Ok, so I own a couple of these little gems:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...26030810713709

...with which I plan to spin a 5kw gen head...ultimately to charge a battery bank that will feed an inverter that will power my house. Untill I can swing the inverter/battery, however, the engine will run some long hours powering the house by itself. I'm wondering what to use for an air cleaner and a muffler. Sound supression and engine longevity are on the top of the list here. The engine is rated at 6hp @ 650rpms. I plan to run it just shy of 400rpms and was thinking maybe an oil-bath cleaner from a 15-20 horse tractor would do the trick nicely. It seems diesels have lots of intake noise due to the lack of throttle plate--my truck got a lot 'boomier' in the cab with the addition of the BHAF and that's the effect I'm trying to avoid here. The engine will be housed in a 12X12 shed made of 6'' block. Muffler...i dunno. It won't have to flow much to make 4hp but it's gotta be reasonable. as you can hear in the video, once they're up and running, they're very quiet...and that's with the lame-o pepper can muffler they come with. Anyway, thoughts and suggestions are welcome. This thing will be a reality by this spring after a couple years of parts gathering etc, so I'm pretty excited!

greg

 

That thing is sweet.

Will

 

Aren't they cool? Mine are still in their crates, but I can't wait to open them up and start building the frames (building 2 gensets)

 

If you use an oil bath air cleaner is there any chance of it sucking oil vapor in and causing a runaway?
Will

 

I dunno, that's a good question. Guess I'll have to do some research before I go buying stuff.

 

I thought you said "Stationary" diesel?........
It looks like it's walking across the floor to me............

Too Cool.

 

i have a bunch of duece and a half muti fuel motors that i was thinking on turning into a stationary generators. i have a friend that bought a 20k head off e bay and is going to hook it up. looks like a neat project.

 

yeah, he's braver than me firing it up on the crate bottom like that...but it did chill right out once it was up to rated rpm. you can pull the fuel rack back on startup so it's not wfo like that...



Anyhoo, I've been back and forth with a fella running a similar setup to what I plan to build and he typically runs 1 hour in the AM and one in the PM to charge his battery bank. For the last two years, he's been seeing about 4 hours of full load runtime to one gallon of biodiesel.

 

Never seen it happen on an engine like that, remember oil bath air cleaners where standard equipment on many engines/equipment up into the 60's. If its sized too small for a particular engine then yes I could see it sucking up oil and running away.

Greg,
I think an air cleaner off something the size of a Farmall/International A, 100, 130, ... would work nicely.

As for a muffler, maybe something off a small car would work well and if one isn't enough you could always use 2.

 

I couldn't get the vid to play here at work but I've started my diesel-head buddy's Listeroid 6/1 many times before. That thing really could make his wooden storage shed "thump" with each power stroke even though it was mounted on a steel I-beam base. Especially at WOT at low rpms!
While we played with it, I loved to get that thing throttled back until it is just barely ticking over. At that speed the exhaust pipe makes just a quiet low pitched resonant "boop boop boop" sound. On the intake stroke, the air can be heard sucking into the cyl through the open intake valve making a sort of high-to-low swishing sound.. Going that slow, you can hear all the mechanical noise of the valve train, cam gears, etc...

I had considered using a Listeroid 6/1 for off-grid operation too. There are benefits to skipping the 5KW AC generator head, instead drive a DC generator and using an inverter to supply the house load. The Engine/DC generator can be throttled WAY back to maintain the DC input required for an inverter running a light load.. With a very small batt bank and an inverter, the output freq and voltage stay DEAD-ON instead of relying on that super sophisticated centrifugal governor.

As for mufflers? Some used an old barrel buried in the ground with engine exh going in one bung port and the stack coming out the other port. The head of the barrel has to be covered with enough earth or it "booms" with each exhaust pulse.

Really COOL engines... I really wish I had room to stash one right now before they too become illegal to sell in the US.

I'm jealous!

K.

 

I've got a 1800RPM Cat 55hp. engine at the house, but I can't seem to locate a generator for the end of it. If I ever do, I'm gonna set up a complete auxillary power source for my house with automatic switchgear. Seems as though when we lose power, its out for atleast a day. And the electric companies service yard is less than a half mile from my house!!!!

 

Showing my age-
perhaps half my life was with oil bath filters, never a run away problem.
I've heard many people say that as long as they are maintained that oil bath filters are superior to paper.

 

That's what I've heard, too, infidel. I'm thinking a unit built for 15-20 HP should have plenty of capacity for long hours and the sound supression should be superior to a smaller unit.

 

These guys often have great prices on generators. Stock is always changing, check back often.
http://www.surpluscenter.com/prodInd...07032011000863

 

Oh by the way Greg... Years back, my diesel-head buddy found out the hard way (on his brand-new little Hatz diesel engine) that trying for an oh-so-slow cranking can make a diesel engine bounce off of BTDC compression stroke at start and begin running backwards at WOT!!!
Let me tell you right now.. An oil bath aircleaner makes an entirely unsatisfactory diesel muffler!!
Did you know those cleaners can hold a LOT of oil??? They surely do!
It did have a very muffled sort of "slobbery" sound to it ... for a little while anyway...
All three of us looked really stupid completely covered in oil after trying to get that spewing monster shutdown. Shutdown was complicated by the starting crank that was spinning wildly(at 1/4 engine rpm) ready to EAT anyone that got into it's realm. Walking? naw, it was jitterbugging, waving it's one arm wildly out of balance while running at ~2-3000RPM!!
Did I forget to tell you that he had this thing just sitting on the grass bolted down to absolutely NOTHING?
I was the engine "holder" while he was the engine "cranker".. The 3rd fellow was there for the entertainment but was included in the oiling out of proximity...
The moment the compression release closed, the piston came up to TDC and the pump injected a wad of fuel, also igniting some extra residual fuel in the cylinder injected during the windup.. The engine paused for a split second at TDC, then rocked back almost flipping (I was holding it) as it recoiled off of the compression stroke, (now a power stroke).

SO,Here's some personal "esperience" we learned the hard way...
#1 Bolt it down to something to prevent it from every trying to "flip over" on power stroke.
#2 Always spin it up well before flipping the compression release! This will carry it over TDC and keep it from reversing.
#3 Throttle setting shouldn't ever be set at WOT on a "crate" start in case it does get away from you.(like we found out)..

BTW, If you slow the LISTERoid WAY down after it is already running, it can(and will) bounce off of TDC, but the throttle rack setting is usually so low it will just stop. At least it won't try to reach max RPM after reversing like my buddy's little Hatz engine did.