H. Ford would be proud. Bring them both to Argos!!
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I heard ford actually did have wood powered
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Heck I may hang a gasifier on the back of it before itâs all over!
Iâve heard that too Jason, I think Henry did get into woodgas at one time, Iâm thinking in the very early years, I really donât know. Wasnât woodgas the very first fuel used in the ICE? I heard that once, donât know if thatâs true.
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my understanding is you could buy a ford in Australia during WW2 with a gasser on it right from the dealership⌠ahhhh⌠the good old days
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Hi Herb,
I remember hearing powdered coal was the first fuel used in the ICE, so I looked on Wikipedia under internal combustion engine history and there it appears Christiaan Huygens, a famous name that I forget what else is associated with, something with optics, I think, in the 17th century designed a piston engine that ran on gunpowder to pump water for the gardens at Versaille. It didnât mention if it actually was built. In 1807 Nicephone Niepce built a ICE that was powered by moss, coal dust and resin and used it to power a boat. Then in 1862 Nikolaus Otto first used town gas (gasified coal) to power the ICE he developed.
Got the welder out yesterday to fix the tractor, will continue the gasifier soon. Big family reunion next week for the baptism of our first grandchild. After that I should have some time for the Caddy project.
Your hot rod looks like a fun project, I canât imagine how many hours of work you must have into it by now.
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is a very interesting topic to me, I would have liked being a part of that!!
Rick those grand kids are a real blast arnât they. I have six grand kids, oldest granddaughter HS graduation was last weekend, drove the Caddy. Get that tractor together so you can finish your Caddy then we can get together and race!
Yeah I have lots of time in the âAâ, Iâve done everything at least twice on it, first time doesnât turn out that good, second time a little better, third time kind of how I like it, fourth weâll you get the idea!!!
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Herb, Some of the short, newer high energy caps may just fit it instead of the one you cut down. Of course you might have to cut down a matching distributor to make an adapter ?? Of course you like that kind of stuff. Ford made gasifiers to be shipped to Scandinavia etc during the prewar and war period. I have a friend in Virginia Beach who has a son that is an engineer at Ford and has access to their library but has no time for me or woodgas. Dave C also worked at Ford as an engineer before he was disabled and has seen the stuff in their library on their gasifiers. Bugs are bad here ⌠Mike
Dave C if you are out there I would enjoy hearing from you. Ford was doing some very interesting things early 70âs performance wise that never got mass produced because of the (false) fuel shortage, one year they were building the badest, biggest, most CFM flowing V8 engine known to mankind (351C&429SCJ) and the next year they were building Pintoâs on the very same assembly line, it is truly a crying shame what weak, ignorant, uninformed leaders have done to this once wonderful USA!!!
Herb, I donât know if Dave C follows this site ⌠You can contact him at drspark.com ⌠Mike
He sleeps odd hours or Iâd give you his phone number over the phone âŚ
Ha! Ha! Hey HerbH
Read your comment on 6/4/2014
" . . . first time doesnât turn out that good,
second time a little better,
third time kind of how I like it,
fourth (time) . . . "
Story of my stuff too!!
I have learned hard well now for me NOT, ever to do anymore that fourth time on my stuff though.
For me always works worse; âimprovedâ too much; and I go back to mostly a #3 version.
And all that time, energy and materials I then wasted focused on perfecting, distracts greatly. Somthing else needful in my Life now no longer crying, needing attention, but dead and non-functional. The bearing squeaky clothes drier; leaky now chicken house roof; houses paints now pealing and shedding; been far too many years now on chimney cleaning on the one house.
Now not just needing a just a little of my attention. But complete changing out, replacement. Then losing all the proven old goodS and having to proof-in then someone elses âbetterâ ideas on the new replacements. Old, old painted shut wooden windows now proofing out three different versions of vinals windows replacements. On brand already air leaking fogging sucks. Another year by year falling apart dribbling plastic sides pieces.
My Wife inpatient with âwoodgassingâ Steve, contracted-out, change outs.
This is no joke. Knew an excellant gasifier designer/developer who went through a lot of air compressors. Focused, busy gasifier systems, improving. Any one of the air compressors being worked hard just needed lube oil change-outs, cooler coils blown off and inlet filter changed from from all the shop work air-crud settling on everything.
Fellas; what Herb left unsaid as an obvious to him is that in his way of doing things the only way you can actually âfall forwardâ improve from 1st, 2nd, 3rd re-doâs is to have actually taken it out and worked it hard to find just what does worked WELL; what worked sorta O.K.(but a PITA to maintain); and what donât work worth a shit.
