Glort

I think the garden nozzles are 4mm if that's what you intend using. You may be able to couple them to the tube with some model aircraft silicone hose which is very pliable or heat shrink the nozzle to the tube. I think you r flow is a bit low even though I appreciate you want to be cautious. You could easily go 200 ml with no worries at all. I don't know how much difference 100 Ml would make although I suspect it would take some time to have any effect. I certainly wouldn't expect to see much if any performance improvement at that rate. The amount of extra fuel would be around 5 HP if that. Just mentioning it in case you are expecting more and are dissapointed. I'll dig up the burner vids and post them up. I bought a blower I'm waiting on that does 400 CFM@ 1 PSI. That may not sound like much pressure but you would have to see what you can get with maybe a 10/th of that to appreciate the potential Kaos. I'm not sure of the maths as I keep coming up with incredible numbers but in any case, it will generate an obscene amount of heat. I haven't Videoed the rocket Burner, I'll try that on the low pressure blower on the weekend.

The pump I use is a VDO one from Commodores. It's black and has the 2 push on fittings. There is another one that is black as well but it has a pickup for pushing into a bottle with a rubber grommet from memory. The couple of wereckers I have been to around here both charge $10 for these pumps as a guide for you. I have seen new pumps at supercreep for $22 so $10 would be what you would want to pay and if they ask for 30, just punch them out for being greedy Crunts. As for taking photos, I'm a photographer and it's the last thing I ever think of!! I have a few Vids at home of my veg burners I have been meaning to put on youtube. Some of them look awesome. One sounds like a rocket and is too loud to run in surburbia for long without upsetting the distant neighbours.

I'd certainly NEVER say dogs are Dumb just on what I have seen my own mutts do. Some owners are so stupid they ought to be shot without hesitation though. My Rotty is nick named " Captain Kangaroo". maybe Houdini would be a better name. That dog will get out of a yard short of anything along the lines of a prison compound. Thankfully she has road sense and has been seen going to the corner and sitting there till someone came along to cross and then walking back up the street opposite to where she was and returning the same way. There are a load of other things she has done and warned us of that go well beyond co-incidence. Things owners do however defies imagination. IF there is one thing that Chits me no ind is seeing dogs on the back of table top trucks and utes with no restraint. I don't care how clever the dog is, the laws of physics outweigh everything else in that situation and how people can neglect the safety of an animal like that ie entirely beyond my. It's also one thing in the country, another in the uncertainty of city traffic which is just a ludicrous proposition. On saturday Night, my wife found a Maltese tampon thing running down the middle of the 4 lane main road we live on. I put a sign on the letter box straight away, Dog found in case anyone was driving or walking the streets looking for it. On Sunday morning we took the thing to the local vet and had the chip scanned. Came home and looked it up and the thing comes from about 40 Km away. We have been trying to call the 3 nummbers listed including the backup number since sunday morning and can't get on to anyone nor have had messages returned. We have checked with the pounds both in our area and where the dog comes from and nothing there either. I don't think the thing has been on the run long as it still smells shampooed and is clipped but it's damned annoying that the owners can't be contacted. Someone must have lost it, you think thay would have contacted the pounds looking for it at least even if they are minding the thing for the owners. Meanwhile the thing has settled in famously with our rottie who thinks it's great to have a playmate. The 40 odd KG Rottie dosen't worry the tampon a bit, Most of the cats don't either but my cat has the thing positively terrified! MY daughter had it on the lounge with her last night and the cat jumped up on the other end and was looking at it and it was shaking like a leaf. Mind you, the rottie also gives this one a wide birth. I'm wondering if the tampons owners awe away for school holidays and we are going to be boarding the thing for a week. it's 12 yo so my wife dosen't want to take it to the vet for fear of it being too scared and put down if the owners don't show up. Hopefully they will and be people who love the thing and it can get back to normality. If not, i can see another new addition to the zoo. There is no name on the registration but it will definately be called "Puddles" if it stays with us.

