Woodrunner chevy

Yes, she promised to drive on a video when its up and running again. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Today i should have lifted of the gasifier, but other things got in the way, im somewhat involved in a project about tar for protecting old church roofing so today we did a “burn” to test wood from de-barked pines.
I think i post about it here, maybe someone find it interesting?
I hope this dont get me kicked out of this excellent forum, nobody likes a TAR-maker, right? :wink: :laughing:


Charcoal from last “burn”

Bottom funnel/tar outlet.

Stacked pitchwood.

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More pic’s:


Barrel turned upside down.

Barrel sealed with dirt/clay.

Fire in the “firebox”.

The whole contraption, there are 2 heating channels with dampers in, to regulate the heat to heating top first.

Flaring off pyrolyzis gas, this should be lead through a condensate cooler to save turpentine, then to the firebox, this time I didn’t set it all up, just let the gas burn.

Tar runs from the bottom, gooseneck, pipe.
This burn took about 3 hours, and we got a little over 1,3 gallons of premium tar :slightly_smiling_face:

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Pine tar makes an amazing wood stain. The Finn’s used them on their rifles for decades. I think it’s also used to repair horse hooves.

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Absolutely, it’s a multi-purpose thing, only thing it’s not good for are inlet valves :laughing:
The Finn’s also has it in liquorice pastilles, tastes pretty good actually.

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Thought i could post some of what im doing for living, before was i a heavy truck mechanic, now working at my brothers shop it’s mostly cars, occasionally we repair some trucks also.
This is a Scania v8, 16liters, 620 hp, with leaky fuel rails.


In Sweden it’s 99% cab-over-engine.

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How do you use this tar?

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Hi Rindert, in this particular case we do small batches of tar, from different wood, here we used pine that had been debarked live in order to make it produce more resins, this is for a project, im helping some guy’s that investigates tar quality for preserving old church-roofing.
The tar we make here is going to a laboratory to investigate it’s contents, and to compare it to other types of tar, for example from old pine stumps.
Ofcourse i make tar for myself sometimes too, has use it for fencing poles, where they “meet the ground” and give away some to friends with old boats, and hunters, that use it to attract wild boar.

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Did it come out more as pitch or more as Rosin?

In the Turpentine industry they treat the pine sap with a giant distillation and draw off the turps and the useful byproduct is resin, dries into a crystalline substance. They still use it as flux in soldering.

But in the harvesting they skin and score the tree to let it drip into pots instead of the whole wood.

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Hi Cody, in this process of making tar it’s most like pitch, especially in the end of the process, tar is just a mix of resins, some turpentine, “a little of all” in bigger manufacturing one make “cuts” as in distilling, best tar (brownish) is in the middle.
I should get some papers from the guy that work with the lab, could be interesting see whats in the “mix” :slightly_smiling_face:

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I planned to lift of, and start disassemble the gasifier today, but this is what i woke up to, about 5 inches of snow. I think i stay a little lazy and do some indoors-work today :slightly_smiling_face:

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To wet, cold, and snowy today too, but wanted to do something with the old truck.
It has’nt run in sometime so i decided to start it up on some “standard fuel” :frowning_face:
Shots down the carb, runs some seconds, -repeat, will not stay alive, ofcourse i had forgot to open the fuel shut-off valve. :crazy_face:
Then i ran it til i feeled some heat from the defroster, nice to know the engine seems ok.

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I’d like to see more details of how your intake system is set up. Haven’t seen another quite like it. The yellow rings look like clothe dryer hose so your gas must not be to hot.You never mentioned what engine this is and what does the grease gun sitting on top of the radiator do? The shiny black on your air filter looks like tar.

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Hi Tom, i should post more about the setup, it’s actually pretty simple, under the air cleaner is a two-throat carb, no woodgas going througt it, there is a “Y” underneath it.
Gas mixer is closed off with a 3 inch ball valve, brass colored in front of air cleaner.
The hoses with yellow stripes are only for air, there are old swedish inspection rules that says that secondary air and air for carb in a gasoline/woodgas setup, must be directed from outside the engine compartment, this to avoid gas leaking out “backwards” at shutdown or if engine stalls, this was old regulations, probably not valid anymore but i followed them to be safe.
The woodgas is lead through the red/orange hose in front.
I agree the filter looks tarry, but it’s oil from crankcase ventilation, a little construction mishap from my side, when driving on wood there are no suction in the air cleaner so the oil mist just blows out everywhere in the cleaner, making a mess, something i should correct.
The grease gun is actually a suction pump used to suck up some gasoline and “prime” down the carb.
Hope i explained understandable and didn’t forgot something. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Ofcourse forgot: It’s a 400 cui smallblock, if I remember correctly it came from a 1976 Chevrolet Impala?

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So the primer acts like a primer from a Diesel engine? I’ve seen those a lot in Mercedes 240D and 300D.

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No, i’ve just used it today, because the truck had standing for so long, just to give it some “shots of fuel” down the carb, to avoid cranking till the batteries die, because fuel running back to tank, leaving the pump dry.

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I made a very blurry sketch of intake construction, sometimes a pic is more worth than thousand words, (even if it’s like a 3 years old made it with crayons) :laughing:

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So do you have two gas pedals, one woodgas and other gasoline? I see two butterfly valves in line that are labeled butterflys, is one hooked to the gas carburetor linkage and the other one is manually controlled by the driver?
Bob

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Hi Bob, i only have one gas pedal, there is a overly complicated contraption i made that shifts between carb throttle or gas throttle, this is controlled by the ball valve that closes of the woodgas, the ball valve is controlled by 2 steel wires that ends on the dash board.
As for the air butterflys youre perfectly right, one is controlled by a lever on the steering column, other coupled to gas throttle and easily adjustable for idle mix. (Wing-nuts)

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