First Drive on Wood
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- I finally took the Cavalier on its first drive on woodgas. It was fun. Took a few minutes to get it warmed up for running, but it drove under its own power. I think the restriction size may be too small as it can't maintain its power at low revs. I may have a few air leaks in the pipe somewhere because it wants the air valve shut all the way down before it is happy.
Not a 100% success but it did drive on wood and made it back home.
And this is why country folk will and have always survived! Keep at it Luke!
Thanks. So true!
Luke, I may have said this before but your channel deserves a lot more viewers. You always have very unique content.
Thanks!
This is possibly one of the most interesting videos on I have seen youtube to date. Very cool.
This is really great! You'll get it working great .. just keep after it and you'll get all the bugs worked out! You're the man for doing this .. always tinkering with something .. and right now .. this has moved to the top of the "to do" list! Wood is everywhere .. pallets to old buildings .. and fallen tree limbs.
Thank you!
Yes, I have many times cut up free fuel and threw it away. Not any more.
@@lukeFugate
It's alive!!!! This is so great and it most definitely has you smiling from ear to ear. I am happy for you. Thanks for sharing.
I was really happy to hear it start up and run. Now just a few tweaks and it should be better.
Figured you'd be rich by now with the great inventions
never had much luck there lol.
Time for some in cab control cables for your mixture tubing, then be able to really get out and cruise! My woodgas truck does the same thing it doesn't like to recover after a quick throttle up on wood it will try to stall out. A little closing of the air mix valve helps a lot with that to richen up the mixture
That is the next step. I also have some vacuum gauges and temperature probes to install. Just couldn't wait to try it out.
There is a lot I need to learn about driving on wood.
Fantastic job, Luke! Back to the Future style! 😊 Love it!
Thank you.
It is kinda a mr. fusion in a way!!
Awesome Luke. Just awesome.
Thank you!
This is the first time I saw your videos I love this wood to run engines maybe not so in a vehicle but to generate electric nice build I will look for more of your videos 😊😊
I have a Silverado that runs on wood. I haven't done the generator thing yet. It would be interesting to see how woodgas effects longevity of a generator engine. Maybe a comparison between gasoline, natural gas, and woodgas.
WOW. What a journey. Amazing to see you driving it too. Looking forward your next video!
Thank you! It was an experience.
Cool project
Thanks! Yes it is a fun project. I have it up and running on my Silverado now.
Legend in the making.
Thank you!
Absolutely the best Channel
Thank you! Glad you like it!
I can't believe you did it so fast🍃 your brilliant.
Thank you!
Whoa Bro!? thought you were Vincent D'Onofrio 👍 love your monstrosity 👍 Mad Max looking car 👍
I think I could probably just leave the keys in it while it is parked. Doesn't seem like it will be a target for car theft.
Probably be easy to find it in the parking lot too.
Awesome Luke!!! Thanks for sharing i want to build one too!
You should! It is definitely a fun project.
Congratulations on your first trip good video
Thanks!
Have a nice day my friend🎉🎉
Same to you!
Those things were common during WW 2 in Germany. They were used mainly on trucks. My dad had a set of plans to build one, but I haven't seen them in years... Likely still somewhere in his stuff. I remember studying the plans, but sadly I can't recall enough of them to be useful.
The best design for a gasifier is the Wayne Keith gasifier. That is what this is based on with some tweaks to make it fit the car.
There is a lot of good information on the drive on wood website.
@@lukeFugate My dad saved the plans because he felt that some day this forgotten technology might come in handy. I kind of hope it doesn't, but it's still good to keep our options open if things get bad.
@@RJ-vb7gh Yes, always good to be prepared.
HI luke cool looking wood gas car project/ the bottom portion or the burn tube below the nozels, are allways full if pure bio char- that way you need very little warm up time- and will make clean wood gas right away.
Thanks! It works better in my truck now. Looks a little better too lol.