I prefer to buy locally when it's not going to mean i get shafted. Not only for the local market but in honesty, more because i see it as less of a risk. Less risk of the stuff going astray, more chance of getting it replaced if it does, more chance of getting warranty or refund if the stuff turns out to be crap. That said, i don't like paying too much fundamentally being a tightarse. As an example, Recently I wanted some new verniers with the digital readouts for not critical stuff as my eyes aren't what they used to be. I looked around everywhere from engineering shops to flea bay and they all looked EXACTLY the same. Can't see why I would pay 80 odd bucks at a tool shop for what is clearly the same chinese made things I can buy on ebay for under $10. They did a great deal on shipping so for $4 a pair, I bought 10 sets so I had some spare and to give to mates. Supporting local business is one thing, just giving them my money is something else! Like I mentioned else where, i wonder if the local business bandwagon champions actually practice what they preach?? Like with the parts i mentioned above. I got the prices of a local bloke that imports this stuff. OK, he has to make a living but the way I see it, If I can buy the stuff one off at retail and pay full tilt on postage, surely he can get the stuff in bulk and have it shipped here cheaper than I can. That being the premise, I would think the prices should be a lot closer. If they were I'd certainly say Stuff it and get them off him. When you can get things 1/3rd the price though, that's different. I gotta admit, i'm 1000% sold on WI. I keep reminding myself how damn well it works. I'm back in the city this week managing a couple of buildings and doing the crawl in the traffic over the bridge. Last night the old girl was running on vapor so I filled her up with the fuel of the independent, Veg oil. Normally at this time of year I'd put some petrol in to help with starting and thin it out. It also helps combustion I believe and gives it more power. I was out of the devils fuel, so straight, 100% oil went in. I had to go out last night so the new straight fuel went through the system and was in the IP etc for this mornings startup. Against all parroted mantra, The old girl fired up straight away without hesitation. This morning coming in I was a bit surprised to find the old girl was pulling just as well with the straight oil and the water as she does with the petrol in the mix. I was expecting a noticeable drop in how "energetic" it might be but I couldn't tell any difference. This truck is running NONE of the normal conversion setup and does not even have a fuel heater atm. The vegbrains would be screaming this will kill the thing, I know that's not going to happen when the thing is running this well. She runs pretty clean except when I peddle the thing as I have the fuel turned up so expect and want some smoke at the top end. Although I run veg which does generally smoke a little more, I have always seen smoke at night in all my diesels when under any load and it's never been a problem with any of them yet. Seems even though I know how well the WI works, I sometimes forget by getting used to it but then I get a practical reminder. You know it's for real when not only you notice things but the other people that drive it do as well even though they have no idea of anything being touched on the Vehicle. As far as i'm concerned WI is the ducks guts for diesel engines especially in keeping them running spot on and at the price, I wouldn't run a diesel without it.

Haha. Seen the same thing on loads of forums. Ask a question then effectively argue that there is only one correct answer and it's usually the opposite to what experienced people are telling them. And usually these people are completely beligerant and insulting about it. Been there 100 times. I don't think it is wrong to point out what you think is incorrect with advise given. I certainly do it. I also point out why i think it is incorrect and give as much supporting evidence as i can. I have been called argumentative amoungst other things but I have also received support from those that don't like what I say normally due to the fact that i do give reasons for a differing opinion not just argue for no reason without anything to back it up. I try to think things through and find the facts and as self serving as it sounds, i have gone against the grain many times and then been proven right all along although this often takes some years for people to investigate things themselves or some university or company to do proper tests. The number of times this has happened with my veg oil exploits I can't begin to count. Seems people that have never so much as changed their own oil will argue black and blue over technical issues when in fact they cannot even describe basic principals of any type of engine from steam forward. I think it is worth pointing out when you think things are wrong as long as you are polite and you give some explanation as to your basis for your reasoning. Sometimes the people that have other ideas will see your POV and be thankful that you have pointed out something they have missed or forgotten about. It's good to help these people. Unfortunately you frequently get the wankers that already know everything so the best you can do is have a laugh and move on. Like the guy I mentioned earlier said, Ask these people if this is what THEY do themselves or have done it and what the results were. That often brings a lot of real and very telling info forward as to the credibility of their position.

I Hate: PayPal Auctions you watch for a week that suddenly end and the seller puts some crap like " item no longer available" Idiots that when you win an auction are on your case inside of 24 hours saying you havent paid for it yet, when you going to pay, if you don't pay.... Yeah right. get a life. It's a $10 item and i bought it yesterday. How ebay craps on that things buyers do like non paying bidders are criminals but when sellers muck buyers around or rip them off, the story is there is nothing they can do, leave neg feedback after carefully considering it. Pi$$es me off how you can't permanently have the " Australia Only" filter on and have to click it for every search especially when it brings up items the sellers won't post and things that cost $100 are going to cost $1000 to post. People that list a pile of things wrong, particularly with vehicles, then try to tell you the thing is in "Fantastic Condition" when it's hard to find a thing that is as it should be. Arsewipes that reneg on the deal because the auction didn't get what they wanted. People that post close up pictures of things like machinery name plates that are totally out of focus, unreadable and therefore completely freaking useless! Paypal Idiots that over price something, advertise it 10 times then get all pissy and state in the ad this is the last time they are going to advertise the thing in a tone reminiscent of a spoiled brat. People that ask Dumb questions that are clearly explained in the ad if they would read it. Septics that want to know the price of sending stuff to the US even when you say local pickup only or you don't send OS. Seeing things you want go cheap when you don't have the spare cash. When you do have the cash and are looking, you don't see the thing you are after for months. Happened to me 50 times! People that want you to come to collect stuff but only seem to be available between the hours of 3:52 and 4:17 Am and aren't even going to be home then for the next 3 weeks but want the stuff picked up asap. Going to pick something up and it's nothing like described or has half of it missing and the seller tries to convince you it doesn't matter or the way they described it is fair. Ads that have one location specified then tell you the item has to be collected from 100 km away. Yeah, you can stick that. Paypal I love: Getting a bargain. Getting a bargain and the seller is spewing when you pick the item up because you got the thing so cheap!! Finding stuff you have been unable to get anywhere else. Upsetting Gerbil Harvey by buying something for about 30% of what he charges... and it's delivered to your door. When you get what you bought and the thing is heaps better than you thought or comes with a bunch of extra's you never realized. When something was advertised as not working or parts only and when you get it, it requires only the most minor of repairs or none at all. had that happen a few times now. Asking where else the item is advertised so you can buy it straight off and reading their upset replies and calling you a smart arse. When you win an auction for one of the multiple items the person has and because none of the others have sold, they give you the rest for the same price to get rid of them and its things you can really use, give to mates who are over the moon to get them or re sell at good profit with a better written and catergorised ad. Winning a ship load of old IT equipment for .99C and driving it straight to the scrap yard and getting $120 for it! Asking people that have stupid reserves on cars, if the the $5000 they have over valued the thing is in 50's or 100's in the suitcase of cash in the boot that would justify the asking price, and watching them light up in their replys. I laugh at: People that advertise used goods for more than you can buy brand new even in a retail shop. Ad's with the most basic spelling and grammatical mistakes that show the owner of the merchandise must be an idiot. People that go on about how an item must be collected or removed by a certain date but then in their first ad put a finish date four days AFTER the required collection time! Cars advertised for about double their value and then when you make the seller a realistic offer, they get all upset telling you they would never let it go for that. I always wonder what they do end up getting and how long it takes for them to realize what a realistic value is.

