an engine with a hand cranked blower. Even with a bilge blower I found it very difficult to start a generator with a rope pull. Many yanks. Luckily Dave, again, steered me right and got me using a drill to turn the engine over. If you manage it, please make a video. That will be an interesting machine to see gasified.
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Thanks! Will be taking lots of pics, I am sure some of not most will be of what didn’t work lol.
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John, I recently built a simple fire type charcoal gasifier and am still amazed at how good it works compared to my previous attempts at wood gas.
I have been using an air compressor blow gun to get my gasifier lit by blowing air across the outlet pipe which, if aimed right, works like a crude ejector to created a bit of suction to draw the flame into the inlet of the gasifier. Once it ignites, I use the air gun to carefully blow air into the inlet pipe to get the fire burning good and also to force the charcoal gas through the hoses and filter to get it close to my engine. My generator is only hand pull start and I sometimes start it using gasoline and slowly feed it the charcoal gas until the gasoline in the float bowl runs out and adjust it to run on the gasifier. Often it stalls out from adding the charcoal gas too quickly or my air/fuel mixture isn’t right so I end up pull starting it from straight charcoal gas. It isn’t usually as easy (takes several pulls) as strictly running it on gasoline but it does work.
I’m still modifying my gasifier and plan to build another one but Gary’s simple fire design and using charcoal instead of raw wood makes it pretty easy to get a usable gasifier that will run a small engine without so much worry about making tar and messing up the engine.
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I use Ethonal or Acetone in a squirt bottle to help get them going. Pull the engine over a few times with the mixer valve closed. Then open it wide open and give it a dose of ethanol and pull it over. Then if you are quick you can dial in the air mixer. But yeah I wont wood gas an engine unless it has electric start.
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Welcome to the site!
Nice project.
Once you get the hang of it you will find that many times cranking up on woodgas is actualy easyer thain on petrol. Specialy in winter. Consistency is key. Always have the same fuel, moisture, size, startup procedure… then just set the mixing valve to a usual position and pull the engine. It WILL start on the first stroke if you done everything right.
As for the blower. Lighting the gasifier is easyer if you pull the gas (sucks the flame in the gasifier). But, once lit, it will warm up much faster if you push air in the gasifier. It takes roughly 1 part air to make 2 parts gas so you got less volume to go trugh the blower.
What kind of a blower do you have? Is it airtight?
And what kind of nozzle do you plan to install?
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welcome john, it is reasonable to start the engine without battery, if possible, no additional costs and no extra failure- dead battery- problems…hand cranc blower, and you are independent…i have built also thehand blower for my gasifiers by myself,…look at my topics, there i explain always all, in case someone will build in this way…
important the gas- air mix is right and the engine is ok, than should start immediately…a ostacle i observed is when too much umidity is in the gas, this can make the spark plug slightly wet and creates starting difficulties…
actually i work on a old chain traktor with hand crank…my first bigger engine, the others were 200-500 ccm
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Don’t have a blower yet, trying to figure out the best kind depending if suck or blow. For now just a simple pipe nozzle till I figure this stuff out. I have access to a welding fab shop and a machine shop ( retired friends). I grew up fixing stuff, I could clean a carb when I was 12 lol. Tank mechanic in the army, had my own refrigeration business, and know plumbing. I don’t think the doing will be a problem, it is what to do that I am trying to figure out. Thanks!
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Thanks, will look at your post. Thanks!
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That was the reason for me wanting to burn charcoal, seems simpler and cleaner for the engine. I have access to all the wood to make charcoal I will ever need. Eventually I want to build a charcoal kiln to make charcoal.
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Those manual up and down motion mattress pumps could be a good blower. They’re capable of suction and blowing.
But then you’d instead have a Tap point than a permanent installation.
Something like this. Not terribly big, but it’s double action so pulling the handle in and out will give continuous pull or push.
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That would work, could pipe it in after the filter with a bypass circuit. Ball valve on inlet side of the pump and a ball valve on the bypass circuit. Will look into that, thanks!
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John,
There are hand-cranked blacksmith blowers available. I got a cheaply made new one like the one Gary Gilmore demonstrates in one of his videos. I wish I had looked around and gotten a better one. I use 12 volt bilge blowers normally and have not needed to replace one yet though I had to file the edges of a slightly melted fan blade in one of them once.
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