Heyah for solving the immediate power problem I wonder if you could rig an air compressor to temporarily bottle the fuel gas and wire a valve to dump some of it when pedal is at 1/2 to full throttle. Automatics typically have a Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) for regulating interactions between engine and trans so you might be able to tap into that to run some kind of variable gas valve like for fireplaces or water heaters. The most likely candidates for useful scrap parts would be tankless NG / Propane water heaters.
That could be a solution. I'll look into that.
This is awesome! Congrats on getting running!!
Thanks! I was happy to hear it fire up!
That's awesome. Any videos of the build ?
Pretty cool ! No check engine light on either ! Pretty excited for you ,
Thanks. These are fun experiments.
Awesome job!
Thanks!
That's a helluva driveway!! 😂
As an added bonus, he doesn't get door-to-door bible-thumpers or salesmen. 😀
Yeah, I don’t get many visitors. Most people don’t even know I’m up here.
* Fule Gage is irrelevant.
Love it, man I'm so proud I've watched you for years now .
You should be able to live comfortably by your UA-cam Channel alone where is all your subs
It's not right?? Your the Goat 🐐 boss
AF. Awesome job 👍👍
Thanks for hanging around! I guess I don't have enough cat videos to get the subs lol.
The Germans during WW2 made woodgas powered tanks when oil was scarce. They had large tubes on the sides that stored woodgas, it acted sort of like a capacitor. At low engine speeds, it would fill up and at higher engine speeds the stored gas would be used. I also thought of using the ac compressor to store the gas in propane tanks, if you don’t want to fire up the whole system.
Some kind of storage would be great. A little extra for when you pull away from a light or something. After it has idled for a minute or two it needs to be revved slowly to build more gas. Some kind of "capacitor" tank like you said would help. I don't know how woodgas compresses. I do remember seeing old pictures of busses with big bags going the length of the roof. They were apparently filled with the gas and didn't even need a gasifier on board. Here's a picture of it. www.build-a-gasifier.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gasbag-1024x490.png
@@lukeFugate the wood gas wads made in a factory, then it was pumped into those bags at a “gas station”
Nice work Luke 👍 To have it driving is a big deal ! I would say you are more than a quarter figured... half anyways ! Maybe a turbo compressor would help richen the charge ? Maybe you can check for any vacuum leaks by opening up a propane torch and letting the tip pass around all your connection points. If it starts running stronger you have found your leak. Look forward to more... best days to you and yours friend 😎
Good suggestion about the torch. I'll try that, thanks.
@@lukeFugate if you got a pusher fan far starting (that's what they can be used for, not while driving then the engine should regulate the draft). Dry run the gasifier with the fan and use soapy water to check for bubbles, spray suspicous welds or other joints and while the fan is blowing it should produce bubbles if leaking.
A Kentucky Flux Capacitor.👍👍
That made me laugh.
Yep!
Now if you could put one down sized for the s10- you would have a little extra towing utillity-hey its working- sounds GREAT.
Hey Luke, I wish I could help, but I just don't know much about wood gas engines. It might be that you could use a blower or fan to push more wood gas to the engine when you want to "Goose it", by a switch or something mounted on the gas pedal. Congrats on getting it running smoothly. That was no small feat.
That may work. I think it is starving when it hasn't been revving. A fan blowing the air and keeping it going for the burst of power I need may just work. Thanks.
@@lukeFugate I would definitely try using a sensor on the vehicle to determine the throttle position and adjust the fan speed accordingly. Also worth keeping the fan off the logs to keep ash from entering the engine with some kind of replaceable filter
@@jlkkljh Most use an air fuel gauge to monitor the mix. I'll have to pick one up.
@@lukeFugate don't use a pusher fan, let the engine work its suction or you'll get carbonmonoxide all over.
Everything could use a turbo every now and then!
First i saw of this was back in the 60's. The longest 100 miles. Doug McClure and Ricardo Montelban
Good movie!
I remember seeing pictures of cars with a similar setup that were taken in japan in the early 50's by my great uncle. Always wondered how it worked.
