I installed a German Wood gas head (G38tg) on my Model A today with 8.5-1 cr What a difference.I never Heard a model A idle so smoth incredible snappy throtle response. Strong att low rpm not much higher topspeed but im fabricating a intake for a 11/2inch S.U carb tomorow maby that give me some more rpm
I know there is a bunch of cheap bastards trying to run it.....you dont want to be in a hurry low Power,have to stop to fill up with Wood,dirty, the fumes can kill you,lot of ugly things to mount on the car I Heard a story about a preast that had a Wood gas car during the war and some one gave the preast a sack of potatos .the Wood for the gas generator was also in a sack and the size of potatos so in the darknes of the night on there way home the driver emptied the potato sack in the gas generator..... The driver started to curse the god damened potatos and the god damened gas generator So so my brother Watch your language said the priest Then fix this without cursing and call me when your ready the driver told him and started Walking home
You don't have to have the generator on your car you could fuel up at your house and go about your business just like a cng, or propane powered car.
Have to have a real big tank then since you cant compress it much it starts to fall apart at relativ low pressure Its NOT a good alternativ fuel they have been experimenting with it in Sweden since the war The Army ,several tecnical instituts, and its about useles Well it beats bicycle pedals in a car but....
I didn't know a flathead would run very well at 8.5:1 on any fuel but you learn something new every day. I don't think the stock A lower end will like it for very long. Wood gas vehicles were still in use in Brazil when we visited there with my dad's business in the very late 60s. They called them "gasogenios". They were burning this hard wood (Brazilian rosewood) from the jungle that today would bring thousands of dollars a guitar set for Martin guitars, I'm guessing they got 1/2 MPG (mile per guitar) making nitromethane a big bargain today by comparison. The gasogenio ran a bus with what looked like an old GMC or International big inline six. This was in a rural area that was like being in the Stone Age. My dad said the Brazilian government effectively outlawed them because they were cutting down too much wood to run them. If things ever get so bad in the US we start running woodgas the trees will soon be all gone and it will be like the Dust Bowl again.
Ive got the plans fron mother earth news to build one. It seems the higher compression larger cubic inches the better wood gas preforms. I have a big block engined 72 3/4 ton the best fuel mileage it ever gets is 10 MPG. I plan to use an edelbrock low rise two 4bbl intake one inlet will have a standard gas carb the other a wood gas carb. fuel is plentiful around here. there are big piles of chipped wood the power companies and tree trimmers dump out. there are cull slabs and wood from sawmills & pallett factories. discarded pallettsalso,. And it will also work pretty good on dried horse manure. My horse makes these big stud piles in several locations about the pasture. In building a gassifier that should have a range of 100 miles on a fill up.
The problem, as many have mentioned, is the need to carry either bulky gas-generator equipment and solid fuel or a lot of gas at near-atmospheric pressure:
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