That's a relief. Whenever I see mention of forum rules by the admin I wonder what the hell I have done wrong now! I just noticed the bit about the post count not going up on certain sections. I thought I had made posts and not seen the thing go up. Personally I'm happy to have post counts turned off altogether. Serves no purpose i can see than to remind me i spend too much time on these forums and tells everyone else the same thing.

If the thing is smoking once it's warmed up to proper temp and heat soaked, I don't think it's the Plugs. I believe they only cycle till the thing hits temp then that's it. With the one I have with the burnt glowies, it's a bitch to start but once going, it's fine. I do have a suspicion though that the cause of the burnt plugs may be because of the way I have the fueling but thats another issue. Were you going to put a water injection system on the thing? It may well help. A few weeks ago I noticed mine was blowing more smoke than usual and I hadn't had the WI on for a while. I got a new pump and got it going and within the first bottle of water after the initial clouds of crap blew out, I can barely see any smoke now even when peddling the thing with a turned up pump. I initially suspected the veg oil was gumming things a bit, I now suspect it may have been some glazing of the bores at least in part. Whatever it was, the WI fixed it very quick and the old girl has got a spring in her step again. Even the young bloke asked me what I did to it the other week saying it was going really well and felt like it wanted to go more. You could also dribbling some water down the intake while the engine is running. Give it about 2-2.5K revs and slowly tricke the water in the inlet slow enough so it doesn't bog down. If it does, stop the water, let it clear itself then go again a bit slower. If you can get a couple of liters down ( or more) you might see some difference. I have found it best over all to fit up a system so it get's lots of squirts when driving. Maybe give it the trickle treatment every day for a week and see how you go.

Afraid I don't. Until now, I have never needed to replace them on any car I have had. I have read a bit about Bosch with other things as well. I believe they have moved a lot of their manufacturing to India and standards have slipped Markedly. I know with Mercs, no one will touch Bosch injectors with a barge pole any more. all sorts of trouble been had there. They all go for a " Mico" brand now which is a lot cheaper and people rave about. A Mate of mine with a Triton has tried every brand of glow plug he can get his hands on and still they burn out real quick. Has said numerous times that the cheaper no name ones seem to last a bit longer than the brand names. I just went looking for some for my other car. Genuine, $49+ ea Aftermarket, $20 ea From OS on ebay from a reputable seller with a brand I never heard of before but highly recommended on forums, $30.40 for a set of 4 delivered. Going to order a heap more parts as well from OS. Fan belt tensioner , locally $240+ OS, OEM brand, $160 delivered. Clutch kit $565 here best price , OS on name brand, including $80 delivery, $231. Unreal. Can't recommend a brand but I can recommend shopping around especially with OS suppliers.

Thanks for the encouragement westy. I have known people like this. While amusing as an anecdote, It's also pretty damn frightening. I'm a bit worried my fella is going to be a bit like this. I can't seem to teach or encourage him to learn anything hands on. My Mrs used to be friends with a bird who had the most useless husband I had ever met. Apparently a brilliant accountant that I'm sure earns 20 times what I ever will but totally useless at anything else. He used to say that he earned more than tradesmen so it was cheaper for him to pay someone than do it himself. That idea fell down pretty quick when he got married and moved out of home and found that tradies didn't come as soon as you wanted them nor would they give you a time and sometimes you had to stay home all day and they still didn't come. Having a tap washer changed ended up costing him a LOT more than he bargained for. Once that realisation sank in he was very keen for me to show him things and so was his Mrs. I'm hoping that once I get this up and running perhaps the first time out getting a bunch of cash may change his mind. He came home from the grease pit tonight pretty pi$$ed off. If 10% of what he tells me about the manager is true and going by the fkups I know the guy makes, it more like 90%, I can't see my son lasting there much longer. Tonight he and another kid he works with were told by this clown that although they do the work faster and more thoroughly than anyone else, he doesn't want them working together any more because they talk while they are working. They work out the back mind you where the clients can't see or hear them. My son admits they talk but he also says that none of the other kids know what they are doing so when he works with the others, things take twice as long even though they don't talk at all. If I had a couple of guys that did a job better than anyone else, I wouldn't care if they sang show tunes while they worked. I think this guy is just determined to play king chit and find fault with anything they do. No wonder these businesses can't keep decent staff. Anyway, maybe the idiot is really doing me and the boy a favour. Still can't figure out how he could get through all the company training these place give managers and still be so inept at people skills and basic management. If the young fella gets needy and does it with me once and gets hold of the cash, maybe the attitude will take a turn around.

