Woodgas Engine Advise Taken

[SteveU.]

Hi All
For a woodgas fueled generator engine system I finally took my own advice with a bit of Mobile Bob's mixed in and simply went and got a Miller engine driven welder/generator.
So now I finally have my own welder. Now I can work with the two diesel engines and different gen heads to put together alternative liquid fueled AC and DC systems.
Now I finally do have a turn key wife willing to operate up to 12,000 kW system for the well pump, freezer shed, or either one of the houses (and my new off-grid metal shop).

See attached pictures of a pull cover inspection.
Plenty of unit pictures on the Miller site. Here I'll show you the guts.
First of me comparing my small carbureted intake to the new larger fuel injected intake. Need the additional flow capability to acomodate both woodfuel gas and the air. Real world user experienced advice now from the vehicle woodgas driving guys on the Drive On Wood site is that port SEFI engines are much easier to convert and have much better power and usability.
2nd picture is of the engine profile showing how much Kohler reached into the American V-8 parts bins for off the shelf valve train parts. Also shows the 4 of the 5 sensor suite needed to operate this sequential port fuel injected system.
3rd picture shows for those interested how Miller uses the mechanical Kohler engine governor as a base with a 14 volt pull/push electric solenoid as a kicker/fine tuner.
4th a picture of the dual output gen head with big heavy transformer below and three plate rectifier low at the lower RH for the best cooling. All this plus more, all commercial reliability engineered and packaged up in a transportable system. Fits through the greenhouse door.

Let me know and I can take other pictures before I button it all back up. Needs the covers on it for air cooling flows to operate under a load.

I have one Washington State fellow I'd promised to truck up a working engine gen system for him to verify his gasifier system with. Expecting the call any day. This system is under engined powered for the combined generating capacity and will be easy to to power load down.

Regards
Steve Unruh

[mobile_bob]

nice!

so you bit the bullet on a brandy new baby?

bet it welds like a dream too.

bob g

[SteveU.]

Hi Mobile Bob.
Well yes. New in this one, this time.
I started off looking at a well used but working rental Miller with an Onan 18 hp for under $1,000. Flat head valve-in-block designs proven to be +50% power loss solution on woodgas with the low compression ratios and torturous gas flow pathways. Thought about repowering it with a watercooled new Kohler Aegis V-twin engine. Nice 9 to 1 CR and pushrod OHV. The intake on these is engine coolant heated as the cylinder head to head crossover incorporating the thermostat - woodgas you want a cooler intake for better intake charge density.
I already have diesels. Already have a carburetor Kohler V-Twin off my sawmill. Very tempted to go with a propane engine. NO USED propane welder/generators AVAILABLE. Fueling cost difference here in WA state makes it more favorable with the 18-27% higher efficiency gasoline FI units for Dino bought out fuel. Pay back in ~2 years of my usage versus the cheaper carbureted version bought new. New bought; propane was the most expensive non-diesel option using the highest bought out per BTU Dino fuel for me.
I understand gasoline EFI well after years of working on them. Simple system on this one with parts same as on many late GM cars. Service trouble shooting manual reads like a late 80's OBDI vehicle with flash code read outs. This would be a good training school engine system.
I can now tweek/spoof vary the ignition timing on the fly to find out what will be optimum at different RPM and loadings.  I cover pulled it primarily looking for where to put the timing light mouse hole and paint mark the flywheel. IG timing optimization Reporting is hard for the vehicle guys to do on the fly.

My Doomers back up is my intake/carburetor and magneto coils and flywheel off the older 20 hp will bolt right on. One hour conversion for me.
I even have two Kohler 17.5 single cyclinder Commands here. With more time and come the need I'm sure that I could retro fit a lot of parts from these too.

Regards
Steve Unruh