Your last generator Maintenance Run

   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,131  
Cushions valve seats, not valve guides. Guides are oil lubrcated.
Really? On all I’ve built, oil seal bonnets sit atop the guides, and no guides I’ve ever installed have oiler holes. How’s oil getting to the guides?

I suppose the seals could leak a bit, although that would be a huge surprise, given how snugly they fit, and their construction of spring over gland. But then you’d also have the problem of oil entering the combustion chamber, which would be a recipe for carbon build-up.

I guess I’ve never dug into it, and don’t have the time now. I did a quick minute of searching, and came across this interesting thread, with a few linked articles, but didn’t have time to make a conclusion during a quick lunch break.

 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,132  
Really? On all I’ve built, oil seal bonnets sit atop the guides, and no guides I’ve ever installed have oiler holes. How’s oil getting to the guides?
Yes, really.

What do you think has been lubricating your valve guides and stems for the last 50 years?

Why do think manufacturers switched to hardened valve seats in the 1970’s?

How are pistons, and cylinders lubricated, if you have piston rings blocking and scraping off the oil?
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,134  
6AM and 6:15 AM they both exercised. 6AM for the propane fired unit and 6:15AM for the diesel unit. Mailman dropped off a package the other day and remarked 'looks like you have a new standby genny to which I replied, no, it's the old one in a new enclosure. It was less expensive for me to gut the old corroded steel enclosure and install the guts in a new powder coated aluminum cabinet. Damn genny and motor was heavy. Had to use a cherry picker to remove and reinstall it. It was all plug and play hooking everything back up. Generac thoughtfully color codes everything. Hopefully, I won't have to repeat that anytime soon. Interestingly, the diesel powered unit has no corrosion on it anywhere and it has a painted steel enclosure but the propane fired unit that takes care of the house rusted terribly. I even poured a new concrete pad for it. 6" thick with reinforcing mat in it. I moved the unit slightly to the right so I didn't have to move the earthing rod. Generac provides a very complete enclosure kit, right down to new decals which I tossed. The instructions were terrible but it wasn't rocket science to pull it and reinstall it in the new enclosure. Interestingly, all the hardware was individually packaged in zip lock plastic bags. I have a pile of empty bags now. They even provided Rivnuts for the front panel and interestingly, all the new hardware was metric except the Rivnuts, those were SAE. All done and no spares left either. Generac didn't provide enough (length) lid sealing gasket so I had to get a roll from Amazon. I could probably go into business replacing the corroded steel enclosures with the aluminum ones as there are a load of rusting away steel enclosures around here. The new enclosure set me back almost 4 grand but was still a lot cheaper than a new unit.

One thing I did have to do was fabricate internal front and back bulkheads as Generac didn't provide them Not a big deal, just took time to measure the old corroded ones, generate a cut plot and cut them on the CNC plasma table and then weld on nutserts for the threaded fasteners that secured them to the engine and generator head.

All is well that ends well and it's much quieter than it was in the corroding away cabinet as well. Generac provided a complete set of sound absorbing foil backed foam.

Was a ton of grunt work and a bit of pre assembly guessing as the instructions were pretty cryptic.

I'm guessing that Generac never considered an owner and not a dealer would do a refit.

Interestingly, I had no issue purchasing the new enclosure from Generac at all and the new enclosure looks just like the old one except it's aluminum.

