Wow, pretty cool Herb. A stove pipe? How did it not burn out in the first couple of miles? You must have been making pretty good gas if you could just start off wood? Did it still work when you sold it? Or did the engine get gummed up? A good way to get hooked on wood gas. Didn’t need to keep big rocks by your feet to shake that grate. Haha Here’s the video for whoever wants to see it.
Bill S
Wow Bill thanks for bringing that old video up like that, what is that , some kind of vodoo magic?
I forget what I used for a burn tube on that, it was a little heavier then stove pipe, nozzles a few inches up from 4" restriction and then rebar grate. It sit down in a tapered light weight outer shell, that was my poor excuse for preheat. The holes you see around top outside of tube is where the combustion intake air came in, went down in between red hot burn tube and tapered shell and then nozzles way down there. Nothing great but it ran, I learned a lot from it, mostly what not to do!!!.
Hello Bill and Herb.
Thanks for the video. While watching the video I spotted another video and watched .
I laughed for a while and then realized a lot of people may have watched this program and may have been world wide . Why would the news media put the spot light on someone running a primitive design???
The program made a big joke out of gasification and got a big laugh .
I would really like to hook a ten ton trailer to all these little hybrid cars and see how well they handle it in a days work.
OK I think I have said enough . I need to stop typing before I get all out of shape .
After watching the video and hearing numerous small setbacks of wood powered propulsion, I’m going to my back stove heated garage and split quarter logs into kindling to try to wash my brain off.
i watched it… bunch of clowns…
I think all the DOW guys should show up at one of these hybrid / alt fuel events!!
Herb,
What year was the Festiva? Looked like early 90’s. According to the Gates manual, the 1.3L Mazda engine was non-interference. Did you scrap it for non-woodgas reasons?
Mainly because I didn’t want to be like those guys, presenting woodgas as a joke. I think it was a 91 Alex. The engine ran like a sewing machine, no one could believe how nice it ran. The main problem with the car besides no title was the shifter, finding a gear was like stirring soup, it did have all the gears but sometimes it took 10 mins to find one, may have been low or it could have been 4th or even reverse, which ever one I found, that is how fast I went. I figured it was somewhere in the linkage but I fixed all of that, finally figured out the problem was in the tranny. That car taught me two things, one that an engine would run on wood, two,that I wanted to build a real wood powered road machine!!!
Oh, How many cars have I driven without titles, let me count the ways … I’m glad to hear Herb, that it had nozzles. I’m glad I can’t view any videos… I actually caught on fire this morning when my acetylene turbo tip handle sprung a leak and blew gas up my shirt sleeve and then puffed and set me off. I smell pretty good … Took a while to put myself out. I smell like I’ve been shooting a muzzle loader all day … M
Herb, A real wood powered machine you have. A one of a kind. Great story about the Festiva. A low risk experiment.
Mike L, There are less dangerous ways of staying warm this season. I hope you’re ok.
Didn’t want to give any one any ideas but thought Herb might have ideas on how to use it
http://www.coolestone.com/media/7473/GIT-R-DONE-Australian-V8-Chainsaw/#.UsXlmBjMpzt
Thanks Bill, yeah if I can’t present woodgas in a positive light I don’r want to at all, I really like those “class acts” that I am seeing coming up, way to go guys and gals!
Been working on the Caddy changing things as I go back together with it, I hope this is worthy of space here on this site. The Caddy had a bit of a bridging problem where fuel falls into burn tube, mostly because I didn’t do it the way Wayne’s video’s show doing. I didn’t weld the fins together at the bottom so they got pushed down over time and would hang up on top shoulder of burn tube. This time I’m holding them together by drilling a hole in the lower end, bending them over/down so I could thread a SS wire though all the way around to hold them from falling down. I have no idea if it will work, please stay tuned.
pic 1 shows wire threaded though holes while I was scratching by head over guessing how tight/high to make it
pic 2 After twisting wire together hopefully holding fin ends the right height
pic 3 shot from top, I have to say I like the bounding action, I think it may help with bridging, please notice wire is under fins all the way around, shouldn’t interfere with fuel slipping down fins
You guys that have been doing this for a long time have probably tried this and know if it will work or not but I thought it may help and if it keeps me from having to pull over and poke one time it’s worth it. I’ll tell you one thing I sure do like being able to share idea’s with all of you and being able to get ideas from all of you. thanks to everyone that have had anything to do with this site and to Al Gore for inventing the internet!!!.
