803 Bogs Down and dies at 85% Load

[USAMilRet]

Of course it will burn. As long as it's not too thick.

Many folks use 55 gal drums as a fuel source. There are numerous threads on this subject. For many years I used two 600 gallon pods. The problem with that is fuel rotation. There are many pros and cons. If you have other equipment that uses diesel, then rotation should be no problem.

I have nothing else that uses diesel fuel. I recognized that fuel storage would be another topic but based on what I have researched, just so long as I do fuel polishing I will be OK. Just did not know about whether to clean the tanks or just make sure they were drained. Plan on using 3 drums with 2 filled to capacity and the third empty and used as a transfer drum after fuel polishing.

 

[DieselAddict]

There is plenty of info on fuel storage and rotation already. Easy to find if you search around the web. Some residual hydraulic oil in a drum you fill with 55 gal of diesel isn't going to matter.

 

[USAMilRet]

There is plenty of info on fuel storage and rotation already. Easy to find if you search around the web. Some residual hydraulic oil in a drum you fill with 55 gal of diesel isn't going to matter.

That is what I thought. I am going to drain out as much of the hydraulic fluid as I can but will not clean the drums of the remainder. I have read and read and read up on diesel fuel and storage and the use of algicides and stabilizers and also the polishing of fuel by continually having it circulated through filters. That is why I am going to use three 55 gal drums. Two will be filled will fuel and the third empty will be used to store fuel once it is polished from one of the drums. Then repeat the process with the second drum. I just may plumb all of the drums together and let the polishing take place 24/7.

I figure for the polishing, I will need a fuel filter, a water/foreign material separator, and a pump. Figure I will use a 24VDC pump and feed it off a solar panel. As this will be going on constantly 24/7, I will not need a heavy duty pump that pushes 20GPH. As simple pump that does 1GPH means that a drum will be completely circulated in 55 hours or two and a quarter days or so. That is 110 gal of diesel polished (run through the filtering system) every 4 1/2 days. My understanding is that this is more than sufficient to keep the fuel in A1 shape. If I use all three drums for fuel storage, that will be 165 gal of diesel fuel polished 6 hours shy of every week.

Guess I can use a regular diesel fuel filter. I have an inline 12VDC pump from my Onan generator (but it is gas) that still works and was replaced when doing work on the Onan 4KW genset in the motor home...…..it was not the fuel pump (freaking magneto behind the fly wheel kept cutting out after about 5 minutes of use killing the genset and unable to restart, then it would cool and could be restarted, then stop again after 5 minutes). Can I use this inline gas pump for pumping diesel fuel?

Comments?

 

[DieselAddict]

That is a bit overkill to have it go 24/7. For the big diesel generators we have a service come in and polish the tanks every 2 years. Unless there is a real outage the tanks are not turned over but about half a volume per year during monthly maintenance runs.

I suspect if you ran the polishing system for a day every month you would be in fine shape.

I agree you need to use a filter that includes a water separator. Water is the main problem you are looking to stay on top of. Water tears stuff up and is required for micro growth. No water, no micro.

If the tanks are going to have a breather, consider using one with a desiccant.

 

[USAMilRet]

Well another day with no genset work. I did however put the finishing touches on my load bank and got stopped dead in my tracks by missing two 6 gauge loop connectors. Yes, 2 maybe 59 cent loop connectors.

I can now hit the genset and find out where it dies at......what draw? I am still not convinced this is not a generator side issue.

 

[USAMilRet]

That is a bit overkill to have it go 24/7. For the big diesel generators we have a service come in and polish the tanks every 2 years. Unless there is a real outage the tanks are not turned over but about half a volume per year during monthly maintenance runs.

I suspect if you ran the polishing system for a day every month you would be in fine shape.

I agree you need to use a filter that includes a water separator. Water is the main problem you are looking to stay on top of. Water tears stuff up and is required for micro growth. No water, no micro.

If the tanks are going to have a breather, consider using one with a desiccant.

Do they make a desiccant for Florida? I suspect a desiccant would last only hours in this humidity.

 

[DieselAddict]

Haha. Good one. It will last a while since it only sees the air flowing across it as the tank breathes which isn't much.

