Your last generator Maintenance Run

[joeyd]

I see this thread every time I read TBN. I finally felt guilty enough to go run my 6300 Craftsman portable. Well it wouldn't crank over on the battery even though it was plugged into the OEM charger. The good news is it started on the first pull :thumbsup: I took out the original battery circa 2008 and replaced it in two days, thanks Amazon Prime.

I put the old battery on a Battery Tender for 24 hrs and so far it's holding a charge after 2 days. I plan on watching the old battery and checking it periodically. My question is what are the chances it will keep holding a charge?

 

[ultrarunner]

Carbureted Engines not used often require TLC...

My nephew scored a Poloris Sportsman 335 Quad... really good shape and bought new by a man to use around his property... always stored indoors.

He passed away and it would not start... they bought a new battery with no luck...

Told my nephew he could have it if he would come get it NOW...

I said we should look at the fuel first... drained the fuel into a bucket and saw the worst example of phase separation ever... lots of water and it stratified.

Gave the engine a whiff of Carb Cleaner and fired right up... can't get anything out of the fuel bowl drain...

Just another water damaged fuel system due to fuel and time...

Three of my generators were obtained the same way... all had corroded carbs...

The irony is I restore old cars and never have I ever come across a corroded carb even when stored outside for decades... gummed up yes which is easy to clean... corroded never.

 

[DEWFPO]

I put the old battery on a Battery Tender for 24 hrs and so far it's holding a charge after 2 days. I plan on watching the old battery and checking it periodically. My question is what are the chances it will keep holding a charge?

Do you have it on a Desulfating Maintainer or just a simple battery maintainer?

It might hold a 12V change but not have enough amp capacity to spin the engine over. Desulfators are amazing. I just got rid of a battery (from Walmart) that I had in a tractor since 2003. Yes, 2003. Each winter I pull the battery and put it on a desulfator.

The OE Delco battery in my '04 Silverado finally went out last year after 13 years and the one in my 2006 Toyota is still original. I highly recommend them over plain maintainers. They pay for themselves many times over.

DEWFPO

 

[grsthegreat]

I see this thread every time I read TBN. I finally felt guilty enough to go run my 6300 Craftsman portable. Well it wouldn't crank over on the battery even though it was plugged into the OEM charger. The good news is it started on the first pull :thumbsup: I took out the original battery circa 2008 and replaced it in two days, thanks Amazon Prime.

I put the old battery on a Battery Tender for 24 hrs and so far it's holding a charge after 2 days. I plan on watching the old battery and checking it periodically. My question is what are the chances it will keep holding a charge?

problem i see is not with it showing a charge, rather it not producing enough amps to turn over a cold enging. If its 10 years old, trash it. It had a good life.

 

[LouNY]

I have the report at work...

Onan with Cummins Turbo Diesel... time to load averages 6 seconds... Block Heater is on all the time... typical year round ambient temp ranges from about 55 to 85... and it is in a protected area.

For 20 years been running every week under 41% load prior to the restrictions...

Now it is run without load every other week and load banked annually to 75% which uses my 20 hour allotment...

The push is for me to retire this 480 hour unit that has performed flawlessly since 1995 due to tier Zero...

I had been doing the dip test for moisture religiously and also never a problem but now I use less than half the fuel due to cutting the exercise in half and no load...

The required Fuel Report came back fine...

Have you considered an oil heater?
It would help to evaporate any fuel in the oil as well as any moisture.

 

[ultrarunner]

No… not yet anyway.

Part of the problem is the reduced run time mandated on older Tier 0 units...

So far... just the coolant heater year round.

 

[3930dave]

I see this thread every time I read TBN. I finally felt guilty enough to go run my 6300 Craftsman portable. Well it wouldn't crank over on the battery even though it was plugged into the OEM charger. The good news is it started on the first pull :thumbsup: I took out the original battery circa 2008 and replaced it in two days, thanks Amazon Prime.

I put the old battery on a Battery Tender for 24 hrs and so far it's holding a charge after 2 days. I plan on watching the old battery and checking it periodically. My question is what are the chances it will keep holding a charge?

Started this thread to guilt myself into motion more often...... glad to help :drink:

grs gave you the short answer, based on changing out countless ones in commercial service - It has had it's day, for the intended purpose.

Modern de-sulphating chargers can help somewhat recover an old battery, but realistically it will never return to full capacity. Self-discharge is a crapshoot, some older batteries are bad for that, some not so much.....

What I tend to do myself with an older battery is put it "out to pasture" on a lighter duty project. I know a commercial drilling contractor who changed out a pair of F550 diesel batteries that weren't that old - he's particular about not having old batteries in his rigs, esp. the diesels. They were passed along my way, still tested out fairly high capacity, so I got a pair of lightly used 850CCA batteries free...... one went onto a modified UPS I run at home, to replace the other retired diesel battery (one of mine) that finally gave up the ghost.

As long as your old battery does not have a shorted cell, I might use it for something like LED lighting in a shed, but I wouldn't want to rely on it for motor starting.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Carbureted Engines not used often require TLC...

My nephew scored a Poloris Sportsman 335 Quad... really good shape and bought new by a man to use around his property... always stored indoors.

He passed away and it would not start... they bought a new battery with no luck...

Told my nephew he could have it if he would come get it NOW...

I said we should look at the fuel first... drained the fuel into a bucket and saw the worst example of phase separation ever... lots of water and it stratified.

Gave the engine a whiff of Carb Cleaner and fired right up... can't get anything out of the fuel bowl drain...

Just another water damaged fuel system due to fuel and time...

Three of my generators were obtained the same way... all had corroded carbs...

The irony is I restore old cars and never have I ever come across a corroded carb even when stored outside for decades... gummed up yes which is easy to clean... corroded never.

Possibly those old-car carbs had better metallurgy in them than a lot of the low cost white metal ones in small engines now...... fueling issues are a common headache. I use stabilzer in everything that sits, and Efree fuel, esp. in the smaller engines.

This older paper also talks about the effects of oxygenated gasoline:

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/waterphs.pdf

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Interesting article but nothing about corrosion... especially carburetor corrosion.

 

[3930dave]

Interesting article but nothing about corrosion... especially carburetor corrosion.

Not directly...... Chem 201 was "a while ago", but that got me thinking about oxidizing action...... older fuels didn't behave like that, so perhaps oxygenated fuel combined with water issues may be rotting things out faster ? Esp. with things like the cost-optimized complete carbs you can get shipped to your door for something like $10 (small engines).....

Cruising around just before I posted that today, i came across a DOE press-release that was basically saying "You don't have to worry about phase-separation because gasoline today becomes un-burnable before phase-separation happens".

New DOE Study: Gasoline becomes stale before ethanol phase separation occurs : Biofuels Digest

Um.... So, let me get this straight.... We are supposed to be grateful that modern gasoline is designed to deteriorate so fast..... ?

What that first article does spell out is the effect of wild swings in temperature and humidity (internal tank condensation) - something I battle here, but realize is much less of an issue your way, and certain other temperate/dry areas of the USA.

^ Part of why I like to store equipment with full tanks.

Rgds, D.