- Joined
- Dec 2, 2008
- Messages
- 971
- Reaction score
- 9
This the beast that has kept me occupied for the last couple of weeks. This genset provides 3500 watts of 115 volt electric power to charge batteries, heat water, and run reverse cycle air conditioning on my boat. On my cruise this spring, it began to leak a little oil. Within a few weeks, it was leaking oil at the rate of 1/2 quart every ten hours. That is a lot for an engine with a 1 quart capacity so every other day, I would have to mop up and top the oil. The process took almost an hour due to the inaccesability of the generator.
A few weeks ago, with the help of a friend, I pulled it out of the boat and brought it back to the farm. To run it for testing and inspection, I had to hook it up to a water supply. A marine engine cycles its coolant through a heat exchanger where it gives up its heat to a flow of seawater. The seawater is then injected into an exhaust elbow where it cools the exhaust gases and the exhaust pressure blows the gas water mixture overboard.
I hooked up a garden hose to the seawater intake and attached my shop vac hose to the exhaust to carry the water away from the work area. Crank it up and look for leaks. Turned out to be a gasket between the crank case and the front gear case. The front gear case contains the camshaft, the fuel lift pump, the injection pump, the governor and other assorted goodies so it was major surgery. Poor placement of the gasket during original assembly, my opinion), was the cause. Replacement was the fix. Re-assemble was the nightmare. The timing marks to reposition the camshaft are on the flywheel, where you might expect it to be, but the flywheel is between the engine and the close coupled generator. No way to get there.
By poking a finger through the camshaft bearing bore, I was able to feel the throw of the crankshaft as it rotated and estimate when it was at TDC. By looking at the cam lobes, I was able to make an guestimate of TDC for the camshaft. Re-assembled the pieces, added oil, antifreeze, and primed the fuel system. Brought the car over to hook up the batteries with jumper cables.
Crank, crank, crank, crank ......... No fire. Lots of head scratching. It seems like the resident lumox has forgotten to close the compression release after priming the fuel system.
Close the compression release, crank, crank, fire, rev up and settle down to the governed 3600 RPM. I hooked the AC output up to drive my little shop airconditioner to provide some load. After a two hour test, no visible leaks so next week its back to the boat to re-install. My helper friend is going to meet me at the boat so its up to me and my wife to get this thing back up on the truck.
I'm going to go tell her now. Wish me luck!
Jerry
A few weeks ago, with the help of a friend, I pulled it out of the boat and brought it back to the farm. To run it for testing and inspection, I had to hook it up to a water supply. A marine engine cycles its coolant through a heat exchanger where it gives up its heat to a flow of seawater. The seawater is then injected into an exhaust elbow where it cools the exhaust gases and the exhaust pressure blows the gas water mixture overboard.
I hooked up a garden hose to the seawater intake and attached my shop vac hose to the exhaust to carry the water away from the work area. Crank it up and look for leaks. Turned out to be a gasket between the crank case and the front gear case. The front gear case contains the camshaft, the fuel lift pump, the injection pump, the governor and other assorted goodies so it was major surgery. Poor placement of the gasket during original assembly, my opinion), was the cause. Replacement was the fix. Re-assemble was the nightmare. The timing marks to reposition the camshaft are on the flywheel, where you might expect it to be, but the flywheel is between the engine and the close coupled generator. No way to get there.
By poking a finger through the camshaft bearing bore, I was able to feel the throw of the crankshaft as it rotated and estimate when it was at TDC. By looking at the cam lobes, I was able to make an guestimate of TDC for the camshaft. Re-assembled the pieces, added oil, antifreeze, and primed the fuel system. Brought the car over to hook up the batteries with jumper cables.
Crank, crank, crank, crank ......... No fire. Lots of head scratching. It seems like the resident lumox has forgotten to close the compression release after priming the fuel system.
Close the compression release, crank, crank, fire, rev up and settle down to the governed 3600 RPM. I hooked the AC output up to drive my little shop airconditioner to provide some load. After a two hour test, no visible leaks so next week its back to the boat to re-install. My helper friend is going to meet me at the boat so its up to me and my wife to get this thing back up on the truck.
I'm going to go tell her now. Wish me luck!
Jerry