 

[USAMilRet]

Well another day another few cents......
Decided to inspect the fuel system today. Took most of it apart to make sure it was clean and not blocked. Replaced the return hoses all the way around. Have about 7 feet of the 3.5mm braided hose left. Saw that there was no rubber washer on top of the fuel filter so I placed one there
Ran the genset a couple of times and no changes. The engine bogs down and dies at like 81% or 82%. I will be uploading some videos of it dying.
I get to about 40 amps on L0 and about 39 amps on L1 but when I try for one more amp on either leg, it dies.

Latest video of the day....

https://youtu.be/THJ_FHvSbYo

 

[justacitizen]

what did you do to the load when the smoke cleared and sparks began to fly from the exhaust?

 

[justacitizen]

i think your problem is narrowed down to the combustion side of the engine. you say the injectors and fuel pumps are correct new and calibrated by a professional fuel injection shop for this engine application. Correct?

the engine has no blow by but you haven't confirmed the compression is in spec.

the pistons are correct for this engine and application? correct? "a compression test would confirm this the easiest"

if the fuel is correct and the compression is correct and there are no restrictions in the intake or exhaust then i would check valve lash first and then check cam timing.

 

[jamawieb]

After watching that video, I'm leaning towards injectors. Since the engine was rebuilt you shouldn't have that much smoke coming out, then at the end of the video it's showing signs of carbon been burned off (the sparks coming out the exhaust).
I bought a set of new injectors off ebay from DBEquip and had extreme smoking like yours. Then I swapped them to another set and it did the same thing. Mine would not load past 100% with out bogging down. So I bought some more from a Chinese Company and it performed perfect. It could be a bad set of injectors dumping to much fuel into the combustion chamber.

 

[USAMilRet]

what did you do to the load when the smoke cleared and sparks began to fly from the exhaust?

The fault circuit tripped killing the DC. The only reason it did not shut down immediately was because of the missing fuel stop/run solenoid.

 

[USAMilRet]

I have more videos I will post soon.

The injectors are supposed to be new. I will ask about calibration.

 

[USAMilRet]

So far today, the muffler has ben taken off and examined and there are not blockages that can be found or any foreign materials. The intake manifold was taken off and aside from a bunch of RTV cement, the intake looked good and there was no foreign material observed.

Yesterday, I fix the return lines (replaced).

 

[USAMilRet]

I pulled the injectors and this is what they look like. These are supposed to be new injectors, only 6 months old.

 

[Zed254]

Safety question, a very late safety question: I did not see you trip over a ground rod in last video. Do you have a ground rod installed for this generator? Also, I like you neighbors WAY more than I like mine. Running at night gets me disapproving stares from next door.

 

[USAMilRet]

More videos of last nights runs...

https://youtu.be/mtZCrJEWrtU

https://youtu.be/-wUXwvVlQk4

https://youtu.be/5eMYRvoPIG4

https://youtu.be/rn3NEpvYVMU

https://youtu.be/sjJouX2jQ_g

https://youtu.be/4Um115mljrU

https://youtu.be/0rcthMHPbUE

https://youtu.be/hscabC4YWJg

 

[USAMilRet]

Lookie lookie what I found.......




Got to tell you, I am pretty peeved at the rebuilder/seller. No end cover gasket, no valve cover gaskets (4), no exhaust manifold gasket, no new air filter, damaged intake manifold gaskets, 4 valve cover nut gaskets are busted, the crankcase cover gasket was damaged.

I am wondering whether I should stop here and put it back together to see what happens or whether I should just continue with the teardown. If I remove the head, I would be pretty much half way there...…

 

[USAMilRet]

I just noticed that on the next to the last video, 190219, there was the oil pressure fault light but the oil pressure was still reading about 25 psi. Wonder if the engine had started to recover by the time I got around to the panel side.

 

[justacitizen]

Ahah!!! good find. the injectors look good except one. the one with all of the carbon,but that doesn't mean they are ok. the broken rocker and missing push rod tell the tail. if it were mine and i was happy with the price and after all you have done. i would replace the rocker and push rod if it is missing,reset all of the valve clearances and re test. probably be ok from there.

i would de carbon the injectors also. if you have a thermal camera or one of those laser thermometers you can monitor each cyl as the engine warms to see differences in combustion.