Are the parts he sells easier to fit than other brands? If they really are he could be onto a winner. Somehow, I have my doubts. One of the things I was reminded of this morning else where is the forum idiots that come on asking questions about how to do this or that then in a few posts are arguing with people that have been doing it for years and telling them their way is wrong. Umm, hello! Weren't YOU the one asking for help and now you are throwing it back in the face of someone that HAS been doing it successfully for a long time and tried to help you of their own free will? Unbelievable. Even if you don't think the advise is good, The proper thing to do IMHO is be grateful someone tried to help you in the first place, thank them profusely and show a bit of respect and appreciation for them going out of their way for no gain of their own to try and give you a hand.

I'm wondering if it's me o these kids are a lost cause. The young fella expressed resistance about running the business himself and pointed out his HSC next year and a couple of other semi plausible objections. He's also been bitching about not having enough hours at the grease pit and not having enough money for his car. I decided to set up another enterprise I have had on the back burner for a while and asked him about helping me with that. Would be weekend nights only most likley and we have done this same thing before for charity balls, Corporate functions etc. He knows it better than I do and it's a cake walk that pays freaking well. I realised I have a Huge advantage in the market and a friend who is a web designer genius on sites that work not just look pretty has offered to do the site for me in return for a couple of small favours I have done for him. I spoke to the young bloke about it and got slightly less resistance and a few Demands I was happy to meet because I wanted to set things up the same way anyhow. The thing was, I offered him $150 an hour or $600 a night and he was still umming and ahhing. Essentially I would run round taking pics at parties and functions and he would sit and print them. No doubt with a drink and then food. I have the program set up so basicaly he looks at the pics taken, 2-3 of every couple/group, select the best one and the thing spits out the printers. Lay the pics on a table and you're done. I couldn't believe that he would even hesitate at the chance to earn $150 an hour sitting on his arse. So thinking I might teach him a lesson, This morning I hit my daughter up about helping me. She also works in the grease pit for about $6 odd an hour being younger. She's pretty good with a camera and a computer but does not have the self confidence with it my son does even though she often thinks outside the box a hell of a lot better and is a lot smarter when it comes to problem solving. So I offer her the same deal, $150 an hour, max 600 a night. Again, resistance!! Excuses about not knowing what to do and other rubbish that we all know just plain isn't true. I explained that we could practice at home and the software was all pre programmed and then she arguing how that would take time to get it right and she didn't want to sit at a computer learning things. I explained that it would probably take less than an hour to learn and we could do 15 min or less of practice every day to make she she had it memorised and I would right her a list of procedures anyway. Still, when I said can I rely on you to do this with me, it can be our partnership, I got the umms and excuses. I can't get my head around why I'm not getting knocked over in the rush to do this. I'm sure there are plenty of people around that would be fking glad to earn that sort of money for such easy, clean work. I said to my wife, "Am I a complete bastard to work with or is there something else about me that's putting them off?" She said I was fussy and liked things to be perfect for the customers but I wasn't hard to work with if her or the kids were doing their job. I said what does that mean? She said nothing, you just don't like them not paying attention to what they are doing. No argument there! I don't want to give the kids handouts but if this isn't the next best thing, I don't know what is and if they are too stupid or lazy to see the opportunity, then bugger them. I'll hire some little model Bimbo to work with me and pay them $150 a night and put the rest in my own pocket if the kids are too lazy to line theirs. They got plenty when they were younger but for the last 5 years or so due to me being crook, things have been tight and I thought they missed out on a lot. Clearly they didn't miss out on nearly enough and have still been far too spoiled. Being tight on money hasn't taught them a thing even in comparison to this year where other things have kicked in and we have had plenty to indulge ourselves with. If my young fella thinks that he's going to get a handout for his car after knocking back opportunities to earn 10+ times what he's really worth, Then I'm afraid he's going to endure his first car crash with me in discovering how wrong his assumptions are. I'm just astounded how offering kids $150 an hour these days isn't enough to get them off their butts. Is it just mine and I have failed them as a parent or is this sort of attitude a common thing these days?

I'd be very interested to hear a LOT more details about the system. How much water, what height, size power of pumps and especially differential between the price you bought the power for and the price you sold it.

If your power is reliable and you just want to cut costs, The veg driven induction motor would work well and be able to give good savings. That said, the first thing you need to do is source your fuel Oil. If you are in a bit of an out the way town you won't have any problem. If you are in a major it may be a little more difficult but shouldn't be any great problem. Get the oil ( and I do mean get it NOW) before you even start setting up the genny. Having a reserve of oil that has had some time to settle before you start using it gives you a big advantage from the start and ever more. I'd strongly Suggest a basic water injection system for the gen setup because no engine likes being run at the same RPM for hours at a time especially on veg. The WI will stop it claging up and keep the internals clean... maybe cleaner than they are to start with! Using an engine like this you can easily make it a co-gen system and extract heat from the coolant and exhaust. You can easily back feed or set it up with some transfer switches to be a stand alone system. What sort of powerbills do you have now and what is your main power use on the farm?

