mep-003a teardown and refurb

[Jimc]

a little update with my 003. at about 80% this thing has always started puffing black smoke that just got worse at 85-90-95. also, this whole time i thought the ammeter wasnt reading correct. the gen seemed to be putting out a ton of power and ran good. well, since i rebuilt an 002 and it ran so fantastic that for the **** of it i decided to pull the injectors from my 003 and send them out to storeman/jerry. so far he has done 12 injectors for me. 2-003's and 2-002's. i never bothered to do the injectors on my 003 because the previous owner said he sent them out and had them done just before i bought it. spec in the injectors is 1750psi. jerry found 3 injectors popping around 1400 and one was sticking and popping at 2200. he ordered one replacement nozzle for me for the sticking one and then tuned all to spec. package arrived today. i reinstalled the injectors with all new gaskets and got her up and running.

results: the first 15min of just running, no load, i didnt notice much of a difference. believe it or not it ran smooth before. there was some slight smoke but it wasn't hot yet. i hooked it up to my shop and started applying load. shudders opened, smoke cleared, ran great. prior to the injnectors being done i could run my 7.5hp compressor and once started i could add 8-4 tube flourescent fixtures. any more than that and i could stall out the gen and the black smoke would be chugging like crazy. now the compressor fires right up with only a split second reaction from the gen. before, rpms would die way down and take about 5 sec to recover. once the compressor was running i added 34 - 4 tube fluorescent fixtures and a 1500 watt infrared heater. now the ammeter is at 115% and pretty much no smoke from the exhaust. gen would stall out before at 90-95%. at one point something else kicked on in the shop, i think the refrigerator and the ammeter pegged at 133% and still no noticable difference or overloaded sound from the engine. no hint of stalling or black smoke.

this is all unbelievable. the output of this gen now is nuts. i cant believe this thing put out that much power and the reaction when a motor starts up it totally instant. at 133% its still going strong and i actually ran out of things to turn on. out of 4 generators there hasnt been a single injector that was set right or operating correctly. thats not really surprising. you would figure springs would get a little weak after 30 years and some adjustment would be needed. i can bet that most of you guys with 002s and 003s that have them running and never did the injectors, i bet you would be really surprised at how your gen ran after you had them tuned.

 

[Smallblockfuelie]

Thanks, JimC. That's exceptional food for thought and has convinced me that I need to have my injectors looked at as well.

 

[Jimc]

if you have someone local that can do it great, if not send jerry a pm. fantastic work and reasonable and quick. i will never do another generator and not have the injectors gone though.

 

[Jimc]

i was so thrilled with this i had to go out and run it some more lol. prior to the tune up the gen would not start up my spray booth which is 3hp but as i said it fired over my 7.5 hp compressor which i always though was strange. i just tried it out and it fires up the booth now no problem and not only that it did it with 16 4-tube fixtures on in the shop. with all that going i decided to try out the compressor as well and it started the compressor too. i had it running at this lvl for just a few min and next to no smoke and not bogging down at all.



after about 3-4 min at this lvl i turned some stuff off and got it to 120%. it ran there for 20 min then the breaker finally tripped. nice to know that works right since i have never been able to trip the breaker. the freq is more stable now too. no more drift. between 10% and 120% load it only varies maybe .5hz.

 

[Smallblockfuelie]

if you have someone local that can do it great, if not send jerry a pm. fantastic work and reasonable and quick. i will never do another generator and not have the injectors gone though.

I do not have anyone local and I will drop him a message. Thanks

 

[Triple Jim]

I'd rather ship them to Jerry, who has experience with these particular injectors and is known to do good work than to go to someone local I don't know, and take a chance.

 

[johnray13]

That's great Jim. I load tested mine when I first got it on a 15kw, 3 phase, 208 heater. I seem to remember the meter being around 120%. It was making a little light grey smoke at that load, but I thought at the time that was to be expected. You say it made "pretty much no smoke". I definitely had a little (dark grey) smoke but not enough that you would see it at a distance or describe it as 'smokey'

You got me wondering if I should pull my injectors to have them checked.

John

 

[Jimc]

yeah john, i dont want to say it was 100% clear, it is diesel after all, but i saw no noticeable difference in exhaust between say 50% and 120-130%. 120 i got nothing sooty coming out that i can see in daylight. at 120-130 it didnt even sound like the engine was lugging at all. only time i saw black smoke was for a split sec when either my compressor or spray booth kicked on and it had that big inrush of current. its obvious these engines, when running at top efficiency have more than enough power to laugh at the gen end thats on them and keep on goin. cant tell you at how surprised i was at the whole thing. really for what storeman charges to do a set of injectors, imo its well worth it. only thing you got on top of that is the injector gaskets. 3 per injector and they are only about $3 each.

 

[steelypip]

I've bogged mine down (meter above 120% indicated with a mix of reactive and resistive loads). It really doesn't smoke much at all. At about 100% of rated power I start getting thin gray smoke out of it, but it never really smokes like an old Mack truck. I've taken this to mean that the injectors are about right and the timing must be pretty close as well.

 

[3rdaavbn]

Thanks for the post and pics. Very helpful, as I have recently acquired a non running 003A myself.

 

[storeman]

I've bogged mine down (meter above 120% indicated with a mix of reactive and resistive loads). It really doesn't smoke much at all. At about 100% of rated power I start getting thin gray smoke out of it, but it never really smokes like an old Mack truck. I've taken this to mean that the injectors are about right and the timing must be pretty close as well.

I suspect you are "about right".
Jerry

 

[steelypip]

Jerry agreeing with me does boost my confidence on the matter some. My MEP-002A is not a toy - it has kept us from renting hotel rooms several times over the last few years during extended outages. I admit to being impressed with the way the thing is put together and how well it does its job, but it's the only one I've ever operated, so validation (or a smack with a clue stick) from someone with more experience is very welcome.

 

[Jimc]

Same with me. I thought my 003 was doing fantastic but i had nothing to compare to until i got this 002 done. 002 ran a little too smooth compared to the 003 and only thing i didnt do was an injector tune up so out they came.

 

[Smallblockfuelie]

Jim, I've followed the instructions in the TM and have the fuel lines loose as well as the bolts, washers and the flanges removed. The injectors are still stuck solidly, how would you recommend I get it loose without messing something up? Thanks

 

[Munchies]

The aluminum injector boss/ cooling heatsink corrodes to the steel of the head. I soak them in Kroil for a day or two, and that plus a big pair of channel locks to twist them while pulling up does the job. I had to use the 'oxy wrench' and make it glow once, but Kroil almost always does the job!

 

[Jimc]

As munchie said you need to twist them while pulling up or something under the cooling fins to put upward pressure while you wiggle back and forth with a big wrench, channel locks. Etc. a little heat works wonders

 

[Smallblockfuelie]

Thanks. guys. I decided to cheat and ask you guys once I saw they're stuck tight. I like to learn things but have grown to hate learning the hard way.

 

[Jimc]

As long as you have the lines out if the way there isnt really much there you can hurt. All that stuff is really solid

 

[Smallblockfuelie]

Thank you, gentlemen! I tapped on the lightly while doing a wiggle/twist and they came out in short order. One of the return fuel lines, the shorter one, has been damaged at some point and will need to be replaced. I'll contact Jerry and let him know they'll be on the way soon.

 

[storeman]

I use a 12" adjustable wrench or something comparable to distribute the pressure on the fins. Back and forth as stated. If you break them, I have plenty of them.

I know what you mean about saving your bacon. Mine too.
Jerry