Woodgas 2020.....AGAIN!

https://youtu.be/X6LzWZYWpOU

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C W McCall had been the anthem if my family road trips as far back as I can remember! When the casset deck was over I would pop in Red Sovine for all the trucking songs with some Arron Tippan trucker songs after. Now I add chicken lights and chrome from Jesse Watson and Chris Stapleton

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Wolf creek pass was one of my favoritess back in the day. Its all I could think of when I actually drove over wolf creek pass.
I haventh thought of red sovine in years!

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That’s good to know. I wasn’t sure how thick those half kegs were but there are some at the scrapyard I could pick up.

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I thought of Wolf Creek Pass when Jakob turned off the interstate at Wiggins.

Me and Earl was haulin chickins on a flatbed out of wiggins, …

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Today we spent doing maintenance I was hoping we would get it all done, but not quite.
The grate is done. The gasifier is back together just have to build a charbed and test drive.
I did an oil change and a tune up. Found two spark plugs that were broken and look like they had been that way a little while. I haven’t checked them since i was at home. It has been running on six cylinders. they were on opposite sides so i guess they balanced out and i never really noticed it. the Distributor cap also had a broke bolt and one was loose so it was flopping around I tried to drill out the bolt but the little tab that the bolt goes through broke off. I JB welded it but the junkyard said they would have one in the morning and it won’t cost much so i will put a new one in. I also put a new throttle body in it. the old one the butterflies were no longer round but oval and it wouldn’t idle at all. I have yet to run it due to the distributor being out will see tomorrow.

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More detailed pics on premium thread

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Jakob, I just have to commend you. When I was your age coming up in the ranks as a automotive mechanic I was a very driven individual, being payed flat rate time does that. I would wrench all day for a living then come home and wrench all night on my own projects day in and day out. It was nothing new to do a Friday night motor swap to go wheeling the next morning. A Sunday night clutch replacement to drive to school and work. I still do these things but the pace has slowed some since I started a family. Iv only met you for a few hours but I tell you right now I’m a huge fan of yours, and your will and drive and skills are going to take you far in life. I know I’m not the only one here to be very proud of what your DOING!

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I have the privilege to work with Jakob. This has been the best wood gasifer education I have had so far first hand. It has been pure gold of information on how Jakob’s truck works. Nothing like working on someone else’s gasifer truck and learning more great ideas in the world of gasification.
Bob

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Now we know why you were getting exhaust backfires during startup at my place.
That throttle body would surely give a high idle speed.
On my truck after 4 years the pot metal had corroded enough to give a 2000+ idle speed, yikes!
That is a lifetime grate even if you are only 18.

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Great grate Jakob!

Same same. Shortly after burning the intake I have a hard time keeping the idle down. A little soot buildup is required to get back to normal.

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I wonder if a brass butterfly would hold up better?

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JO had brass butterflys in his rabbit truck. Woodgas ate one of them so half of it broke off and went through his engine.
Rindert

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The brass butterfly’s in my throttle body looked brand new, the bores were heavily pitted with corrosion.
My ford mechanic son advised that the factory bores are coated and mfr reccomendation to not damage that protection.

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My guess is the VW had a cheap brass alloy. Also, the cooler was tiny on that setup. The tb was often wet inside. That motor was fed lot’s of acidic water :smile:

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Oh, I remember those days. When we got married Erika was still in her last 1/4 at Auburn. I was working at an independent shop in town …paid by book time, which makes a young energetic guy work too hard…I would go in at 6:30 like everyone else, work all day until about 7pm. Go home for a little while for supper, etc, and go back to the shop at about 8:30pm —2 am.
I didn’t help that I had my own 3 bay shop to work in. and the keys to the whole place. All the other techs worked in the big building. I had my own.
Probably my addiction to cigarettes and coffee…and back then we still had amphetamines over the counter…And whole could leave out the endless gallons of Mountain Dew…and all the energy God gave a young guy.

After Erika graduated it got worse because she got a job at the hospital children’s psych ward…at night. Then there was almost no reason for me to quit working at all. There were quite a few 40 hour shifts for me then. Fortunately for me I guess, 9/11 happened and we moved home to the woods where we belonged.

Wish I had done it differently now…especially on these sore mornings… But I did pay for a house in the city in less than a year…was able to trade that for the farm a couple years later…and never had to go into debt in my life.

Fortunately my love affair with the dirt track came and went while I was still a teenager…before I had enough money for it to cost me too much.

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Good morning Jakob, I see you are awake out there at 4 AM. Ready to head east this morning? We’re leaving out to deliver ice to Roanoke Walmart. I’d rather be with you. But then, who wouldn’t.?

Did you get everything put together yesterday? Did you make a test run after reinstalling the firetube? Or did you pull the firetube? Maybe you put the grate in from the bottom?

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Yes we are up about to get on the road. The truck is lit and loaded.
Sorry you have to deal with that, hopefully it won’t be too much of a PITA.
We pulled out the tube and rebuilt the grate.
Took it on a test drive last night first run it was plugged second after a good grate shaking it loosened up and ran great.
We will see how it goes today. We are hoping to make it to Bill shillers Saturday evening but we will see how we roll.
Tune up we put: spark plugs, cap, rotor, starter, distributor which was broken, and a throttle body. This thing will actually idle again.
I can tell the difference between running on 6 and 8 cylinders.

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Jeez, it’s like you know my life story. Caffeine nicotine and and work. Iv slowed it all down and take time for my wife and kids now and working on kicking the bad habits as we speak, still chew and smoke and still buy mtn dew by the case. Red bull in the morning and coffee throughout the day, and just recently became shop manager so now it’s just me running the whole show maintaining the whole fleet across western Washington state

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Hey Jakob, quite the difference in scenery once you cross over Snoqualmie pass isn’t it from full of Life and green and evergreen trees and alders and all sorts of water almost into a barren desert but since you’re up early and moving keep an eye out for them mule deer they jump on i-90 like you wouldn’t believe seen many an accident on that highway with deer collisions

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Here is a update, we are about 60 miles from Spokan Washington now. I one more video.

https://youtu.be/Km-nh9WiolE
Bob

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