Lots of nice Gu's on there. I think in the interests of checks and balances what needs to be added is a REAL 4WD. A rough as guts GQ. One with a real 6 cylinder engine, a little rust, lots of dents, faded peeling paintwork, Vinyl floormats and looks like it's been to hell and back twice, not just got back from the detailers. A 4WD that's barely been on a dirt track in the last 2 years since I owned it. I think the only pics I have are with a topless model but I'll have a dig and see if I can find something more suitable to post up.

Much as I like forums and have learned so much from them, they often Chit me to tears. And before I say anything else, none of the following comments apply to THIS forum as so far thank god, It is a refreshing exception to what I normally see. On every forum I have been on ( bar this one) of wide and varying subject matter, a mentality of certain things develops which seems to fly in the face of reality, practicality, real world experience and evidence. People develop a pattern of thought and parrot advise which is completely ignorant and usually in no way reflects the happenings of the real world. Mentalities develop and are then considered fact when in many cases I have seen, the facts of Physics, laws of science and just plain common bloody sense make these parroted mantras completely stupid. Of course when anyone comes along and points out facts or asks for any sort of verifyable evidence to back up the position touted, the fact that 100 idiots have parroted the same flawed info is given as being proof in itself. There are many I have come across which are not based on physics or science but just belief and position which are also stupid. I have to say that far and away the Yanks are the most ignorant and the worst offenders Of "Forum Mentality" garbage of all. Maybe that's why this place is free of it, we don't have any/many septic's here. A great comment I read recently was on a photo forum where a guy was getting all sorts of impractical and stupid advise on how to price his work. One guy who just happens to be far and away the worlds most successful at what he does and what the other guy was asking about, was getting lambasted by wanna bees for his against the grain comments. After a bunch of clowns had said their piece, he simply asked how many people were actually following the advise they were giving in their business and pricing their work according to the formula they were insisting to be right. He also asked whether they were full time or weekend warriors. Despite him asking several times, not one person said they were actually following the advise they were trying to ram down everyone elses throats. Amazing! What I find laughable and annoying is the now numerous occasions I have spoken out against certain mantras/ practices and policy's and called them wrong and flawed and given evidence why, only to be shouted down, called an idiot etc. After a while someone else goes against the grain, tries something for themselves and discovers I was right. they pass it on and after a long while, the very thing I said becomes the mantra and the ones that push it the most are the ones that gave me the most flack for it in the first place. Of course they then go on to make out that THEY were the ones whom were responsible for this contribution to the interest group in the first place. I swear to god there are people out there I would walk up to and smack in the face without a moments hesitation for the chit and hypocrisy they have given me. The court appearance and fines would be more than worth the satisfaction! I think it really comes down to too many people sitting on their computers and not actually having any experience in what they talk about. I have got into debates where people were incessant in their position and would not hear of there being any possibility of anything being right other than their position. You then find out that they have NO actual experience with what they are talking about. It's all what they think based on what they have read on forums or wherever. You might have been doing something for years or dozens of times but still, you are wrong and they are right and if you point out the real world experience difference, you are just being a smartarse or a mongeral or whatever. Loads of times I have read something, got up, walked out and tested the theroy, come back and written what I found and people have said it is wrong. Again, when you can get them to finally admit it or ask for their findings, they admit they have never done the test or tried what they are saying. Somehow though, you are wrong and they are right! There is a whole world of things you can learn from the net and forums but you really have to learn first what to take notice of and what to ignore. The commonly parroted mantras can be real traps and it's wise to ask the people championing them about their actual real world hands on experience before you put too much credibility in anything.

You don't seem to be having a good day today Ray. I'm not trying to argue with you personaly, only debate and clarify the physics and science. The article you linked to is very clear in demonstrating that the air pressures were tested with a meter, not wool. On the example Pic and attached chart, it also clearly shows that the location where the Nissan scoop is located is far from an ideal position and not in a high pressure area at all. It's in a Positive pressure area but not in a particularly high one. Leading Edge of Bonnet Front Third of Bonnet Midpoint of Bonnet Rear of Bonnet Above bonnet pressure -0.5 -0.3 0.1 +0.6 Below bonnet pressure 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.4 Difference 0.6 0.4 0.2 -0.2 As for the rest, well I'll leave it at that because you seem to be reading into things that were never said or implied and I don't want to cause any ill feelings.

