MEP-003 recovery and adventure

[Dock Rocker]

We live out in the sticks and our power is sketchy on a good day. Hurricane season can make things even more interesting than usual. For the last year or so I have been half way looking for an mep-003 thanks to @Csm Davis. He gave me the run down of how they work one day on his ponderosa of military mayhem.

I was making my weekly pass through the craigslist app and I spotted a nice looking genset with 14 hours. I called the guy up and he was willing to deal. Less than 24 hours later I was $900 bucks poorer and had a mep-003 with 14 hours showing on the trailer.

The story is a little sketchy on this unit as the guy I got it from was not the original owner. I do no that they have had it for 5 or 6 years and it has only run a few hours to power a welding machine. Much to my chagrin they had poured some fresh diesel into the tank with the old tires diesel and cranked it up. He cranked it again when I got there before I could stop him. The good news is that it did run even on gas that was pretty tired. I quickly asked him to kill it after taking a gander at the oil pressure gauge. It had pressure so that's a plus.

I poked around some and found the tag where it had been in for rebuild in 2006 and it was sold later in 2007 according to the tag on it.

I drug it home happy to get it for $900.

Once I got it home the real fun started. My little tractor would not pick it strait up off the trailer so I had to improvise and slide it off then put it on some roller dollies.

Initial inspection found a jacked up fuel tank, multiple wasp nests and a few dirt dobbers.

I pulled the tank to start working on that first.

Currently it has been filled with some stainless nuts and strapped to my little four wheeler trailer. I then turned my nephew loose on it to go drive like a maniac for about a half our. I flipped it over on the trailer and turned him loose again. That knocked quite a few of the chunks loose. Now he tank is full of muriatic acid soaking for a bit. I will neutralize it and then see what I am working with.

 

[Dock Rocker]

Next on the agenda is filters! Man this thing has a bunch of them! I am thankful for all of them because of the PO feeling the need to crank it after sitting for so long. I pulled all of the fuel filters and separator. After looking at the options out there I decided to cobble together my own setup using a more modern screw on filter and separator. I will document that as I get parts.

I pulled the filters from the bottom of each fuel pump. The auxiliary pump filter has obviously never seen any fuel. The other two were pretty funky. I cleaned them and ordered replacements to drop in after initial start up. I figured that I could use these to catch any crud that I get when I run it first and then go back with fresh filters all around.

Currently things look a little empty in the filter area.

I dumped the oil and drained the oil filter housing. I decided to go with a spin on filter here as well. I looked up @Speddmon here on the forum and ordered up a kit from him. As soon as it gets here I will finish the oil service.

On a different note. It's a breath of fresh air to work on something that was built with servicing it in mind. From the drop out filters on the fuel pumps to the little slope to help drain the oil from the oil filter without coating everything is just great.

It's also nice to have a hose with a drain valve to dump the oil from the crankcase. It's almost like the Engineer that designed this thing had a sole!

Right now I am pulling all of the fuel lines and blowing them out with some compressed air. There is some pretty grungy stuff coming out of them. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if all these filters weren't in place and it had run a while.

I also was able to grab an air filter locally. I was a little surprised when I pulled the old one and found some rust. There is obviously a water leak somewhere.

I sanded it out and blew out all of the dust. I put the new filter element in and buttoned it up. I will see if I can find where the water intrusion is coming from later.

I pulled the batteries off and I will see what I can find for a reasonable price next week.

 

[Dock Rocker]

Next on the agenda will be to finish up all of the filters and oil change.

Once it's close to ready to run I am going to break into the the wiring. Just the cursory check on the outside and in the head everything looks really good. I will see what it looks like as I dig deeper.

I am going to try to remember to take pictures and document this for everyone as I go. I can't tell you what a resource steel soldiers has been. I have spent hours reading to try to keep from costing myself any more time or money than I have to.


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[Dock Rocker]

Well ****, apparently the cheap-o roller dollies I got from harbor freight for $9.99 are not good for the 1000 lb rating they advertise.

 

[Bmxenbrett]

That looks great. You can get cheap name brand filters from filterbarn.com. i was able to get every filter for my 802a for $35 shipped.

 

[Guyfang]

It would be a good idea to pull out the check valve, just before the IP, and soak it in carb cleaner. A can or two of fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank would do good for the IP, unless you want to time the engine, remove the IP, and soak it. Sometimes the IP gets " froze up" due to the old fuel build up. On the one side, it's overkill. On the other, well, not really. There are threads enough to describe what happens.

