[Gasification] lister 6/1 spark conversion fires again on wood gas

[Ken Calvert]

Jim, Congratulations, that was a good effort!  However,  I would like to get a report  after 100 hours of running.  When we tried it with a 5hp Petter engine, we cooked the injector , because it had no fuel running through it to keep it lubricated and cool it lost all its temper and turned a metalic blue colour and just refused to operate and we were left with a spark converted high compression engine.  I note that you start it up on diesel and I would suggest that you don't do any long runs on gas only.  Make sure that you swop back to diesel for a coupleof minutes evey hour or some such manover.  ATB.
Ken C.   .  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jim mason 
  To: gasification at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 9:55 PM
  Subject: [Gasification] lister 6/1 spark conversion fires again on wood gas


  After some technical drama with a cut trace on the ignition control board, the Lister finally came to life on Tuesday eve.  Ron Ohler, Mike LaRosa and Jay did the honors, but Ken Boak, Marcus Hardwick, Michael Shiloh and Peef did much of the preparation that made it possible.   Pictures from the first run are in the workshop gallery here: http://www.gekgasifier.com/gallery/browseimages.php?do=browseimages&c=44&page=3

  This time the spark plug it in the COV valve on the side of the head, not replacing the injector like the last round.  This time the diesel injection system was left intact so we can switch back and forth easily between the two. 

  For the first run, we fired it on diesel then switched over to woodgas while running. It was surprisingly easy to switch over, much easier than with a carburetor on gasoline, as you could get a sharp switch off of the diesel via the shut down lever. No usual fuel wandering back and forth as the carb runs out of fuel.

  The timing was fussed with quite a bit. We ended up with it about 45deg advanced, and it still didn't seem fully enough. One problem we found with the coil over plug arrangement is you can't get a timing light on the spark plug wire, as there isn't one. The inductive clamp won't work over the plug boot.

  We had the kill-a-watts hooked up on each of two legs and topped out at 2.9kw. That was pushing the absolute max. 2.5kw was easy to maintain. This was at about 600rpm. A little below the standard 650rpm. Shaky shake started above 600rpm.

  The compression is the 13.3:1 of last time. The injector is leaking a bit too. We'll likely get a bit more power once we return to 17:1 and get the injector better sealed.

  All in all, i'm happy how much power it made, and how smooth it ran. It seemed to run about the same as it did with the spark plug in the injector hole. The biggest difference was in the timing adjust. so given the lack of good control on that last time, it is difficult to compare properly between the two modes. But it was clear that it works just fine in the COV valve, and this is good news, as this is a better place to put it.

  The ability to start on diesel then switch over with a hard "fuel off" switch was very nice.

  Thank you ken, marcus, ron, mike and the others that made it go. another very impressive effort by all of you.

  jim 

  -- 

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  Jim Mason
  Website: http://www.whatiamupto.com
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