The Texas BBQ Forum

Hi Folks,
Only been in Austin for about 6 months but being surrounded by all kinds of great BBQ I wanted to try it out at home. ...not ready to unload $1K on a grill though, so I did some Googling and decided to get a Char Griller Competition Pro (8125) and do some upgrades. (Gasket on cooking chamber, seal chimney, add better temp gauges and mount them by the cooking grate, charcoal basket and finally fabricate a heat baffle.) From what I've read those things all help. ...so now I think I have less variables to sort through. Today I'll run it for a few hours empty with some wood to season it. ...is 3 hours enough time? I want to try it out and cook up some chicken tonight.

Howdy and Welcome from the Capital City I think you'll find the members here to be very knowledgeable and willing to help. Be sure and post up some pics and details on your first cook and future cooks, if ya can. We are Pic Addicted here

Welcome to the Madness Sir, from down I35 in San Antonio.
I may be a little late here and you may already be doing it. Make sure and spray the inside of your smoker with Pam cooking spray or rum the inside down with Vegetable oil and then a good burn and smoke for a few hours will help season that pit like a good old cast iron skillet.

And as OUP stated make sure and post pics of your grub

Ric G.

big friendly welcome from your neighbor to the north....
on the seasoning, three hours may or may not be enough seasoning, kind of depends on what one considers seasoning of the pit? some folk trim a brisket and use the trimmed fat to wipe down the inside of the pit, this makes the smoke particles stick to the insides... me, I just lite it up and start cooking and it will season itself over time... your tuning baffle looks like a good idea, looks like chicken for dinner, we like pictures too

Welcome from Elgin. Your mods look good!

Fire management is a huge part of cooking good barbecue. I recommend burning as many fires as you possibly can (whether you're cooking or not) in it so you can learn how your smoker runs and what temps he runs best at.

Good luck. Post some pics of that bird.

Welcome to the forum, really like your smoker mods. Watching for smoke and photos. CF

Just my 2 cents, for seasoning I like peanut oil. Thick and sticky.

Thanks all. I was juggling another project and seasoned for about 3 hours. I sprayed down the inside with vegetable oil in a spray bottle beforehand. Didn't get the meat on until 5:00 and was eager to try it when it was done. Next time I will get the fire going earlier. Temps were close but still a little hotter on the firebox side.the one thing I still need to do is lower the exhaust to the grate. I'm sure that will help. Maybe a water pan on the fire side too. Lot's of tastey experiments coming! That chicken was, hands down, the best I ever had. Going to see if I can get some auto exhaust pipe for the chimney extension. Thanks for the tips/feedback!

The leftovers. .. Ribs tomorrow!

Welcome to the forum from Round Rock. That's a good start with your pit.
Can't wait to see what else comes out. And if it looks too good- I'll just have to stop by.

howdy

nice bark on that leftover sheeken

Finding mild steel pipe the same size as my chimney (3.3125") for an extension was impossible. I did find a 3.0" OD adapter (auto exhaust part which I made a shim to fill the gap for a tight fit). The other thing was to get down the another 4 or so inches and I picked up another exhaust fitting but it reduced the diameter down to 2.5". I'm thinking it might work. The cooking chamber doesn't leak so the only way for the heat to get out is to build up from the top down to the grate where the chimney opening is now. It clears the grate by about 1/4". Will also put a pan of water or apple juice over the holes on the firebox side. More experimentation is needed. If anybody has a better idea for the chimney it is easy to pull out to try something better.

Could also see a smoke trail inside where the new baffle meets the firebox wall. I pulled it out and ground 1/16" off so that it will meet flush. The ribs got postponed until tomorrow but I put on the rub and vacuum packed and got them all ready to this morning. Forgot to get peanut oil but that sounds like an excellent idea for inside protection.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum...
did you try a muffler shop? they have and do all types of pipe..