Hey Herb, my welder has a stitch cycle on it but you are taking this literally!!
Hi Tom, that is a cow patty making machine, thanks for posting that, makes me wonder why any one besides us gasses would want to have those short logs? I like my old 100 dollar bandsaw with that cheap, narrow blade for cow patty duty, it will cut logs all day and not complain. I have found chain saws to be like some women, very high maintenance and they take to wide of swath, they work a guy to hard and they leave to much sawdust on the ground!!
Yeah Don, I do like stitching those fin ends together because it gives more bouncey movement and I need all the bouncey movement I can get with the Caddy because it rides so smooth. herb
Herb,
Gotta ask and I don’t think anyone else has yet; what are you using for metal to spring load your doors? I have still yet to get my Toyota running again as I have to finish rebuilding the ash dump door. I had the same problem with melting my high temp silicone, but my door was flat against my ash can, not set off like yours. I have got a new frame built that sets it off the can by 4inches and I was also going to do a inner shield with a piece of 16 ga aluminum. I just don’t know how I wanna hold the door on. I am amazed yours hold tight enough to not leak air!
Maybe I could call you sometime if that is ok. I think I seen your number posted a couple of times.
David S
Hello David, that is 16 ga. SS, I picked it up at the scrape yard. It’s the same stuff I used on all the doors and lids for mounting duty, all of them are spring loaded in that same fashion, just wider or narrower depending on size of door or lid. Works good, plenty of closing power, hopefully you can see how they are mounted in pic. They just hang in a pocket welded to unit, no bolts for mounting, just the bolts you see holding spring to aluminum lid so when they do pop off they close in the same position, make sure to position them so they push in the center applying equal pressure all the way around. You can call me anytime 5157786466
PS added latter, These are more for old hay removal then for pop off although they have poped, I’ve seen hay part way out, to remove pull up about 1", thanks herb
Herb, what gauge steel did you use for your main box?
I really went light on those Don, that is only 20 ga. same with the coolers, I was really trying to keep it lite. The whole unit only weighs 380 lbs.
Another progress report on going back together, I drilled the 6 nozzles out to 1/2" instead of 7/16, cut the restriction out to 6&1/2" instead of 5&1/2" and raised it to 13&1/2" instead of 15&1/2", we will see how that works out! There was some distortion up around nozzle area, I pushed it back out with little bottle jack and reinforced it a bit, hope it stays put.
Also decided to make a different water separator funnel type thing in the hopper to see how it works out. The old one was all caked up down in there where water collected and had drain almost blocked off. this one doesn’t sit down in where hopper sits (gutter) but up tight around upper fins which gives much more room for crape to build up and water to run out. Don’t know how any of this will work out, stay tuned!! latter, herb
Herb,
Thanks for letting me know. I still can’t believe they do what they need to do. (your doors I mean) I am so paranoid right now as I make my new ash can door, after having my other one fail. I have it all made up and just need to figure out how I am going to hold it on. I got my frame pretty flat. When I lay my 3/16 in thick cover on it there is virtually no rock so I know things are pretty flat and true. I will build up red rtv on the back now like you did, and that should take out any minor irregularities, but I am still thinking I need to clamp it down hard to compress the seal good. How thick is that aluminum cover you used. Looks like 1/4inch thick stock.
Also I read you are not shaking your grate at all? I am thinking of foregoing a grate shaker. I am not sure one really needs one unless your taking longer trips.
David S
