How about drill for starting?
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That would have been nice but in the heat of the moment I wouldnāt be able to find the right socket. My biggest problem is for air adjustment I just have a humongous 2" ball valve that didnāt want to comply. I donāt have any reducers to use a reasonable sized valve. It also didnāt want to start on gasoline but it has been used and abused so Iām not surprised. Engine was rescued from a mini bike that was left in the elements for God knows how long.
Also the state of my shop would make a crazy person look sane.
Also also not a fan of the lack of things to cap off the flutes with. When I shut down I get gentle flames exiting the flutes and Iām afraid of burning up my charcoal in the hopper.
I think Iām going to see about using what Iām learning here and trying to adapt a Svedlund system.
Taking a downward nozzle like the Svedlund but welding a heavy cap on the end, and drilling holes 90Ā° from the end to make an outward ring of nozzle holes. These would be pointed at a ceramic wool burn tube for insulation sake, and a little below that a restriction of more ceramic wool at a smaller diameter. Iāll try to draw it up on my sketch paper.
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Now that Iām thinking about it you wouldnāt really need a lighting port. Could just light it up like Wayne does with his WKs. Could install one with a sight glass like Don does though.
Exit gas wouldnāt really even need a grate. Matt Ryder has shown you just need a cover as your grate in his ammo box build. Or you could use expanded sheet metal wrapped in a tube or hardware cloth in a 1/8" size. Not sure what size holes you would want for the nozzles or how many of them.
The reason why I drew it with a welded capped bottom is to prevent a blast of air cratering directly beneath the nozzle causing overheating. Svedlunds got around this by using kanthal. The added benefit of the welded cap is when you run a drip feed the water lands on that cap and lets the water boil off to be sucked out through the nozzle holes.
I plan to build a tester of this and see how good or bad it does. I intend to use a 1.5" pipe with a 1.25" pipe pressed into it to double the thickness. Or if Iām lucky find a 1.5" steam pipe or the like at the scrapyard. The welded on cap will be at least 1/4" thick.
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Tinfoil is always worth a try. I have made all manner of caps and plugs and gaskets out of a few layers of it crumpled up.
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yep i used tin foil and even plastic shrink wrap over the years to stop the air getting in .
Cody , i can sense the frustration of not having the right bits and pieces around , but i bet you will find most things will fall in your lap as each day goes by , just keep your eyes open for the right kinda junk , starting with an old lawn mower and a cordless drill with a loose fitting socket and old water pipe fittings , they were always on my radar in the early days .
Dave
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Thierry, l think l have done this but cant remember for sureā¦ Shuld be no problem thugh.
Yeah thats gonna be hard with a 2" valveā¦ For refference. On my Mercedes l had a 1/2" opening for the air inlet and it was spot on perfect as air adjustment goes. For a long time l didnt even have a air adjusting cable in the cabin! I just drove on this pre adjusted setting untill l got a lean condition, that was couple of daysā¦ This ment its time for ash cleanout.
Charcoal gasifiers make incredibly stable gas!
Anyway, what l like to say, do t go crazy with the air inlet valve size even on your trucks. Smaller valve will give you more accuracy.
On your Svedlund try, l think the idea of the capped end with water is good, but if you go this way you will not be runing for long instead of investing in a tungsten or something like that nozzle like Dave has. Even kenthal cant last forever.
Althugh water might cool the nozzle enaugh while operating, there is a huge amount of energy stored in the glow zone at shutdown. And with no water and air comeing in to cool itā¦
Also, l wuld extend a thin water pipe in the air pipe right to the cup. This will deliver water right in the cup without aerosoling it on the way so that it all can aid to cooling.
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So youāre saying to get a thread on tungsten nozzle tip? Would the tungsten survive in the shut-down glow zone?
Also I think I already know the answer to this question but how would Titanium grade 5 hold up in this zone? I think it would have the same issues as Stainless Steel.
My idea is to use thick steel to get a lot of mass to protect itself, just like with horizontal flutes. I think Iām going to build a small scale version for testing using 1" with 3/4" pipe pressed into it. I also will be using pipe fittings so it can be disassembled for replacement or repairs.
You realy need Daves opinion on this. He is the one that has good sucsess with his tungsten nozzles.
As for mass, sure, mass is good. But remember, no amount of mass will survive the temperatures unless the heat has something to go. With mass we usualy achive fast enaugh heat conduction away from where it is not wanted. Some like to do that by venting it away, and @Handy_Andy prooved the concept with his aluminium nozzle, and it works. But l like to squeeze everey drop of energy out of a gasifier and am a fan of internal heat circulation (intake air used as a coolant). Same as our host Mr. Wayne
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I wonder how the Svedlunds and Gragas systems lasted so long. The kanthal only went but so far on those. I guess their benefit was replaceability of parts.
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If I do an oil change away from home I just dump the waste oil in the hopper and usually throw the filter in there as well.