.
Yes, there are some fascinating pictures from that era. I like the old flatbed trucks with the gasifier integrated into the bed. They look pretty good.
You said you had blower that you still needed to hook up what was that for? It seems the engine is burning more fuel then the stove can deliver.
That was awesome show look forward to see more.
I need another one of the bilge blowers. Or maybe two more should be put together in a line to increase the air's velocity. It is for the warm-up process.
It turns out the PVC pipes going over the roof were leaking. This caused the air mixture to be too weak by the time it got to the engine. I replaced the pipes with a single piece and taped up the connections.
It runs much better now.
Cool. I was expecting the Bavarian hammer sound
Thanks!
Some of the SnowJoe leaf blowers have a bad on/off switch. Nice fan.
Actually this blowers switch wasn't working and someone threw it out. I took it apart and cleaned the switch wit wd40 and it has worked since.
Very cool stay safe
Thank you! I think next purchase should be a fire extinguisher.
There's a really good book on this, I reckon it's the best one in the world when it comes to wood-gas, it's called the wood gas builders Bible, if you don't already have it, I suggest you buy a copy.
I haven't got one yet. I built this gasifier from Wayne Keith's book.
I do plan on getting the other book, but due to the flooding recently we don't have a post office yet.
It's great to see that you've got it basically working. The energy density of carbon monoxide is a whole lot less than that of gasoline, so i'm wondering it that has anything to do with your need to run higher revs to get reasonable power. I don't know anything about these things, of course, but i threw my guess in there anyway.
Good luck in getting this thing fully and practically operational!
There is an amount of power loss for woodgas. I think it should have more power than it does right now though. Some of the guys on the forum have said once the char bed gets established it will be more consistent.
I guess it will get lined out as I tinker with it more.
Just WOW 👍✌🎅🍳🚌
Thank you!
Right figure a ol’ truck deserved the conversion kit… low profile on that red buggy…
Yeah, the truck did pretty good on it. The v8 is a little better than that 4 cylinder.
I know the video has been for over a year and you've probably already figured it out, but I would say the morning gas you can send to the engine the better and then use the damper right at the engine intake to fine tune any restriction needed. I would also try to add some push pull cables so that you can fine tune the air/fuel dampers from the drivers seat instead of having to pop the hood.
Yeah, I moved the whole thing over to my Silverado and have it working well in there.
Very cool
Thank you.
perfect
Good job!
Thanks!
It's running brilliantly, such a kool build. Hihihi, your road mighta been a bit tough on the exhaust pipe. Maybe "Back to the Future" build coming up. 👍
It was great to hear it fire up. Yeah I may want to lift the muffler up just a tad.
Congratulations on getting the gasifier to work . You may need a way to adjust the airflow along with the gas. Same has for a carb type car. There are a lot of youtube channels out there with builds that may help. Liked,shared. All my very best.
Thank you! I'll look into it.
Towards air.. Don't you have a thin piece of cloth opposite the gas intake? As to wood fuel, I'm very impressed.
@@lkimberly2064 Don't have any type of air filter for the intake yet. I'll probably use some generic foam filter for it though.
Good stuff man
Use the exhaust pressure back into the system?
Thank you!
No but the exhaust helps with preheating the air in my Silverado build.
How clean is your wood gas.. you should post a video at night showing the burn flame from your gassifier... im guessing you have not enough fuel delivery.... your wood gas may have to much moister ie yellow flame.. and intake carb manifold need to have more cab adjustments...
Trying to help: Im thinking that you are pull enough fuel and oxygen through the reactor. SO... you dont need the oxygen there on the left. If what I say is correct you can test it by restricting the intake to the burn area to allow just what is needed to make the fuel then you can control the oxygen with the valve under the hood. Also Ive read that with wood gas you will have less horsepower or torque. So if you have confirmed no leaks and correct to your liking the oxygen mix.. then your next step may be some way to adjust timing maybe with the vacuum. but i digress what you have accomplished is amazing!!! Great job Luke.. really
Thanks! I have seen some use a check valve on the air intake. Mine is wide open, so maybe it would be worth a shot.
