Your last generator Maintenance Run

[daugen]

I started to renovate a rather unusual Gravely wing mower about six years ago, my wife got sick, and that project just sat.
Until a few days ago. Now, with at least five year old gasoline in it, I'm sure with Stabil and SeaFoam way back when, the first thing I'm doing is draining every drop of gas out of it.
I won't start my burn pile with gasoline, too many years as a fireman..., so I always have a challenge what to do with old gas. So I mix it in with the old oil, and hope whoever burns this
in their waste oil heater doesn't land in the next county...
Unit sat under that open shed for almost three years, in a damp climate. Condensation anyone? It was tarped but... thread in Gravely section

I checked my label on the big Generac and it was January of last year. I remember going out on a warm day last January and getting some fresh air after the unit went on its test run.
Since it ran for almost three straight days this year, it has sure earned an oil change, frankly whether it needs one or not...how's that for an unscientific approach. I suck out the old very clean looking oil and put even cleaner oil back in. I almost wish they would make it darker so it's easier to see where the line is on your oil dipstick. Sometimes I've had to look at it from different angles and then redo it just to see what the level is the oil is so clear. 100% synthetic, the crude oil based stuff always seemed darker.
Diesels are a lot easier, they get dark in a hurry.

 

[3930dave]

I started to renovate a rather unusual Gravely wing mower about six years ago, my wife got sick, and that project just sat.
Until a few days ago. Now, with at least five year old gasoline in it, I'm sure with Stabil and SeaFoam way back when, the first thing I'm doing is draining every drop of gas out of it.
I won't start my burn pile with gasoline, too many years as a fireman..., so I always have a challenge what to do with old gas. So I mix it in with the old oil, and hope whoever burns this
in their waste oil heater doesn't land in the next county...
Unit sat under that open shed for almost three years, in a damp climate. Condensation anyone? It was tarped but... thread in Gravely section

I checked my label on the big Generac and it was January of last year. I remember going out on a warm day last January and getting some fresh air after the unit went on its test run.
Since it ran for almost three straight days this year, it has sure earned an oil change, frankly whether it needs one or not...how's that for an unscientific approach. I suck out the old very clean looking oil and put even cleaner oil back in. I almost wish they would make it darker so it's easier to see where the line is on your oil dipstick. Sometimes I've had to look at it from different angles and then redo it just to see what the level is the oil is so clear. 100% synthetic, the crude oil based stuff always seemed darker.
Diesels are a lot easier, they get dark in a hurry.

Good luck on the Gravely project daugen, I'm sure you'll get it sorted out.... will stop by the Gravely thread to see how you are doing.

What the heck, changing oil once a year isn't a bad thing..... grs has more than one account in this thread of gen motors he's had to replace on household standy generators, for no other reason than nobody could be bothered to do, or pay for, an oil change. I think you have a 22kw now, even the sump on that one can't be that big, nothing like 3+ gallons anyway....

True, some of the synthetic oils are almost water clear, at least compared to the old stuff.... guess we need some new dipstick technology ! :laughing:

Rgds, D.

 

[90cummins]

I have a Yanmar L70 diesel backup generator that hasn't been run in 4 to 5 months and thought today would be a good test because it has been approx Zero degrees for 1-1/2 days.
The engine is a mil-spec engine with a 3qt extended sump, intake grid heater and bypass oil filter.
I rolled it outside and pressed the grid heater button for 7 seconds and turned the key, after 3 turns it fired up with minimal smoking and started running cleanly.
After a minute or so I plugged it into my inverter and turned off the utility power.
The inverter carried the house on battery power untill the inverter qualified the generator input as satisfactory which then transferred the load onto the generator.
I have he inverter set to load the generator to 3500 watts maximun. Any loads over this are assisted by the batteries untill the load drops back to 3500 watts or less.
This is the first cold start (approx 4 degrees) and I'm very happy with the performance of the Yanmar which runs approximately 4hr per gallon.
After running it at load for 20 minutes the engine was rather cool so I restricted the recoil air inlet to allow it to heat up which seamed to work. After 10 minutes the sump started to heat up.
I think I need to install a thermocouple on the sump and cylinder head in order to regulate the engine temperature.
I've rebuilt 2 of these that were mil-surplus because of cold running (wet stacking) and don't want this to suffer the same fate.
90cummins

 

[3930dave]

That is an interesting Xantrex (I believe) inverter/load controller you use 90.

Thanks for the update on the Yanmar. That is nice fuel consumption. Good point about sump temperature; pls post pics of your thermocouple installation when you get to it - I suspect I'm not the only one who'd like to see those details.

Rgds, D.

 

[TractorGuy]

I am setting up a MEP803A Military Surplus generator. These units are designed to deliver 10KW at 80% and capable of running 24/7 in the desert.

