Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

I had mentioned earlier that the regulator on my Neihoff 28 volt alternator was bad and I was undecided on how to proceed. Being a fan of market place I found a 5500 watt belt driven generator with a Yanmar hopper cooled diesel mounted on a very nice frame.
I picked it up for $250 brought it home and with a bit of love got it running and did a test run when the generator stopped working.
Inspection found a bad capacitor and TBN helped me find one that works very good regulating at 120v at 60hz.. I also replaced the 3 pole 240v outlet with a 30 amp 4 pole 120/240 outlet.
A google search originally identified the engine as a Yanmar NS10 however further looking found that NS65G is cast into the back of the flywheel.
After giving the injection pump some love and 4 oil changes and several oil filter cleanings I ran it loaded 2.7kw for several hours in preparation for load and fuel consumption testing.
The engine runs at 2200 rpm and the belt driven generator runs at 3600rpm.
It handles a 2.7 kw load nicely but the governor not as accurate allowing the engine to run up to 2500 rpm (68)hz when unloaded.
I have determined that 3.5kw is the maximum load the engine can manage.
The engine is hopper cooled with water and is NOT pressurized but has a condensing radiator on top with a belt driven fan which cools, condenses and recycles the water. During extended full load runs I have not observed steam escaping from the vented overflow tank.
This engine is started with a hand crank that I’m unable to manage so I use my Milwaukee magnum drill and an adaptor to & start it.
Fuel consumption is approx 18-19 grams per minute with a 2.7kw load.
If my rusty math is correct it would run 2.9 hours per gallon with a 2.7kw load (3.618)hp.
Based on my limited time with this unit it would not work as a stand alone backup because of the poor governor speed control however it would work fine as an AC supply for my inverter because the inverter would condition the input power and provider true pure sine 60hz output voltage.
Because of the low operating speed of 2200 rpm I would not hesitate to run this for days if needed.
I was having very little luck in finding information on this engine until bmaverick from TBN saw my post.
The information he had at his fingertips and his recollection of data was truly impressive.
That’s it for today 90cummins

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Interesting Find, and Fix, 90. Thanks for posting the details and pics..... not a design I was familiar with.

No water-pump to change !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

We moved into our new home a few weeks ago. As part of the utility transfer, the gas company had to come out and inspect the installation and document the gas appliances. I had been smelling the slightest odor of propane near the tank/generator area. Turns out the supply line to the generator was barely hand tight and leaking.

Yikes !

Not something you want to find later..... kids tossing sparklers around 4'th July, or otherwise !

Rgds, D.

 

[kenmac]

Well, I just had a generator installed a couple months ago. So I should have no maintenance to perform until next yr .....Generac 35Kw 4.2 L V6 Ford

 

[3930dave]

Well, I just had a generator installed a couple months ago. So I should have no maintenance to perform until next yr .....Generac 35Kw 4.3 L V6 Ford

A big-block.... compared to what some of us run ! Is that the Ford straight 6 ?

Congratulations ! Lots of house A/C tonnage to support, or is that for an outbuilding ?

Rgds, D.

 

[kenmac]

A big-block.... compared to what some of us run ! Is that the Ford straight 6 ?

Congratulations ! Lots of house A/C tonnage to support, or is that for an outbuilding ?

Rgds, D.

sorry. I missed a key it's a 35 KW with 4.2L V6. It's for the house and also wired to the shop .
I bought it used with 600 hrs on it and had it installed

 

[3930dave]

sorry. I missed a key it's a 35 KW with 4.2L V6. It's for the house and also wired to the shop .
I bought it used with 600 hrs on it and had it installed

I'd say your typing is fine.... it's my eyeballs that aren't working...... either that or I'm a quart or 2 low on coffee !

Nice coverage for both buildings. Propane, Natgas, or ______ ?

Rgds, D.

 

[kenmac]

NG

 

[3930dave]

Relatively rare for NG to be down, so really nice for extended storm outages

Do you have it set to exercise once/month, or ________ ?

Rgds, D.

