Forum for air cooled diesel engines and clones

[Manunda]

Hello, i have a Chinese 10hp/ 5kva Inverter Diesel Generator with 15 hours on the meter (i have had it 3 years and only now started using it seriously) . I am having some intermittent issues with it running rough. The unit starts very easily and usually runs faultlessly upon start-up, blowing no smoke... after warming i can easily run the 5kva load and the engine handles this with ease..then unpredictably it starts to run rough, backfires and misses...blowing black smoke...the exhaust glows red in some places... ( i have checked when running normally and this is not the case), generally if i run it for more than 2 hours this fault will always occur.. but it can occur at start-up also. During the rough running it still generates power..but gets too hot so i shut it off... when i restart it after some period of time -- it again runs smoothly... it can also "fix itself" while running rough and return to smooth operation. So i guess its either the injector, governor diesel pump... but which one and how would i check to see ? Any suggestions ?

Andrew

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I'm not sure what problem these single-cylinder diesels around 5-10 hp have, but it seems to be common. I would bet whatever it is related to the same problem this person has in this video:

Diesel Generator First And Last Start - YouTube

My 10hp China diesel misses and will begin to blow smoke (seems mostly gray) above around 3200 rpm and tends to show high exhaust temps when running at high speeds (3000 rpm and above). It seems to run ok at slower speeds. I really have no idea what it could be. I checked timing and valve clearance and they both were ok. It almost seems like maybe the valves start to float at high speed or maybe even the injector pump starts acting up. My solution is I don't run it at high speed but for a generator application you really don't have that option. It would be great to learn what really is causing this.

 

[NateMonkey]

After reading this thread to learn more about my own Chinese generator (ETQ), I finally saw something I could add.
That sputtering with the glowing exhaust means that unburnt fuel is getting out of the engine. Mine did that badly enough to throw melted gobs of muffler out!
I went throught the whole fuel system and added an inline filter. nothing found and nothing solved.
Finally, I tried starting it with the air cleaner off. Ran perfect, just deafening!. It turned out that the hurricane blew rain sideways into the air filter and got the element wet.
A restriction in the intake allows it to start up and run at low speed but as soon as you go to 3600 RPM, the engine starves for air.
On a gas engine, it would run rich with black smoke. On a diesel, it would not fire every time due to reduced compression. It still squirts fuel though!
So hot air and vaporized fuel are exhausted into the muffler where they are repeadedly ignighted.

TL;DR version..... open your air cleaner and remove the mouse nests!

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I ran mine with the air cleaner off when I adapted a grid heater for cold-weather starting and it made no difference . The symptoms are indicative of an air restriction though it seems. I do live at a relatively higher elevation where the air is inherently "thinner" but I'd be surprised if that is the cultprit. This coming summer the engine is going to a home with a lower elevation so I'll be anxious to run it there and see if there is any difference. I was also even wondering if carrying too high of an oil level in the crankcase could cause these issues (?)

 

[NateMonkey]

Is it possible that the exhaust has something wrong in there? When mine was misfiring and blowing molten lava out the muffler, it knocked my baffles loose which only made matters worse. I opened mine up and rewelded it.

One other thing is if the altitude is high, you supposed to play with the copper shims under the fuel pump. This alters the clearance between the pump body and the cam. I'm not sure if it would cause what you describe though.

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I'm not sure about the exhaust, I never ran mine to where it was glowing or blowing chunks. I did see a spark or two one time but backed the engine off when that started happening.

I never heard of adjusting the injector timing for elevation. I think one is suppose to reduce the maximum fuel allowed by the pump as elevation increases to keep the black smoke in check due to lack of oxygen density of the air.

I'm guessing the problem I'm seeing is not elevation related, but I suppose it could be possible. Maybe at higher speeds the intake becomes somewhat restrictive to the point where not enough air is getting into the cylinder at these higher-elevation air pressures. I'll know for sure after this summer when I run it at around 700' asl.

 

[buickanddeere]

Anybody check the valve clearance?

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I did and mine was as listed in the manual.

 

[Rubberducky]

Been a while since I have been here. My apache has maybe 150hrs now. I lost power earlier today during the storm and I had it running my house for just about 3hrs non stop. Worked flawlessly. I had roughly a 3500 watt load on it maybe a little more. I had the heat, lights, and tv going with zero issues. I don't have a glow plug on mine, but it starts first try no matter how cold. I do keep up with maintenance and keep just about every spare part that is made for it on hand. I think it 3yrs old now...maybe 2...can't remember at this point.

 

[sostahoe]

Just joined as this looks to be a great source for maintaining and repairing my clone genset.
Looks as though there could be a sticky post at the beginning with links that have been building from some of the quality posts. TIA too everyone who has contributed.