Woodrunner tractor

Woodgas Farming
#1

Ok, so i wanted a woodgas tractor a long time now, so i start this thread about my little side-project, if you are bored about my old crap and ideas please tell me :wink:
Anyway: starting with some pic’s,

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So, here’s the soon to be victim of woodgasifying-converting, my 1951 Ferguson, unfortunately a kerosene engine with very low cr, this has had me doubtful about converting it, but i finally decided to pull the head and mill it down a good bit.
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Im going to use this 1942 Ford-Bolinders gasifier, Imbert type, some maybe consider this as cheating? But i think it’s a shame to not use this nice and well preserved gasifier?
Also, it makes the tractor look some “vintage” with this old, slender gasifier.
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Im going to modify the the gasifier “gently”, making the upper part a condensing hopper, and lower the gas outlet, also separate the gas outtake in 2, 180° apart, this is beneficial for the hearth, more even heat distribution, the one-side gas stream used to bend these cone-shaped hearth’s.
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Bottom cone, text Bolinder’s casted in, odd place to advertise? :grinning:
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Wood chunks left from 1945, these goes into the Chevy :smiley:
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Imbert style hearth from above, five nozzles.
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Finally got it in the shop, now to clear a spot to work on it.

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#2

And here are some blurry scetches of how im going to rebuild the gasifier to a condensing hopper type, not really a “monorator” because monorator indicates: single wall hopper.

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As it is now.
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How im going to convert it.

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#3

Gorean, if I’ve ever been happy about something, it’s this post, … thanks for the nice pictures

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#4

1945 charcoal. If somebody in the States had that they would try and sell it on Ebay for a goodly sum, and some idiot would buy it. I am curious about how one would go about determining how much you could mill that head or block.

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#5

Thank you Tone, theres going to be more :smiley:

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#6

Hi Tom, yeah i should probably have put the chunks on ebay :smile: but they ended up in the Chevy gasifier instead.
I emptied an charcoal gasifier i brought home once, and used the 70 year old charcoal for barbecue :yum:, once a TV-chef here in Sweden told the audience: It’s very important to buy new bbq-charcoal every season, because the leftovers from last season “lost It’s power”- Bullsh*t; i say :smile:
About the head: im going to mesure the volume of combustion chambers by laying the head upside-down, placing a sheet of transparent plastic over chambers, with hole in, then fill with thin oil, measuring how much it holds. But you probably know this method already? Anyways the the cylinder volume is easy, then total volume, divided,… and so on, going to aim at 9:1 ratio, if head plane/gasket area admits it, and how much ill be able to shorten the push-rods. And so on :face_exhaling:

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#7

Goran, if you will allow comments, I would be happy to share my ideas, first of all regarding the hot zone of the imbert system, which gave me the idea of ​​filling the restriction pipe with coal,… here is also a pipe for preheating the air with hot gases and heating the wood storage tank , … increase in engine compression, … maybe there are also pistons that would ensure this, especially if it will be necessary to renew the cylinders in the block.

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#8

Tone, comments are always welcome :smiley:
Im going to skip the fuel hopper heating on this, i found a condensing hopper works best for my purposes, but im planning, eventually, to build a heat exchanger for the incoming air, the original pipes are not efficient enough.
I’ve also contemplaining to put in a bottom nozzle, of your design, i just wonder if this imbert style will “underproduce” charcoal for the reduction zone? In that case air in that spot probably do no good.

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#9

I wasn’t aware. I was under the impression monorator was just condensing hopper instead of heated. But now that you mention it, it explains the “mono”. Was there ever a special name for a double walled hopper? Stereo-rator maybe? :smile:

Very interesting projects you have. Keep the reports coming.

14 Likes
#10

göran, nobody is boared here with your projects…it is the opposite in reality…i hope to learn again from you and your project…
it seems tone infects all with a while with his tractor…one nice day i found myself as a owner of a old fiat tractor…

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#11

Having never milled a head or block I never even thought about push rods but I would imagine there was enough adjustment in the rockers to allow the stock rods. Not sure about that and not sure where you could ever get different push rods for a 70 year old tractor. I know you have the will so there is surely a way.

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#12

Hi Tom, there are often the rod’s that determine how much a head can be milled down, it’s not only the adjustable points, there are also the “geometry” between rod’s and rockers.
There are special “universal” pushrods available, a thin chrome-moly tube that can be cut to lenght, with loose end’s ball or ball-seat.
But in my case, ill probably cut the original ones with angle grinder, and try weld them together, near the bottom end should be the best place, less “flexing” or sideways load. :smiley:

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#13

Hi JO, yes the saying is thats the name monorator originates from the single wall hopper, the experiments in Finland was due to savings/shortages of material, at first their triple wall gasifier “Otso” became banned to produce, later there was rules against double wall gasifiers to be produced, almost same here in Sweden, producing single wall gasifiers was promoted.
Sorry for the history lesson :crazy_face:

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#14

Thanks Giorgio. I thought you got that nice Fiat tracked tractor, and was to gasify it?

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#15

tone has a video where the fergie gasifier lends gas to his fiat…should work also with mine…
but needs time yet, my son cleans all and gives oil, the radiator was very closed by dust…
the magneto should work, i got a high tension strike of it, from my fingers to the knee by the chain… now is a bit garden to prepare, onions and garlic must come in…today we brought seven loads of humus with the horse cart there, yesterday also a lot of horse manure…i can only sleep with a beer, otherwise the brain not let me sleep because of projects…

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#16

Great, I have permission to comment, well, my way to good gas is the WK fire hose, below is the imbert method of buried pipes without a grate, where the gas exits sideways through the heat exchanger and rises up, while as with the imbert system, it heats the reservoir with wood. Above is the condensing zone, which I would now slightly increase due to on-site operation. Let me say that a few days ago I recorded an uninteresting video about stopping the gasifier, the gas came out quite intensively for 15 minutes, which means that the system conserves energy inside, the hot reservoir above releases pyrolysis gases and forms charcoal, which is also Imbert’s purpose and this I wouldn’t want to lose the effect. Maybe I would consider forced cooling of the condensation zone on the tractor. Hmm, I definitely recommend the lower nozzle, but in the end, I would consider a simpler and faster solution, or reworking the imbert gasifier, or building a new one?

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#17

Also GorenK. when you have the cylinder head off do a modeling squeezed clay impression of the combined top of piston and in-head combustion chamber.
A guessed amount of CC’s of clay wrapped in plastic wrap with the removed spark plug as the air out vent. Just lay and press down the cylinder head with a gasket. Readjust your clay molding volume until right.

Because I’d suggest making up a volume filling form spacer to four screws onto the top of the pistons. Aluminum for aluminum pistons. Cast Iron if this engine is found to have cast iron pistons.
Two-piece pistons are not uncommon in the stationary and big marine engine world.
Yours is a relatively slow speed engine. Low RPM stressed.
For the top of the pistons look into one of the modern ceramic coatings. For your cast gasifier guts Canadian DeanL. had a coat-on? spray-on? thermal resistant product he was promoting.
Regards
Steve Unruh

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#18

DeanL was mentioning IR reflective refractory coatings. I can’t remember the exact designation for the one he used but it was usable in a spray gun.

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#19

I thought the same way SteveU but since I wasn’t sure I didn’t want to look stupid and mention it. I didn’t think about the plastic wrap though. That would be smart.

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#20
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