First Post - Introduction - My MEP003 Saga to Date...

[NJ_Toolnut]

Thanks, everyone.

Richard, you made some good points well worth contemplating. I've given considerable thought to what will be necessary to ensure long-term reliability.

I plan to run the genset for an hour or so once a month to keep it lubricated and the batteries charged. I plan to purchase a Battery Minder or similar type of microprocessor-controlled three tier charging unit to ensure the batteries stay fully charged and de-sulphated. In addition, I intend to keep the day tank full in order to avoid condensation. For the time being, the unit will remain in the driveway to my workshop covered with a tarp, on the military trailer it was on when I purchased it but eventually when the addition to my workshop (an enclosed leakproof 16' x 32' deck above a concrete slab) is finished (next fall if the stars stay properly aligned) I intend to remove it from the trailer and place it in a purpose-built generator room partitioned off from the rest of the space beneath the deck, with adequate sound insulation, ventilation and with the exhaust piped outside.

The unit seems to like the home heating fuel I'm currently burning in it. We heat our house with the same stuff, which contains 4% biodiesel. I also use it in my Ford Model 1910 4-wheel drive compact tractor. I currently store this fuel in a 30 gallon portable tank equipped with a manual drum pump. I keep this tank in my tractor shed. I typically burn a tank every six months or so in my tractor, but now that I have the generator my rate of use has increased. My web-based research indicates this fuel has much better lubricity than the over the road ultra low sulfur stuff, and it is also cheaper (no road use tax). I've been adding Howes conditioner to it at the specified ratio (as well as to the ULSD I burn in my F-250 pickup truck). Once I have the genset in its own room, I plan on setting up an auxiliary tank but I have not yet decided on the optimum size. The longest period off the grid I can reasonably contemplate and plan for is two weeks. A 275 gallon tank would easily get me through two weeks without grid power, but it might be difficult to go through this much fuel on a yearly basis if I don't experience any grid power failures. I'm thinking that properly conditioned fuel stored indoors should last at least two years without significant degradation, but I'm not aware of any stability studies available to support this storage period.

I probably would have pursued the alternative strategy of replacing the individual parts that were destroyed by the errant nut in the gearcase if Jerry's short block had not been available and so easily obtainable. I was also concerned about minimizing the time needed to get to the desired state of being able to generate my own power. As it was, using his short block saved me a lot of additional time, wrenching and expense that would have been otherwise necessary. I may still replace the damaged parts from the original Tier 2 Reset engine block (at my leisure) in order to have a known good spare on hand to cover the remote possibility that the one currently running experiences a problem. Whether or not I actually do this will depend on the availability of cheap (used) parts and how much priority I give it relative to all of my other projects. The crankshaft will definitely require some spray welding and machining, since the Woodruff keyway for the crankshaft gear is badly distorted (I picked out the smeared Woodruff key and checked the keyway) and the journal for the crankshaft gear is scored.

Whether or not you would have caught the bent pushrods and cracked rocker arms is an open question, but since Keith posted to point out the possibility and since it was very easy to check, I think anyone would have done so, especially since the tops of two of the pistons showed obvious signs of having made contact with the valves. Given that two pushrods were bent, the rest of the valve train associated with these two pushrods was suspect.

It is interesting to me that two issues I had noticed when I initally ran this unit have disappeared following installation of the new short block. One involved the frequency meter. It would initally work properly at cold startup, but then flutter at the low end of the scale after the unit warmed up. The other issue involved a phantom load of 3 or so amps at the positive battery cable with the genset shut off. Now, the frequency meter works fine (and agrees with the Kill-a Watt meter) and the phantom load no longer exists. I still get a small spark when I connect the positive battery cable, but I know that the tantalum foil capacitor in the voltage regulator circuit is not open or shorted. I suspect this spark is just from the capacitor charging, as I think Keith had suggested.

Learning about this genset and working on it has been a lot of fun. The fact that it is so well documented by the technical manuals helps a lot (really a luxury compared to the amount of documentation available most of the machines I've worked on) but the best thing about this experience has been interacting with you folks here.

Stan

 

[timass1]

Stan congrats on a successful repair. I am leaving tomorrow to pick an 003 up from Meade with the meter showing 2hrs. I looks to be in the same condition as you described yours. My question to anyone here is there some pre-checks that might catch any of what Stan experienced prior to cranking it over. I have read some threads of sewerzuk and was wondering if some of his pre-checks for the larger unit could still apply to the 003a. Anyway congrats Stan and thanks for a very detailed thread about your ordeal. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.

 

[storeman]

Stan congrats on a successful repair. I am leaving tomorrow to pick an 003 up from Meade with the meter showing 2hrs. I looks to be in the same condition as you described yours. My question to anyone here is there some pre-checks that might catch any of what Stan experienced prior to cranking it over. I have read some threads of sewerzuk and was wondering if some of his pre-checks for the larger unit could still apply to the 003a. Anyway congrats Stan and thanks for a very detailed thread about your ordeal. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.

All of Sewerzuk's checks apply. Good luck!
Jerry

 

[NJ_Toolnut]

Stan congrats on a successful repair. I am leaving tomorrow to pick an 003 up from Meade with the meter showing 2hrs. I looks to be in the same condition as you described yours. My question to anyone here is there some pre-checks that might catch any of what Stan experienced prior to cranking it over. I have read some threads of sewerzuk and was wondering if some of his pre-checks for the larger unit could still apply to the 003a. Anyway congrats Stan and thanks for a very detailed thread about your ordeal. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.

I agree that all of Sewerzuk's checks apply (except those that pertain to liquid cooling systems or are MEP004-specific) but applying them would not have detected the errant nut in the gear case that caused my catastrophe. I could only have detected the nut in the gearcase if I had disassembled the unit and inspected inside the gearcase. In fact, I watched the relevant Seweruk video, wrote out a checklist (which also included some other checks I noted from reading threads herein) and performed these checks before I ran my unit. Bottom line: Purchasing at auction from GL is a huge crapshoot, caveat emptor, buyer beware! That said, I think selecting a Tier 2 reset unit may minimize most of the risks (although it may confer others, as in my example). Perhaps the ideal approach from a risk minimization perspective would be to select a unit with a few hundred hours and perform an onsite inspection prior to purchase. I think any potential GL purchaser needs to plan for the worst case scenario and ask themselves if they are confident in their ability to deal with the fallout. I tried to do this going in but I was still surprised at what I experienced. Overall, I still consider myself lucky to have gotten out of the situation as lightly as I did. I must add that my knowledge of this community as well as the remarkable degree to which these units have been documented in the TMs contributed a lot to my confidence that I could deal with any potential fallout. Finally, to put things in perspective, I think the chance to purchase (for essentially pennies on the dollar), a unit that cost the gov't about $16,000 (with trailer) and is potentially as reliable as anything currently available new commercially is worth the risk. Would I do it again? You betcha!

Stan

 

[timass1]

Thanks for the input. I agree with the pennies on the dollar thought process, that is why I'm on that website 3-4 times a day. Thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread and I will be sure to follow through with i hope all the checks,with fingers crossed. I'll let you know how I make out.