This V8 Chevy Truck Runs on Wood and Has Driven 60,000 Miles
People have always looked for cheaper and cleaner alternatives to mainstream fuels like gas and diesel, and the automotive industry today offers probably the most diverse lineup of powertrain types that have ever been available at one point in time.
Besides the ubiquitous gas and diesel engines and their hybrid and plug-in hybrid derivatives, you've got biofuels such as bioethanol or biodiesel, cars that run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), all-electric vehicles and even cars that use hydrogen fuel cells and synthetic fuels for propulsion. There also used to be steam-powered cars a century ago, but we're long past that now.
At one point, gas produced by burning wood was another option, and it gained traction especially during World War II when fossil fuels were rationed. Known as "woodmobiles," these vehicles were fitted with a wood gasification unit that turned wood, wood chips, sawdust, charcoal, coal and even rubber into gas that would then power a combustion engine.
How Does It Work?
As a reminder of those times and to prove that woodmobiles can still work today if need be, the owner of a Chevy Fleetside V8 'square body' from Finland converted it into a wood gas truck-and has covered over 60,000 miles on wood alone without any issues since.
From the video posted on the Jp Prat Projects channel on YouTube, we learn that the vehicle is "very environmentally friendly" when you factor the carbon footprint caused by the entire life cycle of the wood fuel. Of course, you wouldn't think that by looking at the big chimney installed behind the cab between the gasifier and the filter.
The former transforms the wood into flammable gas composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, while the latter filters the wood gas for tars as well as soot and ash particles. Before going into engine filter, the gas is cooled by the additional radiator the size of a Rolls-Royce Pantheon Grille, and after it comes out of the filter it goes through a mixer that feeds the right amount of air and wood gas into the engine.
Inside, the truck looks pretty much standard with the exception of a few additional gauges and buttons.
The V8 Pulls as if It Runs on Gasoline
The 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) V8 engine comes from a 1972 Chevy truck and has a compression ratio of 11:1. It has seen some changes, including a different camshaft that's better suited for wood gas use, while the intake manifold comes from a 1986 Corvette.
Interestingly, it takes a while to start the vehicle up-5 to 10 minutes-and one of the required steps in the startup process is to light up the gas coming out of the chimney in order to observe the quality of the gas before directing it to the engine. Once the engine starts, it pulls the gas into itself automatically.
For those of you who are interested in numbers, this Chevy woodmobile eats about 81 pounds of wood per 60 miles. Mind you, there's a small inconvenience: given the size of the stove, you need to stop and feed wood into it every 43 miles or so.
The owner of the car says the video does not present some "crazy energy hack solution" as the vehicle was built purely for the enjoyment of tinkering, not to pitch wood as an alternative fuel. A new video will follow in a few months to document the wood-burning Chevy truck participation in a 1-mile speed event. That should be fun.
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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 6:30 AM.