Your last generator Maintenance Run

[3930dave]

It's funny you said that you always would have a portable gen, just in case.
Well I've got an old Generac 5.5 kw portable also. I figure it's not worth a whole lot if I try to sell it, but it might come in real handy some day if the standby unit fails, or if one of my neighbors needs power.

Yeah... self-identified Belt and Suspenders guy here..... :thumbsup:

I have reasons to want portable power for applications away from home, but yes it's nice to have as a backup to an automatic system.

In a really long outage, like some here have described living through, you'd probably want to get an oil change done - nice to have a second smaller gen to spell off the main one for times like that, esp. with critical loads.

Rgds, D.

 

[murphy1244]

I noticed on my nat gas burning generator that the exhaust manifolds have a rusty growth on them. Anyone else?

 

[3930dave]

I noticed on my nat gas burning generator that the exhaust manifolds have a rusty growth on them. Anyone else?

1) You might have posted before Murph, but remind me again - What brand generator ?

2) Do you mean the manifolds themselves are corroding, or is this a deposit on them from the exhaust gas ?

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

On the last few maintenance runs on the RV Kohler generator I noticed it too a lot of grinding to get it to fire off. Since I could smell gas I figured that was not the issue so we pulled the plugs. They did not look bad but the new ones were not the right ones based on my 'web' search and now we are in a deep freeze over night but are to see 50F by next week end we are going to let the generator set. I did check how the spark looked today and it was very weak but it is not a hot system because the plugs gap at .025. May have to look at a new coil/wiring kit that is only about $40. It is a 1992 5000 watt size twin cylinder. I expect the wiring is factory but just do not know its history.

New weekend we need to get our back up generators prepped. The cold across the country tonight got my attention.

 

[3930dave]

Good luck with the RV gen Gale. Mice seem to favour RV gens, so be on the lookout for nests, chewed wires.... depending on design, they sometimes even set up camp in the air filter.

Esp. if you don't know the running hours on it, it might be time for new wires. $40 for a kit doesn't seem unreasonable.

Rgds, D.

 

[murphy1244]

1) You might have posted before Murph, but remind me again - What brand generator ?

2) Do you mean the manifolds themselves are corroding, or is this a deposit on them from the exhaust gas ?

Rgds, D.

It is a Briggs and it almost looks like the manifolds are leaking has a calcium look to it.

 

[3930dave]

It is a Briggs and it almost looks like the manifolds are leaking has a calcium look to it.

Do you have an hour meter on it ?

If nobody bites here, might be worth starting a thread for it. Lacking a dedicated Briggs forum; Lawn and Garden might be appropriate. (Tho, gotta admit, there probably aren't too many Nat Gas lawn mowers around ).

Worth pursuing, as sometimes issues like this are unofficially covered under warranty - and you're most likely to hear about that coverage in forums like this.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out....

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I think our RV generator is at 672 hours. It was at around 400 when we bought it in 2007. I think a new set is in order if we can not get a good spark when we get a chance to look at it. I had some rats work over the wires on a new like home generator and Nissan pick up. Learned plastic trash cans did not keep them out of the dog food.

 

[Cat_Driver]

60 KW, I changed 5 gallons of oil, fuel filter, air filter, filled up 80 gallons of fuel, added fuel additives, flushed the radiator new coolant, new LED lights on trailer, new 7 pin connector to truck, (2) new batteries, washed and waxed the sound proof enclosure. Ran a LOAD to exercise it.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Got good spark. When we got home tonight we decided to see what kind of spark we could see from one of the new plugs with them both out and it was sparking within normal limits I am sure. This generation of two cylinder engines sparks on both compression and exhaust strokes often and I expect this one does as well. They do not have a distributor and just fire directly from the coil.

This weekend it is to warm up after being very cold Tue-Thur nights. We got dielectric grease for the spark plug cover and anti seize compound for the plug threads which is something I have never used before. The plugs came out fine and have the taper seal vs the washer seal like some plugs.

When we get it running again we will change the oil but it does not have many hours on it.

Cat_Driver is your generator trailer mounted? It sounds like a nice system.

 

[3930dave]

60 KW, I changed 5 gallons of oil, fuel filter, air filter, filled up 80 gallons of fuel, added fuel additives, flushed the radiator new coolant, new LED lights on trailer, new 7 pin connector to truck, (2) new batteries, washed and waxed the sound proof enclosure. Ran a LOAD to exercise it.

1) Was LOAD: one subdivision, or two ? :cool2:

2) Fully loaded (wet), roughly what does the trailer weigh ?

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Got good spark. When we got home tonight we decided to see what kind of spark we could see from one of the new plugs with them both out and it was sparking within normal limits I am sure. This generation of two cylinder engines sparks on both compression and exhaust strokes often and I expect this one does as well. They do not have a distributor and just fire directly from the coil.

This weekend it is to warm up after being very cold Tue-Thur nights. We got dielectric grease for the spark plug cover and anti seize compound for the plug threads which is something I have never used before. The plugs came out fine and have the taper seal vs the washer seal like some plugs.

When we get it running again we will change the oil but it does not have many hours on it.

Cat_Driver is your generator trailer mounted? It sounds like a nice system.

