Hi Guys
I have one of these Aurora silent diesel 6500W gensets. I bought it 6 years ago and it ran perfectly fine until this winter.
I use it as a backup for a rural house, and whenever I need portable power, all in all, it has only 120 hours on it.
During my last maintenance run, I noticed a mouse nest in the hot box around the exhaust. I opened everything up and cleared up the mouse nest, I checked everything over to make sure no mice are present, changed the oil, and fired it up. I was running very rough, and as it was getting dark, I noticed the exhaust right next to the cylinder start to glow cherry red. I shut it off right away since the fuel tank is right above this part. When it cooled down, I disassembled the exhaust and noticed that the catalyctic converter has come apart blocking the exhaust quite effectively. I gutted the cat, checked the two mufflers for flow, all seemed to be okay.
Due to the intense heat that built up, I looked everything over again. I took the air filter off... there was no air filter, all I found was charred remains of the air filter and all the seals melted. I'm no expert, but it seemed like there were flames shooting out the intake, I don't know if the plugged exhaust would cause this or not.
After cleaning everything up again, and reassembling, this time with no air filter, I fired up the generator and it seemed to work fine, but I can't say I consider it reliable and a big fire hazard if this were to happen again. A few weeks later as I wait for my new air filters to arrive, I try the generator again, and it starts doing the exact same thing. I have to check again for any obstructions in the intake or exhaust.
I see that some of you have had similar problems before. I am reading any material I can find, and this forum has been a great help, not just with this genset, but with many things I enjoy tinkering with.
I don't consider myself a diesel expert at all, but seeing as this generator doesn't see much action, diesel made a lot of sense, and it still does, I just can't find another generator like it anymore. LPG or gasoline seem to be the only ways to go, but our crappy Canadian gasoline will clog everything up if not used without a month.
I'm very handy and not afraid of taking an engine apart, should I be looking for anything specific to correct this issue?
I'm nowhere near the generator, but I hope no one poured gasoline into it like in that youtube video...
Thank you
xp