I think there are probably leaks somewhere that need eliminated. I think that will not only correct the air mixture but allow for a stronger pull on the reactor to keep the temps up.
2.1:1 is the ratio for complete combustion of woodgas, the adjustment on the air intake under the hood is just for diffrence in volume of gas from the gasifier and outside air. No oxygen should be getting past the combustion and reaction zones without becoming CO or h2o(booo don't want that,but happens anyway...)
I wonder if running one of those tubed out the grill that's on the engine would make it like a cold air intake if it'd help the engine any or would it actually work against the gasifier ...
Just wondering if it'd blow the fire out or enhance the quality and performance of the engine knowing irs breathing better
The Wayne Keith gasifier design
Yes it is!
maybe lift the suspension an inch or 2 with spring inserts,, I need to go back and see if you describe what the tubes on the roof do.. it sounds like fuel starvation, maybe an expansion tank or just bigger pipes or dual pipes into a large 5"? pipe under the hoods thats reduced back down.. Make your own charcoal? with an inverter you could have a wood burning generator!!
It does need the springs beefed up a little. The tubes on top are basically a radiator to cool the gas before going into the filters and the engine.
I have been looking into making charcoal. If not charcoal, then at least some quick way to dry the wood out. It needs to be less than 20% moisture preferably less than that.
A gasifier is great for running a generator. The constant speed I think makes it more efficient and keeps the gas flowing at a steady rate.
@@lukeFugate most people drop those little coupes down in the weeds but there is one running around here thats lifted a couple inches with bigger tires and I think it looks badass.. Puddins Fab Shop on youtube has a toyota 4dr he's lifted a little and uses as a push vehicle around his shop.. you already have a mad max vibe going so a little lift and bigger wheels would add to the effect.. maybe a grill guard/expansion changer .. when cooling the gas do you get much creosote?
@@docink6175 Yeah, it would add to the look lol. I do like the grille guard idea. More cooling and more volume of gas readily available. The creosote as I understand it depends on the type of wood. I am going to try to minimize it by using only hardwoods.
Hilarious...... But functional 😎👍👍
NICE!!!
Thanks!
I believe woodgas has a lot less power than gas. So your under power issue may just be that the woodgas is only like 60% of what the engine and trans is designed for.
On your air intake to keep the fire going take the pipe and flute it with slots instead of running it out you'll get better results
Thank you for the suggestion.
You have to adjust the air with the gas while driving. You need controls to both while driving..
Yes, that is for sure. I hooked up a servo on the truck and used a knob in the cab to adjust it on the fly. It works great that way.
Bro said “fuck them gas prices”
yep!
Wood chips ahoy. Did you weld that with the alternator welder?
No it was a flux core wire fed. The alternator welder has given up working. Wire welding is much easier anyway.
Thought of burning charcoal?
It could be the ignition timing. Wood-gas burns slower than petroleum vapor so you might need to back off the timing (I won't use the R word as it'll censor it, the opposite of advancing the timing!)
What does your insurance say about it? In the uk the insurance company would want to know if it had been installed by a corgi fitter.
This one doesn't have insurance as it won't ever see public roads. My Silverado, which is where this gasifier ended up, has normal insurance on it. I guess it is kind of like I'm just hauling it. No insurance changes necessary.
👍Do you need to have this unit legalized in your country?
Some parts of my country require inspections which this probably wouldn't pass. My state however doesn't.
Did I miss it. Where is the filter for the gas.
It is the 5 gallon black can. It contains hay. When I put it on the truck I expanded the filter to be bigger.