Might be mostly just the plugs.... gen life is a bit of a workout - high rpm and typically carb'd engines.

Both of those greases = nice TLC for the gen, and your other gassers.

Let us know how goes it.....

Rgds, D.

 

[PILOON]

I might just influence a few folks.
An acquaintance that enjoys scrapping as a hobby, offered me a 7500 watt CHAMPION genset that had 0 compression and over 800 hours on the clock.
At $50.00 I decided that I would convert it to a PTO gen-set.
The set had served on construction sites and it really showed the lack of 'tender care'.
During teardown I discovered that the engine was in fact in great shape, tight where it should be and cylinder walls, rings etc simply perfect.
Only problem was worn down valve stems that allowed them to stay opened all the time.
Simple adjustment and it started right up.
Shortly later we had a 4 day outage and a friend ran it non stop all that time without any hick ups.

I am no way connected to the company but have to give credit where it is due.
As I type this that genset is now over 900 hrs and still purrs.

 

[3930dave]

I might just influence a few folks.
An acquaintance that enjoys scrapping as a hobby, offered me a 7500 watt CHAMPION genset that had 0 compression and over 800 hours on the clock.
At $50.00 I decided that I would convert it to a PTO gen-set.
The set had served on construction sites and it really showed the lack of 'tender care'.
During teardown I discovered that the engine was in fact in great shape, tight where it should be and cylinder walls, rings etc simply perfect.
Only problem was worn down valve stems that allowed them to stay opened all the time.
Simple adjustment and it started right up.
Shortly later we had a 4 day outage and a friend ran it non stop all that time without any hick ups.

I am no way connected to the company but have to give credit where it is due.
As I type this that genset is now over 900 hrs and still purrs.

My impression is the Champions are a Honda clone. A friend has a similar Champion to the model you describe - treated well, and not those kind of hours, but he's happy so far.

Great price point on these, and they also have a low cost inverter version too.

Honda makes a great generator, but is outside my budget these days.

Rgds, D.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Great thread. For the guys that backfeed 220 Volts thru a dryer plug, has anyone actually come up with a way to know that the regular power has come back on, without actually getting a phone call from the neighbor ? To bad there wasn,t a visual light or something that could be hooked up safetly before the main breaker switch, or at least a light that was on at the transformer pole.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Knew a guy that did that and when I asked how he knew when the power came back on he said he could not during the day but at night the security light would come on then we would shut down the generator.

Risky business at best and one would need to make sure his mind was not slipping without realizing it.

The funny thing is I know utility linemen who backfeed at home.

 

[jgayman]

Great thread. For the guys that backfeed 220 Volts thru a dryer plug, has anyone actually come up with a way to know that the regular power has come back on, without actually getting a phone call from the neighbor ? To bad there wasn,t a visual light or something that could be hooked up safetly before the main breaker switch, or at least a light that was on at the transformer pole.

This can be a common problem with daytime outages even when attaching the generator through an approved interlock switch. I purchased a device from Reliance Electric that runs off a 9V battery and attaches to the electrical panel via a big magnet on the back. It has an insulated wire that wraps around one of the main feed lines. When I switch to generator I turn the device on. When the power is restored the devices emits a warbling alarm similar to a smoke detector. It works fantastic!!! However, it appears like Reliance has stopped selling the device and I have not been able to fine anyone who offers a replacement. If mine ever stops working I will be out of luck. I still can't figure out why they stopped selling them as it is the prefect tool for detecting when the electricity comes back on when using a whole-house generator. It was only around $30.

 

[DarkBlack]

If you have a modern digital display meter on your house and not the older mechanical type, you can go look at it to see if the kwh display has come back on.

 

[3930dave]

This can be a common problem with daytime outages even when attaching the generator through an approved interlock switch. I purchased a device from Reliance Electric that runs off a 9V battery and attaches to the electrical panel via a big magnet on the back. It has an insulated wire that wraps around one of the main feed lines. When I switch to generator I turn the device on. When the power is restored the devices emits a warbling alarm similar to a smoke detector. It works fantastic!!! However, it appears like Reliance has stopped selling the device and I have not been able to fine anyone who offers a replacement. If mine ever stops working I will be out of luck. I still can't figure out why they stopped selling them as it is the prefect tool for detecting when the electricity comes back on when using a whole-house generator. It was only around $30.

Interesting circuit and application, thanks.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

If you have a modern digital display meter on your house and not the older mechanical type, you can go look at it to see if the kwh display has come back on.

For those of us stuck with Time of Use meters, many of the utilities promote a web app that will show consumption data. I haven't looked into my utilities offering yet, so can't say how useful it would be for this... depending on the interface and reporting intervals, it may be too slow ?

The utilities talk about how the smart meters help them in outages - when the meters "go dark" they can pretty quickly derive an outage map from their database. (As opposed to waiting for customers to phone in).

Depending how they tune the customer side information display on the web, you may be able to get your household status there ?

Can't say I'm enough of a smartphone junkie/guru to have this setup already, but I can see how it should work, and be useful.

(I actually like being outside whenever I can, so don't mind visually checking a meter. In a big extended outage though, if I'm driving 30+ miles to buy generator gas, it would be great to have my phone report that line power is back !).

Rgds, D.