Yeah, I guess my growing up was somewhat A typical. I had NO money till I was about 18 and then in my own business I made Shiploads. Still Lived at home with my grandmother, taking care of each other really, and I remember sometime in the early 80's her having a freak-out about the $4000 in cash in a glass jar in the cupboard besides the bed. She freaked a bit more when I asked her where the other 2 were that she hadn't even seen. They were the days, even back then I could still make a grand a day and I did on an average of more than once a week. About the same time the business came real good I lost the motivation to spend money and have a good time so about the only thing I used to buy was camera's which I still had and was using till about 10 years ago when digital made them obselete. Still cheesed off about this thing with my son though. Tried talking to the wife about it and as usual, our little cherubs can do no wrong and the sun shines eternally out of their neither regions in her eyes. I was told " He doesn't want to do it" and she was insistent that was all the reasoning needed to blow it off. Of course I replied " Oh! I didn't realise that working in the grease pit was something he DID want to do so bad. He're's stupid me thinking he mainly did it for the money, how naive I am!" I also asked " Does he want to get the money to finish paying off the car he has bought and be able to register, insure and put fuel in the thing because if he does, he might want to have a think about what is required to finance that at $10 an hour Vs $1000+ a weekend." I also said that I had no idea she loved going to work so much especially given the daily complaints she comes home with about it. Of course as all us guys know, the WORST thing you can ever do when " Discussing" anything with the Mrs is to make a Logical, sensible point they can't refute. When it comes to her indoors, Winning an argument is Loosing it in ways that extend waaaaay beyond the argument itself. I'll keep that one though as the next time she ask's me to do anything, I won't want to do it ( and honestly, I never do so that's not a lie!) and that should be all the reasoning I need not to. I hope to hell the young fella never decides he doesn't want to breathe any more if that's the sole reasoning behind doing things. I don't know what it is, I just seem to have a sense of doing what's needed and what will get you ahead rather than what you like as being a priority. To me the only question is if the work is bearable to you, not whether it's appealing. On that score I'd say the majority of people are the same, nothing is going to be more appealing that sitting on your arse in a comfy chair. Unfortunately well paid jobs doing that are bloody hard to find. Never seen or heard of one being advertised yet! Maybe I'll keep it on the back burner for a month or so and see if reality might set in when he has the car and figures out there isn't enough free hours to earn enough @ $10 keep that afloat. You read so much about being a good parent and paying attention to your kids, helping them, knowing where they are etc but Fk me I find it hard to do. I can try to tell my kids something for weeks can get blown off with pure contempt. If I have a bitch to my mate about it and he says something to them, it's like a revelation and they trip over themselves to get it done! I guess you can only try to be a good parent and do the right thing, unfortunately I find myself questioning whether I'm doing a remotely decent job almost on a daily basis.

For all the disdain towards the 4.2, I believe that says something right there!

No, the wool demonstration shown air flow, not air pressure. It says nothing about the pressure zone of the air or the pressure into the scoop . Only that can be shown with a differential air pressure meter as I mentioned. I have in fact serious doubt about the scoop being in a high pressure area going on gut feeling and experience with playing with this stuff. Firstly it's too low and would be picking up a lot of disturbed boundary layer air which on a hot day would also be warmed by the bonnet. secondly the thing is sited too fat forward to be in a high pressure area. There is nothing around it to basically cause an interference to the air stream and the air to bank up which is what creates an actual high pressure area rather than an area of airflow. There are some other vids of GU's with wool that show the direction of the air coming off to the side of the bonnet further back which is an indicator of where the high pressure area is likely to be. On these vids it can be clearly seen that this area starts behind where the scoop finishes. Typically you find high pressure areas around headlights, air dams, bumpers, in front of windscreens, to the side of windscreens etc. YOu do not find them in areas where there is nothing to impede the airflow. In the case of this scoop I suggest it is too far forward to be in an actual high pressure area, at least at any speed that vehicle is going to be travelling at. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though with a test done with the right and not all that expensive piece of test equipment. As far as Nissan testing may go, I'm afraid I'm highly unconvinced of that as far as optimal location and efficency go. I'll bet they tested the thing to work to meet whatever numbers they wanted but beyond that, they don't spend any more money than they have to. Factory spec vehicles especially of the non performance type are built to a whole load of design criteria, few of which are concerned with efficiency. Things like meeting regulations at the lowest possible production cost are the main one. If the things were built for may performance you wouldn't have or want to fit a larger exhaust for instance or put a fan under your IC ofr fit a better one because the maker would have already fitted components that gave the best results. Obviously that's not what they do. I agree totally with the Bare Minimum crap. It's all done as cheap as possible. People bag Harleys but The build quality and integrity on those things leaves any vehicle I have worked on for dead. They use hex head and normal bolts that are made from real steel not a steel and Butter alloy that strips as soon as you apply some decent torque. They may be heavy as hell but that's because they put the material in the parts so they don't fail and they do last. 100,000 KM + on a Harley is nothing. On a japper it's time for the second rebuild. Yes they are different purposed machines however, the fact remains one is built to last and the other is not. And They DO test the bikes and the accessories properly. Nothing Harley is cheap but you know when you hold it you are getting a quality part unlike with Nissan where you know you just got screwed for a $30 plastic POS sun visor clip ETC. As for the efficiency of the scoop and IC, all you would have to do there is measure the in and out temps of the IC and test different scoops or try wind-age trays mocked up out of cardboard or rigid plastic sheet and see what made a difference. I reckon just putting a raised lip or an overlying extension on the top edge of the scoop in something like pool noodle foam would make a difference straight off. I'll guarantee it wouldn't take much at all to improve what's already there.