Don't look at all like the newer ones with the curved sides and overlapping top.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,135  
Like leaded fuel! Great for preventing knock (lead raises octane), and has the side benefit of lubing valve guides, as I understand it… but bad in every other way.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run
  • Thread Starter
#7,136  
6AM and 6:15 AM they both exercised. 6AM for the propane fired unit and 6:15AM for the diesel unit. Mailman dropped off a package the other day and remarked 'looks like you have a new standby genny to which I replied, no, it's the old one in a new enclosure. It was less expensive for me to gut the old corroded steel enclosure and install the guts in a new powder coated aluminum cabinet. Damn genny and motor was heavy. Had to use a cherry picker to remove and reinstall it. It was all plug and play hooking everything back up. Generac thoughtfully color codes everything. Hopefully, I won't have to repeat that anytime soon. Interestingly, the diesel powered unit has no corrosion on it anywhere and it has a painted steel enclosure but the propane fired unit that takes care of the house rusted terribly. I even poured a new concrete pad for it. 6" thick with reinforcing mat in it. I moved the unit slightly to the right so I didn't have to move the earthing rod. Generac provides a very complete enclosure kit, right down to new decals which I tossed. The instructions were terrible but it wasn't rocket science to pull it and reinstall it in the new enclosure. Interestingly, all the hardware was individually packaged in zip lock plastic bags. I have a pile of empty bags now. They even provided Rivnuts for the front panel and interestingly, all the new hardware was metric except the Rivnuts, those were SAE. All done and no spares left either. Generac didn't provide enough (length) lid sealing gasket so I had to get a roll from Amazon. I could probably go into business replacing the corroded steel enclosures with the aluminum ones as there are a load of rusting away steel enclosures around here. The new enclosure set me back almost 4 grand but was still a lot cheaper than a new unit.

One thing I did have to do was fabricate internal front and back bulkheads as Generac didn't provide them Not a big deal, just took time to measure the old corroded ones, generate a cut plot and cut them on the CNC plasma table and then weld on nutserts for the threaded fasteners that secured them to the engine and generator head.

All is well that ends well and it's much quieter than it was in the corroding away cabinet as well. Generac provided a complete set of sound absorbing foil backed foam.

Was a ton of grunt work and a bit of pre assembly guessing as the instructions were pretty cryptic.

I'm guessing that Generac never considered an owner and not a dealer would do a refit.

Interestingly, I had no issue purchasing the new enclosure from Generac at all and the new enclosure looks just like the old one except it's aluminum.

Don't look at all like the newer ones with the curved sides and overlapping top.
V. Nicely done, and thanks for the update ! Resto-Modding Generators.... I'm liking it !

I suspect you could keep busy doing those conversions, anywhere in the Salt/Rust Belt..... there could be a few sales or more, just in providing those bulkheads to DIY'ers in a hurry, given the machining you have at hand.

With pretty much The Price of Everything through the roof, an improved enclosure, sold in a well provisioned (if not Instructed) Kit, makes much of fewer cents !

Rgds, D.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,137  
My generac ran for 32 hours until the power came back on at 6 tonight.

I had a 7800 watt Troy-Bilt with electric start on FB for sale and no takers for a few weeks. Talked to my buddy and ended up selling it to his son last night. He’s got a baby and needed everything up and running and his little generator wasn’t cutting it.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run #7,138  
Good point.

Sulphur caused one problem, but prevented others @ same-time....

Rgds, D.

As it was explained to me,it’s not the lack of sulphur that reduces the lubricity of the fuel, but the process of removing the sulphur that causes the problem.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run
  • Thread Starter
#7,139  
My generac ran for 32 hours until the power came back on at 6 tonight.

I had a 7800 watt Troy-Bilt with electric start on FB for sale and no takers for a few weeks. Talked to my buddy and ended up selling it to his son last night. He’s got a baby and needed everything up and running and his little generator wasn’t cutting it.
Long enough (though nothing, compared to a hurricane-path area) to be a pain, w/o backup....

Your olde 7800.... good peace-of-mind, for a young family (y)

Rgds, D.
 
   / Your last generator Maintenance Run
  • Thread Starter
#7,140  
As it was explained to me,it’s not the lack of sulphur that reduces the lubricity of the fuel, but the process of removing the sulphur that causes the problem.
That could be..... I'm due for further reading (y).

Gear-oils tend to lock sulphur into my mind, lube-wise....

Microbial-growth, being another No Sulphur For You rebound-issue...

Long way back.... I posted some docs re. the battle between Big-Oil and Engine Manuf about what is an acceptable wear-scan limit (re. Lube Additives Required, in ULSD)...... No prizes give, for guessing correctly who won that battle (We lost).

Rgds, D.
 

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