You KEEP the works-wells; upgrade the just sorta O.K.'s; and complete go a different way ONLY on the was-shits features.
He shows this well on his Caddy gasifier system. Got it working. ONLY then, Now, improving it one thing at a time.
Evolentary developing . . . IS building Up.
Mike Larosa shows this. Wayne Kieth Shows this. Carl Zinn shows this. Patrick Johnson shows this. Henry Austin, Paul Holverson, Ron Lemler, Terry LaV. and others actually DOing/Working It now trending over to showing this now too.
And once you do get all of the rough edges filled off; 'ya need to slow down the âchangingâ, âimprovingâ, âoptimizingâ, the soup over-stirring and spicing-up or you will be ignoring and burning the biscuits. That makes for poor meals and sleeping alone. You will be a Life balancing failure. Splat! An âalso ranâ, who never finishes. Burns out early. At best; a little white cross besides the road of Life.
You will ONLY ever know what woodgas wants from YOU, yourself; for YOU; with YOUR fuelwoods: and YOUR engine loaded useages BY USING IT.
So many woodgas wannabeâs; many here; youâall need to get off the pot and put up something, anything able to do some wood fuel burning for a purpose.
Hands on learn and improve from THAT. Change to IMPROVE from a then know conditions.
Fuel wood Burn, run Hard into failures again. At least 10 hours. At least 5 from cold starting-ups between each change. The real challenges only show up then. Condensates -> Ash -> Sootes -> Fuel Wood Prep -> metals/materials failures.
Hobbiests. Ship-in-a-bottle builders. World Changers. I ainât got no more time for you fellows.
My Life, my words, no longer measured in decades or years now.
Measured in Hours now until the meds benefits no longer works anymore.
You either never work proof these. Or want to Revolutionary tear-down, throwing-out, usable practical performances, idealizing.
Fellas like IanM, DougD., BillS and many others here - those proving a real willing to in-this-real-present-today-world to commit-to-actions, you the ones I am give all the time, energy and knowledge that I do have left.
Ha! Patience is all gone now though. Sorry. Word govenor burnt out too. Sorry. My social graces anymore really sucks I know. For that I apologies and try and go back and edit.
Ha! Ha! Enough late in life good deeds and Iâll be up challenging those pearly gates for demanded balance against a youth too much mis-spent.
My good book raising says no-joy with that balancing and best to just get used to the glowing heat.
Me and the oldest dog and cat sure do love our woodfire bone warming red radiant glows anymore.
Think Iâll just practical claim my dribble dregs of Nordic blood and go another way now.
Last line: always go for the long haul practical.
Regards to All
Steve Unruh
as always, a wealth of wisdomâŚ
thank you Steve for, well⌠being you.
Steve,
I appreciate where your âword governorâ is set. As a new wood gasser, I donât want or need any sugar coating. I need to know the parts that arenât obvious about wood gas, ie: temps, air velocity, vacuum pressures. etc. When I came to the site I had all these grandiose ideas that I thought I could âdo betterâ, or improve. I slowly discovered to learn the principles first and become proficient in the operations of the unit. Herb and others here are applying these principles and creating styles of their own.
I say keep your âword governorâ setting where itâs at so we can continue learning. We can filter out what we think is needed.
Hello Herb ,
Just thinking about you . Did you get to take the TV crew for a ride today .?
SWEM
It was a blast, it is going to be on the 10 oâclock news tonight, the Caddy performed perfect, they were so astounded didnât go into specifics. They filmed it from every angle, they wanted to shot it from there car so we went out on the four lane running about 50 they slowly passed me, when they got around me I floored the Caddy and passed them going 75, they couldnât believe I could go that fast on wood. It was fun!!
Thats just plain old Awesome!
What station, do they have a website?
I wanna see that!
All the best
TerryL
They said it would be on internet tomorrow and I could post it from there, I will post it here tomorrow.
PS posted latter; Just watched it. They did a nice job but man did it get cut down. I mentioned DOW two different times and they both got cut out, darn!!
âso we went out on the four laneâ thatâs the way Jay does it, such âclassicâ videography only befits a âclassicâ car of those proportions. Canât wait to see it.
Thatâs awsome Herb canât wait to se the video. Nothing like that good old Caddy torque. Iâm missing mine still down with the electric brake booster issue. Thinking about sticking the whole subframe under the front of a 67 chevy short box and wood gassing it. I have started on a firetube.
Thatâs awesome Herb! I had no doubt you would do well. I too will be anticipating the video.
Herb just saw the video of you. You were awesome, and just as Important the reporting was really good too. ( www.whotv.com )
Great Job!
Denny