First test run with gasifier on truck It worked but not as well as I had hoped. The gasifier porting is too small for this size motor. Red Green would be impressed with our use of duct tape!
Mick, Thanks for your comments and questions. The gasifier was built as a test unit and running the truck was an after thought. I wanted to see if I could use my test unit to run a truck b4 I jump in with both feet and buy a truck. The test went ok but the gasifier was too small. I liken it to a gorilla trying to breath with a straw. Since then I have bought a truck and I'm building a new gasifier. I'm a member of driveonwood dotcom. I hope to have my truck running on wood this fall.
This is a few years late, but CONGRATULATIONS. I'm certain you were beaming that day as I am sitting here feeling proud of your achievement. I want to build one for my old truck and i might take a stab at it soon. cheers!
Very cool. Good to know it can be done. I posted a video on my channel about making diesel fuel out of wast motor oil. I have made and ran the fuel in my 96 dodge Cummings. Once the filtering process is figured out, it's not a lot of work to make. Iv used lots of stuff to make black diesel including brake fluid, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, gear oil, motor oil, gear oil, cutting oil, hydraulic fluid, tiki torch fuel and kerosene. Iv also blended in synthetic oils with no problems. It does smell funny especially when idling long periods of time, but it works. Good to know these things can be done in case we ever need to resort to it.
"Have to get a feel for it," my rear end! I'd say you started out with a pretty good feel, just by getting it to fire up at all! I couldn't begin to list the things I'd've gotten wrong and or count the number of times I'd meet with utter failure before getting it to run. Amazing feat of back-yard engineering. More than just prove it can be done, I think I'd try to make it practical, and have a vehicle designated for wood gas, and make big batches of wood gas, store it in a big tank or tanks at the homestead, and put a permanent tank in the vehicle that I could fill at the pump. I think propane tanks and fittings will work. Making the gas at a permanent facility would allow you to add big, bulky improvements to the quality of the wood distillate. Better, more efficient hearth. Pumps. Bigger/better filters. I guess there's a "methanation" process, where they run the wood gas through a nickel honeycomb catalyst to produce methane that is pretty much the same as fossil-sourced natural gas. There are people in Canada and Scandinavia working on this. Very practical way to power vehicles in wooded areas. Might be easier to just buy a rig set up to run on natural gas and then make your own high-grade natural gas at the homestead. I think I would make the gas separate from the vehicle, and marry the wood gas to the vehicle with tanks of wood gas, or maybe just fill the vehicle tank from a larger tank at home base. That would make the vehicle relatively normal to use, and you'd probably get better consistency, making it in batches at home. Still it's cool to have a rig set up this way. The idea of cutting down trees and making your fuel as you go is pretty cool. :o)
I had a 360 in an 87 Dodge dually 12 ft dump bed. I couldn't afford the gas for it. Traded for a 1965 C-60 Chevrolet with a 292 in line six. It hauls heavier loads on half the fuel.
Thanks Dale, I will be added more ports for one more test. Never give up, never surrender! Then I plan on building a new gasifier and getting my own truck.
again thanks for posting:) awesome to see from a persons first attempt through to running a truck:) would be nice to know if you ve played with your system to see if you sorted the problems you mentioned :) cheers mick
Nice! guess it will be illeal to use one. However, if everything hits the fan, no government, no oil or gas. I will just have everything ready so all I have to do hook it up It will be good for farm equipment
Could or would you explain how you are getting the temp readings from the hearth? Also how you can tell the richness of your fuel mixture. I've been wanting to put a gasifire on our big dump truck for a while. Being able to understand how to run some key point gages will help.
Phil I inserted a thermocouple into the side of the choke plate. 3/16 hole in the edge of a 3/8 plate you can see it on the design video. I also used a air fuel ratio gauge to monitor the fuel mixture
culd here be any other air leaks? i ask because when ever i've started a new unit for the first time its typical to have some leaks to sort out. things get much better usually after a bit
what is the gauge to the left in the video and where can I get one..are you running an Imbert design..I want to get on with my gasifier project.... Thanks for posting
