General Lee
Veteran Member
When I shut my generator down for storage, I add a dab of Sta-bil to whats left in the tank, let it run for few and shut off the fuel until its cuts off.
Did I buy the wrong generator?
- Thread starter MossflowerWoods
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Since a generator can't be idled down prior to shutdown, I would think that a lot of oil would be washed away from the cylinder walls by the fuel while the engine is "winding down" after the ignition turned off. This could cause excess friction and possibly some corrosion problems of the cylinder walls if the engine isn't run frequently.
Pilot, as you know, this is why we always pull the mixture to idle cutoff to shut down an aircraft engine.
This is why I think it is best to always shut down by turning off the fuel.
Pilot
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V1rotate,
Why / how would oil be washed off the cylinder walls? The engine is running out of gas, less gas to wash oil off the cylinder walls and as the engine runs out of gas, it putts, misses, putts again, slowing down before it shuts down. I don't understand your logic. Yes, A/C engines are set to idle cutoff, which is both idling the engine and cutting off the fuel, but I don't see much difference. Maybe I'm missing something since my '41 Cadet has no mixture control, so unlike modern planes built post war, it's shut off by turning off the mags.
Why / how would oil be washed off the cylinder walls? The engine is running out of gas, less gas to wash oil off the cylinder walls and as the engine runs out of gas, it putts, misses, putts again, slowing down before it shuts down. I don't understand your logic. Yes, A/C engines are set to idle cutoff, which is both idling the engine and cutting off the fuel, but I don't see much difference. Maybe I'm missing something since my '41 Cadet has no mixture control, so unlike modern planes built post war, it's shut off by turning off the mags.
two_bit_score
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Lot of good info in this thread.
EE_Bota
Veteran Member
Thanks for the reassurance about not being afraid of the temporary leanness while shutting down. I was only a bit fearful about air cooled motorcycles, since even small utility engines are forced air cooled via a fan. But many old school motorcycles have only radiation and minor convection to cool (when stationary.)
I know pilots hate the possibility of a breakdown more than nearly anyone else (for obvious reasons) and the expense of repairs is also greater due to the need for absolute reliability. So, I should probably look more to what pilots do in cases of doubt.
Maybe I didn't explain myself very well, you and I are on the same page here.
What I was trying to say was that if you have a generator running at 3600 rpm and you switch off the ignition, it will continue to rotate for several seconds because of the inertia of flywheel, armature, etc. durring that time, the engine is still turning without any ignition to burn off the fuel being drawn into the cylinder so all that unburned fuel will wash down the cylinder walls.
That is why I think it is better to always shut down a generator by shutting off the fuel, the spark plug is still firing, so what little if any fuel is burned up, leaving the oil that normally coats the cylinder walls intact