With limited global oil supplies amidst the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, some people are looking for alternatives to gasoline for their transportation needs. While electrification is one obvious pathway, there is actually another form of combustion that may be overlooked – burning wood. Now, one of the V8-powered Chevy trucks shows off its home-built, wood-burning powertrain setup with the following video.
The vehicle in question was a 1983 Chevy Fleetside pickup, which used something called a gasifier (mounted behind the cab) to convert wood chips into flammable gas. Wood gas consists of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and before being fed into the engine, it is filtered and cooled, then mixed with the ambient air in appropriate amounts before finally being fed into the cylinder for combustion.
According to the video, this truck has traveled more than 100,000 kilometers (or about 62,000 miles) exclusively using gasified wood as fuel.
The video includes a demonstration of how the vehicle is started. First, the gasifier tank is filled with wood chips and ignited, a process that owners say takes about five to ten minutes. Then, an electric fan is used to draw flammable parts into the system and make the fire a little hotter. Once the gas produced is confirmed to be flammable, the gas is then sent through a channel to the engine.
The engine in question was a 1972 350 V8, which had been modified to use a combustible gas mixture. The compression ratio now stands at 11.0:1, while the owner has installed a revised camshaft and new intake manifold to get things working, plus a huge cooling system up front that cools the gasified wood before it enters the cylinders.
Its fuel consumption is relatively high compared to traditional vehicles, which require about 35 to 40 kilograms (77 to 88 pounds) of wood for every 100 kilometers (62 miles). Depending on the price of the wood, it may cost a lot more than you would spend on gas, but even so, the fact that this system works flawlessly is astounding.
See for yourself:
Hat tip to Drive for that discovery!
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