MEP 003a engine replacement

[Isaac-1]

Well It looks like I am having a blowby problem on my MEP-003a, and am debating if it is economical to try to salvage it, or if I should look for one of those rebuilt engines that seemed to be everywhere a year or two ago, but seem to have all disappeared now. Any suggestions with the cost of pistons, gaskets, etc?

thanks Ike

p.s. if anyone knows of a engine for sale within 500 or so miles of SW Louisiana that would be nice to know too.

 

[JRM]

Stuff some rings into it- I acquired a diesel VW golf years back that died due to loss of compression- bad rings and a ridged block. I was amazed that a simple backwoods re-ring and hone complexly solved the issue. I drove it for 60K and sold it for $2,500

 

[Chainbreaker]

...am debating if it is economical to try to salvage it, or if I should look for one of those rebuilt engines that seemed to be everywhere a year or two ago...

What can you tell us about the history of your engine? Is it original to the genset? Has it ever been reset/rebuilt? Any idea as to actual hours on it? Other than the blowby have you experienced any other problems since you owned it?

After a little looking around on auction sites it looks like STD rings can be found for around $25 per set. I didn't have PN for pistons handy.

It might be a case of the devil you know versus one you don't.

 

[Isaac-1]

I know very little about the history of this generator, I bought it from GL a couple of years ago, dealt with a few typical minor issues to get it running. It is painted with solid green CARC and is missing most of the usual stencil markings, unit marking implies it belonged to a National Guard rapid deployment disaster response unit that was disbanded about a decade ago/ I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but think the indicated hours are around 2,000. This one has been sort of a back burner project, has always been hard to start, and smoked a lot off the end two cylinders until warm, I replaced in end 2 injectors with spare pop tested used ones I had on hand which helped a little. Yesterday I had it out of the shop in the sunlight, trying to load it down to test it, I found I had a little oil dripping out of the oil fill tube, upon adding load this got worse and smoke started coming out of the fill tube also. It will not take over about 7.5 KW load, at which point it starts loosing HZ, governor linkage (which needed repair) is at full and it still bogs down. After hitting this point 3 or 4 times over a 10-15 minute time period yesterday the generator shut off on overheat, but restarted after cooling down, it seemed warm, but not as hot as I would think it would need to be to shut down, so it could be a bad temp sensor, at this point I was loosing sunlight, so called it quits for the night.

Ike

 

[Chainbreaker]

If its truly around 2000 hours and those are original hours (no reset tag or swapped control box) that is not bad. Its not what one would consider a run-out engine hours wise unless it was somehow badly abused before you got it. Based on your described symptoms it sure seems, at a minimum, a hone and ring job is in order and perhaps a valve job. I would think bearings (crankshaft, rod insert bearings, etc.) are probably still in good shape based on reports that these engines can go 7-10,000 hours before major overhaul. If it were me, I would pull the heads and take a look at the cylinder walls, valve train, etc. and make a quick determination if you want to proceed further. If you do go deeper and pull the pistons perhaps you'll find you have some broken rings. You have nothing to loose by doing some internal inspection other than your time.

 

[Guyfang]

Isaac-1,

Chainbreaker is giving you the straight deal. 2000 hours for this engine is not much at all. Just for the heck of it. spray a BUNCH of WD40, or something similar into the cylinders. Then let it sit over night. Sometime the rings can get rusted to the pistons, or they do not expand right. The fire it up and see what you get. If its still showing signs of blowby, then do just like Chain Breaker said, pull the head. Its not that complicated. Check the cylinder walls. If they look fairly good, the I would pull the pistons and look for cracked/broken rings. The part number for the complete ring set (one piston) is: 113-0167, NSN is: 2815-01-165-1211. In the unlikely chance that the pistons are bad, the part number for a piston and wrist pin is: 112-0125, NSN is: 2815-01-038-5282. The amount of work to change rings, or pistons is about the same. For a small amount of time and money, you can save a pile of money, and know your not going to ever have a piston/ring problem foe the foreseeable future.

 

[jamawieb]

Isaac-1,

Chainbreaker is giving you the straight deal. 2000 hours for this engine is not much at all. Just for the heck of it. spray a BUNCH of WD40, or something similar into the cylinders. Then let it sit over night. Sometime the rings can get rusted to the pistons, or they do not expand right. The fire it up and see what you get. If its still showing signs of blowby, then do just like Chain Breaker said, pull the head. Its not that complicated. Check the cylinder walls. If they look fairly good, the I would pull the pistons and look for cracked/broken rings. The part number for the complete ring set (one piston) is: 113-0167, NSN is: 2815-01-165-1211. In the unlikely chance that the pistons are bad, the part number for a piston and wrist pin is: 112-0125, NSN is: 2815-01-038-5282. The amount of work to change rings, or pistons is about the same. For a small amount of time and money, you can save a pile of money, and know your not going to ever have a piston/ring problem foe the foreseeable future.

Guyfang,
On the 002a and 003a the heads don't have direct injection into the cylinders so how would you get the WD40 out of the cylinder so you wouldn't cause hydrolock? If the injectors went straight into the cylinder, you could just leave the injector out and spin the motor over to have it expelled through the injector hole. I was thinking of trying that on another one of mine spare units but then I'm worried about locking the motor.

 

[Guyfang]

Pull the glow plugs. And then turn it over by hand to be safe. Never, ever, would I put any liquid in a cylinder and then turn it over with the starter.