 

[nickmags]

Have seen this thread for a few years, not paid it much attention. Read a few of the first posts, but went to other things. Saw the title pop up again, and thought about my portable 7,500w. Long story short, went out, tried to start the thing. Checked oil - uh oh - Way over full and smelled of gas. Noticed I had left the fuel shutoff open. The small amount, about two quarts of gas left in the tank, had drained down through the carb, filled the cylinder, and eventually bled past the rings into crankcase. Drained oil/gas, added new fuel and a new plug, plus some carb cleaner to flush carb. Eventually got the thing running, but took umpty zillion pulls to finally get it going. Would have been a mess in a power out situation. More than likely had it not been for the new post to this thread, I would not have thought about checking the gen. Thanks.

 

[3930dave]

Have seen this thread for a few years, not paid it much attention. Read a few of the first posts, but went to other things. Saw the title pop up again, and thought about my portable 7,500w. Long story short, went out, tried to start the thing. Checked oil - uh oh - Way over full and smelled of gas. Noticed I had left the fuel shutoff open. The small amount, about two quarts of gas left in the tank, had drained down through the carb, filled the cylinder, and eventually bled past the rings into crankcase. Drained oil/gas, added new fuel and a new plug, plus some carb cleaner to flush carb. Eventually got the thing running, but took umpty zillion pulls to finally get it going. Would have been a mess in a power out situation. More than likely had it not been for the new post to this thread, I would not have thought about checking the gen. Thanks.

Nice save Nick

Back When (I started this thread) I thought time went quickly. Now, I blink, and 6 months goes by. Originally figured maybe 6 people might drop-by this thread, we'd chat on gens, and I'd have a Reminder To Self sitting on my Thread List. I've learned a great amount about generators (small and big) from the people who have stopped by this thread, seen tremendous total rebuilds done, and some rural Christmas postcard-perfect Generator "Sheds" built. It's been fun.

Of all the small engines, gens concern me the most. I have a high ground-water table here, esp. Spring and Fall. The Murphy Never Rests scenario you had would not have been a fun-time, 3am here, with ground-water rapidly rising......

If it's Summer here (typ. low ground-water), and my lawn-mower decides it's not going to run.... Oh Well, I'll order a new Carb/kit, then I'll be forced to fill in my time with something like...... motorcycle riding .

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I have to add that it was this thread that finally pushed me into getting a whole house generator. It's been over a year now and it has worked perfectly through several outages. I sure don't miss the hassle of hooking up the PTO genny or pulling starter ropes on the portables every time the power goes out.

Thanks @3930dave for creating the thread!

 

[LouNY]

I have to add that it was this thread that finally pushed me into getting a whole house generator. It's been over a year now and it has worked perfectly through several outages. I sure don't miss the hassle of hooking up the PTO genny or pulling starter ropes on the portables every time the power goes out.

Thanks @3930dave for creating the thread!

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:

Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:
View attachment 4770738

View attachment 4770739
Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

I tried something like that for awhile by leaving one of the tractors connected up to the PTO generator but there always seemed to be another use for the machine.

I thought about getting a 3rd tractor for generator use. It would offer some flexibility, since it could be used for other jobs if necessary. I shopped around locally for something suitable, but the prices on decent used machines were so close to that of a stand alone generator, I decided to trade flexibility for convenience.

I can start the standalone genny without leaving the house and the wife can easily do it if I'm not around. At our age, she's not as able as she once was to brave the elements to start and refuel a tractor. To make it even more convenient, next year, I plan to add an automatic transfer switch. As much as I wanted that third tractor, this seemed to be the practical approach for us at this point.

The down side to this is, I can't tow the PTO genny to other buildings. I've only done it once in 25 years though so it didn't seem that important. I can use one of the portables in remote locations if necessary.

 

[JRH02]

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:
View attachment 4770738

View attachment 4770739
Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

I like those tire chains. So how good does that PTO genset hold the Hz with loads vs no-loads?

 

[LouNY]

I like those tire chains. So how good does that PTO genset hold the Hz with loads vs no-loads?