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As soon as I get enough loose money together Iām going to buy a mig welder from a coworker. Then I can try my hand at welding thinner stuff more cleanly. I have a few things laying around that I could build a heat exchanging hearth like a WK that could work for charcoal. Air compressor tank that is slightly smaller diameter than a 20lb propane tank, could split the propane tank on the old weld seam and then fit it over the compressor tank after welding my just freshly replaced metal cutting bandsaw blade onto the burn tube for heat sinking.
Then I could base a Mako design off of that.
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I have a 1.5" gate valve that Iām going to use for metering air for testing. I just need to clean up the area in front of my shop and Iāll try to use my Cherokee Laredo as a test bed. I can pull the ballast resistor to cut off gasoline flow once I detect the revs increasing and try to get a good lean idling condition. It will be a stationary test but since the Jeep has a 4 Litre engine itāll be close enough to the demand of the Sierra. I can monitor temps and see how it performs with minimal water drip. The PVC fittings I have put together are just slip fit with no glue so if I have a puffback it will just pop off right there.
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Cherokee test was not a success. Used a 1.5" butterfly valve that I found at work. I think it came off of a Cheetah bead seater.
It is going from 2 inch metal conduit to the cyclone, to more conduit, to 2 inch PVC pipe, a 3 way tee going to spa hose that looks like itās about 1 or 1.25".
While running on gasoline I got good suction if I choked it down to the point of almost dying.
When I thought I heard the RPM climb I disconnected the ballast resistor which cuts off the fuel pump. No dice. Just kept dying no matter the setting. Maybe I donāt have enough flow into the engine intake, to take up all the space? Not sure. Iām going to tomorrow remove the brake drum choke plate I dropped in I feel like the burn tube is narrow enough to crack moisture. The flutes were so much cooler than with the blower, it was really odd.
Battery died in the Cherokee so thatās calling it a night. I might have to do two tubes of 1.5" spa hosing like Gary does in his ranger. Iām going to see if someone makes an air cleaner style pan for the 2011 Vortec so I can better plumb in my gas.
My guess could be itās either the brake drum choke plate or the hosing going to the cherokee is not sufficient for enough flow. If I open up the butterfly more than 1/4 open the nozzle flare dies down to a dull red instead of the medium orange Iām used to seeing in test flares.
For reference the center hole of that brake drum is about 3 inches I think. Maybe choking flow too much.
On the upside I didnāt feel moisture in the PVC or in the spa hose.
Iām going to make a towel filter and hope that it wonāt have too much drag on the system.
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Do you have a afr gauge so you can see when the mixture goes rich and can dial back the fuel? And some sort of timing adjustment?
Nope. This isnāt drive testing itās just making sure the gasifier can even produce enough gas for an engine to run. This Cherokee is a 1990 and I havenāt been able to find any sort of timing adjustment on it.
On 318 and a lot of others the distributor is rotatable there should be a bolt holding down a little wedge and the distributor should rotate if you loosen it.
Itās the 4.0 Renix Inline Six that Iām using as a testbed, or was last night. I wonāt be permanently attaching the gasifier to this car I just have it plumbed in parked next to the reactor.
And my 2011 Sierra doesnāt have a way that I know of to manually adjust timing on the fly like yāall can with the Dakotas. I think the computer will probably advance timing pretty well once it detects the chargas though.
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True. That Jeep 4.0L should have a unitized coil-pac that bolts over the spark plugs. The previous distributor hole blanked off. Or have a stubbed in cam sensor. (I confuse my Ford, GM and Jeep factory engine change overs). On these although a fellow could retro fit for a Distributor ignition . . . . watchaā gonnaā do about the electronically shifted transmission, eh?
Yep. You are correct on the self-adjusting of the timing CodyT.
But . . . the later especially GM and Toyotas use the spark plug energy needed to self-adjust the individual by cylinder ignition timing and to each cylinder FI. Plus camshafts advances and retardingās.
Will the different wood/chargas burning characteristics throw these systems off?
A big unknown.
By the way I think these system can be IDāed by the factory use of the super long lived Iridium spark plugs. Previous platinum and copper plugs could not give the longevity to base such systems onto.
S.U.
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The Jeep Iām going to sell back to my friend. We never even signed over the title so thereās that. Really I had bought it for going around on the property but Iām not wanting to fix all the issues it has. Runs okay but the fuel rail is starting to leak a little.
My other buddy is moving to Texas and selling his 98 Buick Century LeSabre and Iām hoping to get that. Would be a sight to see that on producer gas.
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Did a little bit of surface area math comparing the hole size and numbers to the Mako S1.
My flutes total to six, with 9.5mm(3/8") holes.
Mako S1 used four 14mm holes and it was rated for 2.5-4L engines.
If I just compare total area to total area I get 179mm on the double flute.
Mako S1 based on Gengas book I get 175.9mm.
Maybe my application of the math is wrong, I just multiplied nozzle hole diameter by Pi and then multiplied that number by the total nozzle amount.
So maybe this current hole size isnāt big enough for the 4.3L to be efficient?
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