I guess the first question I'd ask is do you have a problem with power outages? IF you do, then I'd say either a battery system or a generator are you most reliable options. The hydro idea the way you want to do it with tanks and pumping with a windmill would be better as a cost reduction system IMHO. If you had a nice flowing creek, Different story. The other thing that occours is if you are going to use a windmill as your energy source, You'd be better off either hooking up an alternator to it and generating the power direct or using an electric water pump running backwards off the windmills output as an induction generator. This would seem to me to have better potential efficencys than pumping water around the tanks. If a windmill water system is what you are thinking, I don't think you are going to get a lot out of it. A 4" pump on a windmill with say 12Ft blades is going to pump around 3Kl an hour. That means it's going to take under ideal conditions around 12 hrs to recharge you 40Kl Tanks so you will only get to operate them twice a day. Sitting the tanks on containers is only going to give a max of 12 Ft head if that which isn't a lot. With that a pelton wheel type arrangement on the alternator may be best. I still see the output as being pretty low however. If you are going to "reuse" the water in the tanks, you are going to have to have tanks at the bottom for the water to be held in till it's pumped back up and those tanks would have to be lower than the generator height which would logically be at ground level. You'd either want to sink them in the ground or pipe the water from the generator to lower ground. Of course then you have a reduction in your pumping capacity from your mill. I'd be interested to get more input on your situation and prefrances but I can't at this stage see the tank arrangement being able to produce or store much power at all. I really think your best bet would be to go into town and see how much veg oil you could get hold of and look at setting up your rodeo motor on an induction motor. Do you have any idea of what your present consumption is or a figure you want to aim for in your generation setup?

Something else I thought of today that might suit your cheap power needs and could work well with the resources already on your farm. The first one which would be great with the tanks you have is a methane Digester. Cow Dung is a fantastic raw material for these things and you could simply use the gas produced to fire a gas hot water heater or an engine. Basically you put the dung and you can use vegetable ( and human if you are so inclined) waste onto a tank, let it ferment and the bacteria do their trick and you get methane gas. You could get enough easily to make running a generator viable and you could also set up a co-gen system for keeping the tanks warm to increase production or to have warm or hot water for washing your dairy facilities etc. If you milk the cows you would probably get enough slurry from washing down the milking shed when you were done to feed straight into a digester without having to go pick up cow pats around the place. Once you have the gas, you can supplement a diesel engine with it or get any old petrol engine and do an easy gas conversion. Be great with car engines because you could get them cheap from wreckers and just replace them with another used one when they did wear out. The other thing you could look at which is not as simple IMHO is to buy or build a wood gasifier. If you wave a decent amount of timber on your property, you could use that as the fuel to run a petrol engine to drive an induction motor or genny. I believe commercial models are made although I don't know if they are available here. There is heaps of Vids on you tube and info on the net about building the things. If you are in an area of decent wind, maybe a wind turbine could be of some help. You can Build your own alternator out of F&P washer motors or make a PMA out of a car alternator. You can also buy PMA's at a reasonable price on the net. From there you would have to build a tower and the blades or buy those as well. Till recently the problem with wind on a diy scale was the need for a costly inverter if you wanted to grid feed. You can now buy on ebay small Plug in units that you feed from a battery or direct input and they plug into the powerpoint and push the power back into the mains. You can get these from 300W up to 5000W. A 2500W unit is under $600. With one of these units, you could use the windmill to charge batteries and then feed back into the mains or get an engine driving a couple or 3 ordinary 24V alternators into a couple of batteries. Connect the grid tie inverter and you are back feeding. This would have to be about the simplest, easy to set up system you could have. Get your veg ( or methane) fueled engine, add the alternators and inverter and you are there. If we assume using your engine on Veg and $1000 in setup costs for alternators and the inverter, you could easy produce the $12 a day of power in your original calculation. That would give you a payback time of under 3 months. The beauty of using an inverter like this would be the whole thing would be plug and play on the high voltage side. All you would need to do would be wire up the alternators to a couple of batteries and connect the inverter to the batteries and a power point. Easy and a lot cheaper and more powerful than a standard 1.5Kw solar system. If you had a car engine and a High current Circuit or 2 regular circuits close by, you could add more alternators and another inverter and make even more power depending on how much you use and want to offset. You could also run a single inverter system 24/7 if you wired in some shut-downs on the engine for low oil pressure or overheat. There are generator controller panels already available for this. I have one and it will even monitor battery voltages and start and shut-down the engine as the batteries need charging. I intend to wire up a Lister with the appropriate sensors to this panel so I can run it standalone when I get organised.

The thing the majority of people overlook with things like this is the important bit is not the airflow going into the scoop or Wether there are bullbar etc a foot or 2 in front, the important bit is what is on the OTHER side of the IC. In order for air to flow through the IC, it must be lower pressure on one side than the other. Given a low pressure side, the air will come from above or behind if it has to, it just wants to rush to the area of the lower pressure. A radiator fan for instance does not " Suck" air as most people think, It creates an area of low pressure and the air tries to flow to that area to balance the difference. The best way to get air thorough the IC ( without a fan and to a degree with one) would be to fit an undertray from the front of the radiator support panel back to the diff or somewhere in that area. If this was relatively sealed and has a good lip on the trailing edge to create an area of low pressure from the forward movement of the vehicle, Cooling performance of the IC and the radiator would be improved. What you don't want is air hitting various component as the vehicle moves along and being pushed up under the bonnet increasing the air pressure under there. Even something like a simple "Bib" that was made from rubber belting that hung from under the radiator support panel and pushed the air out of the way and speed to create a negative pressure area behind it and under the bonnet would help. You could mount a scoop 2 ft High right across the bonnet but if the pressure of the air on the underside is equal or the area for that air to travel through is on 1/10th the size of the area imposing into the airflow, You are still going to get jack flow. A maghelic air pressure meter would be a great help in doing this sort or testing so the pressure differential under the IC/ bonnet could be compared to the pressure in or at the mouth of the scoop. I think there may be a lot more gains to be had by looking at the airflow ( which would be hot and expanded) under the IC and where it's going that fixating on the scoop and what is on top of the IC.