That depends completely on the tractors governor. Most of the ones I've used have done fairly good. The IH 574 will hold better then 2 hertz from no load to over 80 Amps. Usually right around 1 hertz.
The Branson with hold very good on the 540 output, on the economy throttled down she will drift a bit sometimes. I may step out and trim it down just a bit for night running compared to normal day running with appliances and water pump kicking on and off.
My Oliver 1550 did a good job when I had her, and I borrowed a CIH 7220 one time when my Oliver was my only tractor and she gelled one night, using the 1000 rpm output with an adapter at half throttle that thing didn't care what the load did.
Over at the farm when they were still milking cows the 75Kw unit would require a bit of tweaking depending on the loads but even then I don't think we ever saw more then 4 Hz +-.

Yes those are good chains, I have several sets here for the tractors.

 

[chim]

We seldom have power outages here that last long enough to fire up a generator. There's the occasional exception. Several years ago our first (wet and heavy) snowfall came while most of the trees still had a lot of foliage. Our place is the last on a short utility run that has only 5 or 6 places past where a tree tor the line down. Outages were widespread. The power company concentrated on the work that brought the most customer back on line. They worked on lines that put 50 or 100 customers back in service. Our power was of from Saturday afternoon till some time on Wednesday. I borrowed a generator from work, then went and bought a 7500W Champion gasoline generator with electric start. That one gets run maybe twice a year.

More recently I got a generator from an Amida light stand. It's a 4000W diesel. Looks like a tow-behind air compressor. I often use the latter to run welders etc so it sees fairly regular use. It's handy to tow it offsite where needed.

 

[3930dave]

Noticed I had left the fuel shutoff open.

Your petcock story reminded me.... I hadn't run the winter fuel I wanted into my old street bike. Cracked open this morning the T4 I'd bought, got the bike warmed up a bit, then topped tank with T4 before running out to do some Saturday chores. (Bike petcock is a vacuum diaphragm type, so Off is less critical, but I still like it OFF for the Winter).

https://vpracingfuels.com/products/vp-t4-fuel

Will run it a bit more tomorrow, top up again, then do same with my KLX300..... been a bit mild here lately, so taking advantage of the temps (re. turning the bike over) before it drops again.

I plan to start using the T4 for my other small engines that I store.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I have to add that it was this thread that finally pushed me into getting a whole house generator. It's been over a year now and it has worked perfectly through several outages. I sure don't miss the hassle of hooking up the PTO genny or pulling starter ropes on the portables every time the power goes out.

Thanks @3930dave for creating the thread!

You are Welcome ! Lots of fun here, it's been great hanging out.....

TBN'ers.... always helping others Spend Money !

Maybe that's what it really stands for...... Too Broke Now !

Can't beat the convenience of a whole house generator. Last outage here, I started my portable at something like 4:00am.... definitely wouldn't want my wife having to deal with that ^....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I leave the generator hooked up most of the time. If the weather is forecasting a rough storm I'll back it up to the house.
In the winter time I'll leave it backed into position;
I've even added a cheap golf cart cover to keep rain and snow off the seat and dash:
View attachment 4770738

View attachment 4770739
Not the best of covers but for $155 to keep the damned snow ice and water off the seat and the controls, good enough.

Tractor+gen ready to work..... nice having that dedicated, esp. in Winter !

That golf-cart cover looks way better than the tarp I use on mine..... I'll have to watch for a deal on those....

Another vote for those chains

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

We seldom have power outages here that last long enough to fire up a generator. There's the occasional exception. Several years ago our first (wet and heavy) snowfall came while most of the trees still had a lot of foliage. Our place is the last on a short utility run that has only 5 or 6 places past where a tree tor the line down. Outages were widespread. The power company concentrated on the work that brought the most customer back on line. They worked on lines that put 50 or 100 customers back in service. Our power was of from Saturday afternoon till some time on Wednesday. I borrowed a generator from work, then went and bought a 7500W Champion gasoline generator with electric start. That one gets run maybe twice a year.

More recently I got a generator from an Amida light stand. It's a 4000W diesel. Looks like a tow-behind air compressor. I often use the latter to run welders etc so it sees fairly regular use. It's handy to tow it offsite where needed.

You are well-prepped now...... so of course, the grid will then stay-up for 10 years straight

I'm not familiar with Amida..... who is the manufacturer of that diesel ? That would be handy, for a quick-tow somewhere...... though me being me..... I'd need those flourescent "cat-whisker" sticks out the sides of the trailer.... narrow enough, that I'd might forget it was behind my big truck !

Rgds, D.