 

[Dock Rocker]

It would be a good idea to pull out the check valve, just before the IP, and soak it in carb cleaner. A can or two of fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank would do good for the IP, unless you want to time the engine, remove the IP, and soak it. Sometimes the IP gets " froze up" due to the old fuel build up. On the one side, it's overkill. On the other, well, not really. There are threads enough to describe what happens.

The hanks for the Intel Guyfang. I pulled the check valve today and it's soaking as we speak. I had planned to hit the first tank of fuel with some biocide just in case there is something left growing, as well as some good old 2 stroke oil to lube the pump. Going to also pump some marvels mystery oil through the IP before I crank it off. That should lube it up and hopefully get some trash out.

 

[Dock Rocker]

I made a little progress today. It's nice putting things back together rather than pulling it apart.

I pulled all the fuel lines and blew them out with compressed air. I dropped the cleaned tank back on the skid. As I cleaned the fuel lines I reinstalled them and got all of the fittings back in the tank.

I also got the new fuel filter setup mocked up. I think it will work. I need to make a tab from some flat bar to give some support to the filter housing. I also have misplaced my grade 8 hardware so I need to go track some more down.

Tomorrow the oil filter adapter should be here so I will service the oil and slap that on.

 

[Guyfang]

Your first picture, can you tak one step back and shoot another picture?

 

[Dock Rocker]

Your first picture, can you tak one step back and shoot another picture?

It will be tonight before I can pull a picture off. Anything in particular you want to see?

 

[Guyfang]

Just the whole side. If you have time, a good shot of all four sides. Never hurts to get a second eye on the thing.

 

[Dock Rocker]

Just the whole side. If you have time, a good shot of all four sides. Never hurts to get a second eye on the thing.

Good deal. Thank you for the extra set of eyes. The more the merrier! I will grab some detailed shots this evening when I get home I appreciate the help. This is my first go round with with a diesel generator. I think I have about worried CSM Davis to death.


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[two.fiveM35]

Thanks for taking the time to post all this

 

[Dock Rocker]

Here is is in all of its green glory. We got rained today out so the pictures are here early.

 

[Dock Rocker]

 

[Dock Rocker]

I haven't been into the box where the power wires attach so it's pretty funky and needs cleaning.

It is cool that it still has the referb tag with it.

Also a care package from Speddmon showed up today. I will be putting a spin on oil filter very soon. Many thanks Speddmon.

 

[Guyfang]

Looked good outside. The dust in the control panel and by the load terminals isn't bad. When you take off the access panel on the output box. Don't have heart failure. It's normally very funky. If it were mine, I would take th AC box off, turn it upside down, so I could shake it. The amount of dust, dirt and "extra nuts, bolts and washers falling out might astound you.

 

[jamawieb]

Looks great!! One of the nicest I have seen in awhile.

 

[Dock Rocker]

Looked good outside. The dust in the control panel and by the load terminals isn't bad. When you take off the access panel on the output box. Don't have heart failure. It's normally very funky. If it were mine, I would take th AC box off, turn it upside down, so I could shake it. The amount of dust, dirt and "extra nuts, bolts and washers falling out might astound you.

Well, you got me curious. I pulled the access panel tonight. Everything went well until I pulled an old wet dirt dinners nest out. It broke open as I was dumping all of the gunk into a pail and about 10 billion tiny spiders came flowing out. That will Haunt my dreams for a while.

It could definitely look worse, I think. I have been putting that off because I was scared of what I might find behind the panel! Diesel engines I am not scared of. Something that has on the order of elevendy billion wire connectors keeps me up at night.

I dug out the bulk of the sand that was at the bottom up front by hand and I will suck the rest out with the shop vac.

 

[Guyfang]

After looking at the pictures, I would say you got off easy. I have seen way worse. The captive nuts for the cover, the ones on the bottom. Those I would change. If the screws are not broken off in them now, it will happen sooner or later.

Another tip. The mounting bolts for your electric fuel pumps. If they do not have serrated washers, get some and use them. One of the few complaints I have for this set is grounding for the fuel pumps. They are suposed to come with them on both sides, or used to in the old days, but sometimes grounding is a real problem without them. Same thing for where the main cable runs from the Neg side of the battery, to the frame.