Did a Tim Taylor mod on my gasser, got lots more power!

[day_trippr]

While the prevailing opinion on gas grilling 'round these parts is less than all-approving some times it's just too compelling not to use a handy gasser.

I've had a Char-Broil commercial gas grill for going on six years now, and while we use it for nearly all our cooking from late spring to early winter, and it is still in near-pristine condition, it always lacked enough power to really do beef justice. The crux of the matter was insufficient output: it's a fairly large grill, and the four burners are rated for just 12K BTU each, which I always figured was at least a good 5K BTU too little

About a year ago I came across an article somewhere - might have even been here - about someone who re-jetted his gasser for a huge performance boost. I had that in the back of my mind when I came across a Weber Genesis Gold gasser on vacation and was seriously impressed with how hot it could get. So when I returned home I decided when I got a good chance I'd try re-jetting my grill.

I finally got a round tuit a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd have to remove the entire manifold with all the controls attached, which would take some serious surgery to accomplish, but discovered all I had to do was remove the burner tubes, which exposed the jets at the tip of each valve. Just needed a standard small socket wrench to remove each jet, and I was ready to make more fire happen.

The jets were originally a 58 orifice. I had a set of bits running from 62 through 52, so I used one jet for a test mule, stepped the hole diameter up one size, did some burn testing to make sure the resulting flame was still clean, before stepping to the next bit.

I ended up with a size 54 orifice. By my calculation that should mean a 54% boost in BTUs - and indeed the difference in performance is amazing. The maximum flame height is nearly doubled, the grate temperature jumped by almost 150°F at the max valve setting, and the cook time on the typical inch-thick steak dropped by almost half, with awesome searing and grill marks. It's like day verses night.

The whole process did take a few hours - mostly because it was a science project - but it was totally worth the effort. Not sure if it will shorten the life span of the burners, but what the heck - it's still totally worth it!

I think ol' Tim Taylor would have stuck a blower and an injector pump in there somehow but this works for me. I did a inch thick steak tonite that took just under 7 minutes to get to medium rare with deep cross-hatched grill marks on both side. It was awesome!

Cheers!
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Save the planet: it's the only one with beer!
FrankennBrinkmann ECB
Char-Broil Commercial Gasser

[MacEggs]

Thanks for sharing day_trippr!

If it operates better (to your liking), then mods are always worth the effort.
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"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
Pickled Eggs

The cookers (so far).
Some Weber kettles of various age, color and size
UDS & Mini UDS
Abby Normal ECB
Napoleon Propane Grill

[Hell Fire Grill]

I think its great you got it to work better.

You gettin 550-600* now?

[day_trippr]

[Hell Fire Grill]

500 will do the trick. But I bet your getting more than 500. I have used oven thermos on my grill, and in my trailerd pit when cooking pizza, and after about 450 or so the paint on the dial turned black. I tryed it with a couple different brands and convinced myself that none of them use high heat paint on their dials.

[jeepdad]

Great mod idea...thanks for sharing!

--jeepdad

[Inner10]

Do the same thing for converting from propane to nat gas. Just make sure you choose the correct bit size!

[ckone]

I've done that to commercial stoves, it does help.
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22.5 Weber Kettle
OK Joe
The Bubba Keg