I built a load bank using four 5400 watt dryer elements to run and test it with. I used a 100 amp outdoor panel with 6 spaces to set up three 240V circuits. Two circuits are 5400W and one is 2700W. Two of the elements are connected in series to cut the load in half. The fan is 120v and I plug it into the 120v convenience outlet on the generator. I will set a reminder in my phone calendar for regular testing intervals.


I am planning to keep a little over 100 gallons of diesel on hand but I will fill my tractor and backhoe from the drums to keep it rotated. Also going to add the correct amounts of Killem biocide and Stanadyne Lubricity formula to the storage tanks just for peace of mind. The generator has a auxiliary fuel system that will pump fuel from the storage drum to keep the generator tank full.

Here is a photo of the genset in it's final resting place with the load bank connected.


This is a video of the first time I ran it on the load bank.
Load Test MEP83A Generator - YouTube

I still have a few refinements to make. I have some digital meters ordered to install in place of the flaky analog instruments it came with. The volt and hertz meters didn't read at all on this when I got it. I cleaned out the voltage meter and it works but isn't accurate so I didn't bother with the hertz meter. The percent load meter on the unit reads higher than the actual load so I'm not going to bother with any of them. All accounts are the original meters are junk and not to be trusted. I have a digital generator meter coming that will read the voltage and hertz and a couple more that read voltage and amps. I will use the volt/hertz meter to adjust output and droop. I plan to put one each of the volt/amp meters on L1 and L3 to monitor the loads and see how even they are.

 

[HarryVanderpool]

We bought our Generac 5000 in 1994.
That makes it 23 years old.
I start it once every year if it is not needed, allow it to warm up and change the oil.
I turn the fuel off and let it run out of gas.
Then I pull the rope slowly and place it in the compression stroke and then close the choke.
That is the way it is stored.
I drain the gas and use it in our Ford 9N every summer and refill with fresh, stabilized gas.
It almost always starts on the first pull, but for sure on the second.

I see no reason to waste fuel and time running it any more than this.
It has taken us through may power outages including 3 and 4 day duration.
In that case, we run it for 3 hours in the morning and four in the evening.
That keeps the freezer froze and allows us to do every thing needed for about 4 gallons per day.

 

[Industrial Toys]

We are expecting freezing rain and 90KMPH wind gusts so I figure not a bad time to check the main genset. Kubota/Onan 7.5KW. Battery Dead on account of cold temps recently. Got it running now. 4.5KW load but my computer UPS is telling me it's not happy. Checked Voltage. 108 Volts, 60 HZ. Don't know if I should tweak the voltage pot or not. Maybe let it run for a few hours and see what happens.

 

[Turbys_1700]

With the inclement weather coming in Friday I got my generator out to crank it and had no luck. Could get it to fire and run intermittently but then would shut down. Took it over to my mechanic and it took him an hour to figure it out. The solenoid was stuck in the bottom of the carburetor and then the plug fouled. What is irritating about it was it ran find the last run I performed on it back in late summer. Those things happen. I guess I need to crank it up once a month now to keep it in running order.

We were fortunate this storm in that we got around 7 inches of light power snow. Typically where I live we are on the freeze/snow/ice/rain line and you never know what you are going to get. It is fairly typical for us to get ice and thus downed power lines. My power sub station is around 8 miles from the house. I am one of the last homes served from that line. If we have large power outages in our area I am normally one of the last to get service restored. I remember several instances where I was out 2 to 4 days and was out over a week with Hugo.

 

[TractorGuy]

With the inclement weather coming in Friday I got my generator out to crank it and had no luck. Could get it to fire and run intermittently but then would shut down. Took it over to my mechanic and it took him an hour to figure it out. The solenoid was stuck in the bottom of the carburetor and then the plug fouled. What is irritating about it was it ran find the last run I performed on it back in late summer. Those things happen. I guess I need to crank it up once a month now to keep it in running order.

We were fortunate this storm in that we got around 7 inches of light power snow. Typically where I live we are on the freeze/snow/ice/rain line and you never know what you are going to get. It is fairly typical for us to get ice and thus downed power lines. My power sub station is around 8 miles from the house. I am one of the last homes served from that line. If we have large power outages in our area I am normally one of the last to get service restored. I remember several instances where I was out 2 to 4 days and was out over a week with Hugo.

Be sure and check/change the oil. After that solenoid sticks gas will go past the rings and dilute the oil. You will probably find it overfilled if the mechanic didn't already change it.

 

[Industrial Toys]

That's why I have redundancy in almost all my equipment. Things do fail at the worst time.

My little main genset.



I couldn't resist and tweaked the voltage pot to 111.0 volts. But I wish I had recorded the field voltage at some point for various loads so I could compare it. Clearly, something has changed.