Your last generator Maintenance Run

[grsthegreat]

You need to put a set of spinners on that… you know, pimp it up

 

[3930dave]

The manual says every 100 hours, the first roughly 2500 hours I did it 100-140 hours, since then it is every 90-110 hours. Hard to be exactly 100 because it is on our food truck and we might be using it when it hits 100 hours.

Too many people just never change the oil in small engines

I've never been rich enough to do that ^.

Understandable, in a food-truck application, going slightly over. On construction sites, many generators would kill for the attention yours gets.

Rgds, D.

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

what kind of oil do you use?

engine oil that is...

Depending when I buy it, Mobile or Honda oil, usually stop at Northern Tool and get a bunch of oil at a time.

If you go with the full synthetic it is good for both the Honda and the French fry's !

No deep fryer’s, just 2 commercial smokers to smoke everything.

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

Too many people just never change the oil in small engines

I've never been rich enough to do that ^.

Understandable, in a food-truck application, going slightly over. On construction sites, many generators would kill for the attention yours gets.

Rgds, D.

I want (hope) it to last forever, or at least until after we sell the business.

 

[90cummins]

I built my nephew a generator several + years ago using a Yanmar L70 diesel from eBay which needed rebuilding. New rings, camshaft lifter & rod bearing plus seals & gaskets. A belt drive 5kw generator was purchased also along with taper-loc bushings so I could mount a pulley on the shoulder of the crankshaft which was tapered for a direct drive generator.
Belt drive was chosen because of the ability to use any motor source to run it. It also allowed us to overdrive it with the appropriate pulley to reduce engine rpm.
It was sitting in the corner of my shop since it was first built & tested & I thought it is time to pull it out & check it.
There was fuel in it so I connected the battery & it cranked & cranked
Very unusual to not start within 1 or 2 revolutions.
Found the injector rack was stuck closed, fortunately.
Removed injection pump hit it with some blaster worked it until it was free then reinstalled it. Cranked it & she started up nicely.
I put 2 heaters on it for a load of 2.9kw & ran it for over an hour.
Tested engine rpm unloaded 3720rpm, 1.5kw load 3600 rpm 2.9 kw load 3530rpm. Ran excellent. I put 2oz of marine 2 stroke oil in fuel & ran another 1/2 hr.
Diesels do store well but even they need a little love to stay healthy.
A word of caution here, fortunately the rack was stuck closed (off). If it was stuck open full throttle it could have been exciting. Always need to be ready to shut the air off or fuel supply with a diesel if it hasn’t been run recently to avoid serious damage/injury.

90cummins

 

[Patrick Herd]

Re: Power quality, I found this PQ1 Power Quality Sensor | Powerside
Unsure on price.

Otherwise I'd get an undervoltage relay from a manufacturer such as Phoenix Contact and set it to trigger at say 0.9x nominal voltage. Make sure to fit a squeaker so you know the fridge power needs resetting.

 

[3930dave]

I built my nephew a generator several + years ago using a Yanmar L70 diesel from eBay which needed rebuilding. New rings, camshaft lifter & rod bearing plus seals & gaskets. A belt drive 5kw generator was purchased also along with taper-loc bushings so I could mount a pulley on the shoulder of the crankshaft which was tapered for a direct drive generator.
Belt drive was chosen because of the ability to use any motor source to run it. It also allowed us to overdrive it with the appropriate pulley to reduce engine rpm.
It was sitting in the corner of my shop since it was first built & tested & I thought it is time to pull it out & check it.
There was fuel in it so I connected the battery & it cranked & cranked
Very unusual to not start within 1 or 2 revolutions.
Found the injector rack was stuck closed, fortunately.
Removed injection pump hit it with some blaster worked it until it was free then reinstalled it. Cranked it & she started up nicely.
I put 2 heaters on it for a load of 2.9kw & ran it for over an hour.
Tested engine rpm unloaded 3720rpm, 1.5kw load 3600 rpm 2.9 kw load 3530rpm. Ran excellent. I put 2oz of marine 2 stroke oil in fuel & ran another 1/2 hr.
Diesels do store well but even they need a little love to stay healthy.
A word of caution here, fortunately the rack was stuck closed (off). If it was stuck open full throttle it could have been exciting. Always need to be ready to shut the air off or fuel supply with a diesel if it hasn’t been run recently to avoid serious damage/injury.

90cummins

Now, that ^, was a maintenance run

Good point, about olde-school diesel startup practices, and thanks for taking the time to detail the build.

I was trying to frame what your builds make me think of.... then, I got it:

What You Want, when a Carrington Event happens, during a Zombie Apocalypse !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Re: Power quality, I found this PQ1 Power Quality Sensor | Powerside
Unsure on price.

Otherwise I'd get an undervoltage relay from a manufacturer such as Phoenix Contact and set it to trigger at say 0.9x nominal voltage. Make sure to fit a squeaker so you know the fridge power needs resetting.

Interesting find Patrick. Somebody saw the need, and integrated it into a small (for Industrial) footprint.

I usually prefer Simple, and not just for cost reasons. The simple solutions we've tossed around for 90's application, would mostly just need remote Temperature (and Ideally Load Power) monitoring as well. Temperature likely being the easiest to add, if not present already.

Rgds, D.

 

[arto98607]

I built my nephew a generator several + years ago using a Yanmar L70 diesel from eBay which needed rebuilding. New rings, camshaft lifter & rod bearing plus seals & gaskets. A belt drive 5kw generator was purchased also along with taper-loc bushings so I could mount a pulley on the shoulder of the crankshaft which was tapered for a direct drive generator.
Belt drive was chosen because of the ability to use any motor source to run it. It also allowed us to overdrive it with the appropriate pulley to reduce engine rpm.
It was sitting in the corner of my shop since it was first built & tested & I thought it is time to pull it out & check it.
There was fuel in it so I connected the battery & it cranked & cranked
Very unusual to not start within 1 or 2 revolutions.
Found the injector rack was stuck closed, fortunately.
Removed injection pump hit it with some blaster worked it until it was free then reinstalled it. Cranked it & she started up nicely.
I put 2 heaters on it for a load of 2.9kw & ran it for over an hour.
Tested engine rpm unloaded 3720rpm, 1.5kw load 3600 rpm 2.9 kw load 3530rpm. Ran excellent. I put 2oz of marine 2 stroke oil in fuel & ran another 1/2 hr.
Diesels do store well but even they need a little love to stay healthy.
A word of caution here, fortunately the rack was stuck closed (off). If it was stuck open full throttle it could have been exciting. Always need to be ready to shut the air off or fuel supply with a diesel if it hasn’t been run recently to avoid serious damage/injury.

90cummins

Interesting story regarding Yanmar L70, thank you!

Would you have any photos of what the engine & belt driven generator looked like?

 

[90cummins]

I do have photos but I have a new phone & it’s a 10mp photo which is too large & I don’t know how to reduce the file size.