Is there a reason why you cannot compress the wood gas, store it in a propane cylinder, and just run it off a regulator. Seems like thatd be a significantly more efficient way than .... the entire burner set up along for the journey
If it could be compressed to high enough pressure, that would work great. I think some people have tried without much success. Years ago, for busses they would store it in huge bags spanning the length of the bus. It was kind of like a huge air mattress. I had thought of trying something similar by using an air mattress in the back of the truck. Great name and profile picture by the way.
@@lukeFugate ive seen a few of these gasifiers have an air compressor hooked up to the end, after the units smoke is operational they turn the fan off and use the compressor to suck using the inlet and store with outlet. My fear would be spark, and i think if I tried id want to apply vacuum to the cylinder first to deprive of extra oxygen. But i would imagine the ability to store 120 psi of wood gas and use it through a regulator set on 1 -5 psi (i cant see regular fan pumping beyond that but would need to test) it might last awhile. Do not know. The videos i saw they were only using it as a replacement to propane in grilles, not to fuel engine
Do this still require for engine oil to be in the engine?
Yes it does still need engine oil.
Why does this remind me of a redneck delorean?
LOL I guess I could see that.
Is that your driveway? I thought my driveway was a little rough lol.
Yeah, it's a little different lol.
How do you filter the gas before it goes to the engine? And how often do you have to change the filters?
It runs through a hay filter. It depends on what kind of wood and how much soot you produce. I have had the same hay in my Silverado since I put the gasifier in. I just wash out the hay every couple of weeks.
@@lukeFugate I'd have 1 more question for you: why does the wood gas need to be cooled down? Can't the engine handle hot gas?
@kaloryfer99999 the gas needs to cool down to let the moisture fall out of it. Also, it burns better at cooler temperatures.
@@lukeFugate Does the moisture concentrate in a certain place after it condenses? If yes, how often do you have to empty it?
@@kaloryfer99999 I have everything draining into a tank underneath. I drain it about once a week.
So this other guy used a lawn mower carb on his engine but the trick he got it to run so well was to use a feedback of the engine vacuum to throttle the air so it kept the best stoichiometric ratio of air to fuel..wood gas will be far different then gasoline but this could be basically why you have less power,, the ratio goes too far off either rich or lean either way it will stall more and have less power.. as well as the amount of wood gas you are producing is just not "rich" enough to get that golden ratio. if it is enough you might be getting too much and need to open the air in response to the gas. (a quick test is after you race it and it pulls more wood gas towards the throttle it tries to stall from over rich condition..if you test it by racing it then when its stalling crack the air inlet valve and if it runs better for a sec you know its running rich..if it stumbles and falls off its running lean. the guy im talking about used a microcontroller to regulate the air bypass,, but i think it could be done with manifold pressure (or vacuum) as well.. a diaphragm can regulate the air intake etc.. my other thought was a small fan pulling from the gasifier all the time and this gives you more fuel and then throttle the air to match possibly..
Wish i had time to mess with this kinda stuff but i'm far too buried in my own projects. good luck..
This is the guy...gives some good insight into some of the technical issues he ran into and i think it might have some bearing on wood gas.
ua-cam.com/video/FwhMz2kR4pw/v-deo.html
Thanks. I'll have to try that.
Put a obd code reader on it.. monitor the feul limit levels...
@@772777777777777 good suggestion!
@@772777777777777 yeah,,,that's the trick too..I was going to use a wide band on mine and try and regulate with that. (i can code an arduino too)
I might still try it on my 89 Isuzu to see if I can get better gas millage on the highway. (I have a long trip conning up) Modern sensors are a lot more accurate, and with less lag I might do better on fuel.
Awesome job...but please stay away from 88 mph!🙂
LOL
Will it wreck the car engine?
It can cause problems with tar buildup. You have to be careful with temperatures and pressure levels. If you have too low of a temperature it won't crack the tar, and this will stick the throttle plate. I have had that happen on my Silverado. It developed a leak in the filter which slowed down the flow of gas through the reaction chamber. This caused the temperature to drop. If I were watching the temp gauge I would have noticed it, but I wasn't paying attention. My gas pedal wouldn't move I had to take the plastic tube off the throttle body and clean it out.