This idea has some merit. There are companies/ businesses set up here and in the states that just pump water up hill and let it run down again. They pump the water up to a dam or lake at night when they buy the power from the electricity co at a lower off peak rate. During the day they let the water run back down again using the pump motors as generators and sell the power back at a higher rate. Surprisingly the power companies are OK with this. Id gives them the ability to have a buffer in times of high load to supply local areas and this has other benefits for them so they are happy for these systems. I looked it up a while back and there were 5 or 7 such systems running in NSW. Can't remember what site I found the info on, may have been water board or electricity co. You would have to work out the amount of power you could pull from the 10K L you have and the pump back time. Being on a farm you may also be able to do a deal on the power you buy and sell. I had a look today at setting up these systems properly and they are classed the same as solar. You need an inverter which would run about $4k for a 5000W system and it has to be installed by a certified person. The tarrif that admin quoted in the other thread seems right much to my surprise. The general buy back is said to be 6-8C a KWH. It seems the inverters work by supplying the household first and then the grid in the case of over supply. To me you would be better off just offsetting your own consumption on a 1:1 basis and reducing your Bill to 0 as if you go into credit and you are doing it on the sly you are sure to get an inspection. The Veg motor drives and induction motor. Briefly, you start the engine and run it under the rated speed of the electrc motor. You then switch on the electric motor and bring the engine up to a speed where it overdrives the motor by about 10%. This turns the motor into generator and it's energised and phase locked to the grid. You can do this on a single or 3 phase motor but 3 phase is best as it's more efficent and you don't have to worry about capacitors in the system. If when the motor is generating, the mains power crashes, the fiels will collapse in the motor windings and the thing will stop generating. this is a very hand saftey feature so anyone working on the power lines won't get BBQed nor will your motor try to supply the entire neighbourhood. In the case of overload, the flux field in the windings will also drop and the motor will again stop generating which is like a built in overload protection. Very handy. C2C is used on 3 phase motors to effectively gain a single phase output of the combined output of all 3 motor windings. Say you have a 15Kw motor as a genny. On any 2 poles, you could get a ( theoretical) 5Kw output of any leg. You couldn't run a 6 KW load though as this would be more than that leg could supply. the way to get a single 15KW supply would be to add a capacitor of the right value ( you can work it out for each motor) across 2 legs and then 2 capacitors or a single one of double the value across another 2 legs. What this does is bring the 3 120o offset " Pulses" together. the Caps act like an electronic delay between the phases so they all act like one. Now you can run that 6KW load no worries and another if you wish as well. C2C is for when you want to run the motor as a stand alone genny, not as a grid tied one. The caps also control certain other aspects of the motor like the field winding energising and the resultant output voltage. If the motor is overloaded, the field in the winding colapses and the motor stops generating. When this happens as is often the case when trying to start the motor generating in a c2c config, the windings need to be " Flashed" to restore the small magnetic flux field to establish the magnetism needed. This is easy just by shorting a 12V battery across 2 poles like flicking the wire to make a spark. You can watch on a volt meter as the thing starts generating and come up to power again at which point you can reconnect the appropriate loading. You can also adjust the output of the motor to the speed. For instance you could over drive the motor to a higher revs to get you IC engine on it's power curve but then lower the cap values to compensate and give you he right voltage albeit at the expense of frequency. A high current circuit is typically 20, 30 and 40A in 240V and that would be about the most I'd expect a normal circuit board to handle tops. If I get my old Merc motor and a bigger 3 phase motor than the 7.5 Kw I have now, then I could easily sink 20 or 30 A into the circuit or have a couple of circuits and wire 2 legs of the motor across each. ( yes, one leg is shared.) AS a rough guess and it depends on motor to motor as there are some losses as one would expect, a 7.5 Kw motor should be good for around 5Kw output. As a rule of thumb, you want a motor of double the HORSEPOWER ( not KW) to drive it. Something around 15Kw would be nice for a " Household" system if one had the HD wiring back to the board to support it. for this you would want around 30 HP from the driving motor. I'll bet your farm is already wired for high current to the sheds and High output 3 phase motors are not hard or expensive to come by. They are also the far better choice than a regular generator for grid feed as they will automaticly phase lock where with a normal genny you'd need an expensive inverter or interlock controller. Everything that comes from an induction motor being used as a generator is already AC. The frequency is controlled by the grid in the case of a direct feedback and in the case of a self sufficient C2C setup, the value of the caps control the frequency. These are not stable however and the frequency and voltage will change with the load so a c2c setup is best for constant loads ( unless a dump controller is used) and things like lights etc which don't give a rats about frequency. The power you could generate would be limited by the size of the motor you were turning and the amperage rating of the cable you were feeding into. With an engine like that, You'd probably be good for 20-30 kw effectively being sunk back into the grid. That's 125 Amp by my reckoning. More than your meter would handle unless you have 3 phase and fed it back across the 3 legs or you were running some other load on your property to suck some of it off.