Running a Gasoline Engine on Firewood (Woodgas)

Running a gasoline engine without gasoline is a worthy goal… because after all, our dependence on widespread availability of gasoline is pretty tenuous. If you need proof, visit the site of a natural disaster shortly before, during, and especially afterward. People quickly buy all the gasoline in local filling stations to run their vehicles and generators, the stations can’t get resupplied, and then if you’re fortunate you’ll just have to wait in line to buy gas. If you’re unfortunate, you won’t be able to find any.

So anyhow, this video talks about running a small engine using no gasoline whatsoever, and of all things his main producer of woodgas is a bee smoker.

You have to admire his creativity; he uses a hose bib Y adapter as an intake manifold of sorts, to mix his woodgas with air.

In the end, he gets the engine to start and idle more than once, but his rig just doesn’t have the ability to keep it running. Once he gets it fine-tuned, it’ll be right cool to see someone riding around under the power of burning wood — without the hazards of a steam engine!

It’s not as if nobody has ever run an engine on woodgas — it’s not new technology — but finding a system that can be built with relative ease if something else. And that’s what this guy is going for.

Check it out:

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.