Make air/gas ratio control with O2 sensor and arduino (or just control manually at first just by looking at voltage coming from the O2 sensor) and then it should run okay.
Thank you! Yes some people use an afr gauge to monitor the mixture.
what type of wood are you using
87
@@mrich21087 try logs made out of dried used coffee grounds
pretty frustrating you didnt get this out on the road .
This car was just a test unit to make sure the gasifier worked. It is not street legal anymore and not safe on the road. I ended up putting the entire system in my Silverado and drove it on wood. Here is a video of the first road trip on woodgas. ua-cam.com/video/U_3XAhbuV0s/v-deo.html
My dad said the Germans had a similar system on their trucks . They could only make about 10 mph , they got blasted .
Yeah some of the old designs were not good for the engine. They wouldn't heat to the right temperature and make weak gas and tar.
Gas cools the valves the reason it sounds funny is because your burning the valves out of the motor
and try fuel and air is ratio of 17.5 to 1
What the heck is wood gas ?????
It is what is produced when wood is heated to burning temperatures in an oxygen restricted environment. It releases flammable gasses which can be burned in the engine.
@@lukeFugate very cool....I never knew thanks buddy.....what is the gas produced ??
@@locostse7en it is a mix of hydrogen methane and carbon dioxide.
Any time when the wood is burning the flame that you see is wood gas (syngas) burning.
I think you should bubble the gas through an acid because the gas may be caustic. There’s a reason wood smoke has such an offensive smell and hurts to breathe. Also making sure to filter out particulates
Some have had success using an oil bath type filter. I may try integrating one into the system. Most just run it through a hay filter and straight to the engine.
If you remove all of the body off the car and leave it with just the frame it could run faster, less weight and all
Yes, there have been tests like that and it will dramatically increase usable power. In the case of this car though, the body is the frame because it is unibody.
Sadly soon all combustion cars and trucks including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-(
In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025
on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Car washs will be forbidden too because they are climate killers, now they want to slow down all the gas station pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime. (BABVVEN & TEBBVEN & BEFVO laws)!!
Sounds like a nightmare to me. Hope it holds off in this part of the country. Were normally about 10 years behind the rest of the world.
I had absolutely no clue that could even be possible and it makes me a little sad
It is a lot better suited to pickup trucks to haul the unit around. Around WWII there were thousands of vehicles in Europe running on similar setups.
Looks like the Deloraine from Back to the Future. Does it have a flux capacitor in it somewhere ?
Yep, but I can't get it to 88.
Your car has an electronic ignition ? How does the electronics cope with running on the wood gas ? Did you need to modify the ignition, oxygen sensors, MAF mass air flow sensors etc or make other modifications? I would have thought that the timing would need to be advanced more than a few degrees to compensate for the lower energy density and therefore slower flame propagation of the wood gas. Wood gas using atmospheric oxygen would also contain about 40% inert nitrogen but seeing as the wood is only partially combusted the gas going into the engine would likely be around 15% nitrogen 35% carbon monoxide and 40% hydrogen / hydrocarbons. I am building a gasifier to put on a vehicle and just wondering how to make it work. Many thanks for the inspiration.
With an obd2 system it will compensate somewhat. With my Silverado it works pretty well. It advances automatically to around 40 degrees. I don't think the Cavalier could do it. Best to have an older engine with a distributor. You can run a cable out to it to turn the distributor as you drive.
I suppose you could change the flash in the computer to set the timing up.
@@lukeFugate did you need to do that ?
@Gemetics I didn't in the Silverado. I think the Cavalier needed it, but it was just a proof of concept.
Still struggling with this Luke, can’t seem to get the wood dry enough, heated it stored it in a dry enclosed spot under the house for 6 months +. Still dripping wet in the gas cooling coils. How did you get your wood dry enough to get the pyrolysis reaction going. Maybe I need to turn it slightly into char before using it ? @@lukeFugate