MEP-006a overkill and wetstacking

[wsucougarx]

120/208Vand running 2 out of 3 legs of three phase are not big show stopper, the problem is it is a bit over sized for the job, sort of like using a 5 ton truck to commute around town. It does the job, but so does a sub-compact, one just gets a lot better fuel economy.

OK, so one could use it to power a house without any issues (electrically speaking)? Just as I stated, I know it is overkill and do plan on using this system to power more than just a house down the road. We do have plans to move to a much bigger house w/a powered barn/pole building. May use it to recharge battery banks etc. I'm not an electrician by any stretch of the imagination. I just want to see if there is some use of this huge generator. I do NOT plan on using this generator too much as I have two 3kw generators already (military diesel and Honda gas).
I guess what I'm doing here is to justify having this beast in my garage. It would definately look pretty good behind my deuce for parades but that alone does not justify it's existence in my garage

 

[PeterD]

Mike: You'd need to check things that have 240 volt motors (like AC units) to make sure the 208 from the generator won't be a problem. Resistance loads (heating, water heater, etc.) will work OK, but may not get quite as hot as with 240 (such is life).

 

[Ken_86gt]

You could always build your own load bank to heat up the genny. As stated earlier you could use old stoves and ovens. Find a surplus 3 phase heater. Or even build yourself a salt water load bank (not very safe)- search the net for instructions.

But I probably would just get a smaller one, a 10KW is plenty for most houses.

 

[wsucougarx]

sort of like using a 5 ton truck to commute around town. It does the job, but so does a sub-compact, one just gets a lot better fuel economy.

Nothing like making a roaring statement between downtown buildings. I find myself at the traffic lights revving my engine to hear the echo.

 

[OPCOM]

It is not hard to convert 3 phase machines to single phase in most cases. There is an old thread here where I covered this in some detail. A 3 phase unit has basically three windings, and you connect two in series as a zizag for one 120V winding and the other becomes the other 120V winding making 120/240V single phase. I did this with a 40KW Mankato and it resulted in a 30KW 120/240 single phase unit. You will need to be able to adjust the voltage regulator so you get 240V not 208.

The Mankato was also cheap. I use it seldom so I do not worry about fuel cost much.

60K is too large for a house in most cases. I can draw 11K so in my case a 20K would be adequate. You can find out what your maxload is by adding up everything. Double it for the genset rating.

 

[emmado22]

Do yourself a favor, sell the 60K, and get a smaller unit. It's not worth the headaches......

 

[patracy]

Do yourself a favor, sell the 60K, and get a smaller unit. It's not worth the headaches......

IMHO, you'd come out ahead (money wise) selling the genset and getting a smaller one more suited to your house. You're not going to like the cost of 3 phase converters....

 

[refloyd]

Hello,

I am a generator mech in the military and have good knowledge of these machines. 1 issue you will have will be how to wire it into the house considering it is 3-phase only and the 3 phases must be balanced within 10% of each other to keep from destroying the main windings in the stator. As for the wetstacking problem it will become a problem if you run it for more than about 8 hours with little to no load. (meaning you start seeing the oil/fuel/carbon start leaking out of the exhaust manifold) They made a small loadbank that mounts on the generator or trailer to keep a good load applied to the unit, and some of them even had individual switches on them to allow you to apply the load on each phase individually.

And as for the post earlier about mixing kerosene with the fuel doing that will be almost the same as us running JP-8/JP-5 in them. Which causes the old roosa master fuel injection pumps to loose efficency and eventually lock up.

 

[rat4spd]

Hello,

1 issue you will have will be how to wire it into the house considering it is 3-phase only and the 3 phases must be balanced within 10% of each other to keep from destroying the main windings in the stator.

That has to be a pretty tall order on any three phase machine to manage load within 10% between phases. I gotta say, in all my years, I've never checked while running our generator.

I'll have to look when I get back to work.

 

[Isaac-1]

I agree that 10% within balance load does seem somewhat strict, compared to most good similar sized commercial generators that will allow any mix of loading as long as no one leg is overloaded, we generally think of these military units as more robust than there commercial relatives. For a full reference see Onan T-009 dated 1979, page 24 (available from sources online as a pdf scan) see scan below

Ike

 

[refloyd]

All i know is that the operator manual for the MEP-005A, MEP-006A, MEP-007A,B and all of the new gensets that replaced these state that the load I will find the manual and the exact pages for you when I go back to work. I have seen the aftermath of them being ran with the phases out of balance and it isnt pretty, unless you like shredded wheat looking copper falling out of the main generator. Now dont get me wrong it takes a while for this to happen and the phase have to be out quite a bit for it to happen.

 

[wsucougarx]

OK thanks for all your input guys. The people have spoken, I shall get rid of this PU. Now the trick is not to let myself fall subject to impulse bidding on something that looks cool

 

[R Racing]

Wish you were closer a MEP 005 or 006 would be about the size I need for my place. The 005 I just picked up from Fort Meade is locked up

 

[PeterD]

Wish you were closer a MEP 005 or 006 would be about the size I need for my place. The 005 I just picked up from Fort Meade is locked up

Do you know what happened to lock it up?

 

[R Racing]

Not yet. tried to turn engie over with both a 1 3/4 socket on the crank and also with the starter . wont budge. I'm guessing they ran it with no oil pressure and locked it up.

 

[PeterD]

Not yet. tried to turn engie over with both a 1 3/4 socket on the crank and also with the starter . wont budge. I'm guessing they ran it with no oil pressure and locked it up.

It is rather difficult to run with no oil pressure, personally I'd doubt that is the problem. My MEP-004 was likely a blown head gasket letting a cylinder (#4 in my case) fill with water. With an ASK generator, there is a remote possibility that the cover on the engine end was left open, and rain (or other water) went into the exhaust pipe which sticks straight up, don't know if you have an ASK or not.

I'd recommend pulling the head, it is not that difficult to do, and will answer what's up with it. In my case I was able to free it up, and it ran well once reassembled. (Course a bit of experience in getting them free helps, along with some homemade tools).

If you are not wanting to pull the head just yet, try pulling the injectors instead. If you find one or two wet with coolant (two wet is good as that indicates a head gasket problem) then it is head off time. If they are all dry and clean it is time to keep looking.

 

[R Racing]

Hi Peter,

When I looked before we I tried turning it over the radiator was full of coolant. Its a standard 005a not a Ask . The oil is black but full. I'll pull the injectors next week when I'm back in town and try again. I appriciate the info !

Jim

 

[Isaac-1]

If you have a fiber optic inspeciton scope you can insert it down the in place of the injector and tell a lot about the condiiton without pulling the head. I picked up a used cheap one off ebay a couple of years ago and it has been well worth the $50 or so I paid. (mine was an older Provsion 18 inch model)

 

[R Racing]

Not a bad idea. I'll look into 1 . as solid as it acts though i think the crank and a rod or 2 are as 1 . I have seen with water the ability to move it backwards a bit . this think acts as if its welded together.

 

[Isaac-1]

I bought a 30 KW skid mounted commercial generator from GL a couple of years ago that had a couple of gallons of water in the oil pan (the muffler had been removed when it was pulled from service, someone had taped a trash bag over the exhaust manifold, but it had rotted away). It appeared to be locked up solid, however after filling the cylinders with a mix of AFT and Marvel Mystery Oil and letting them soak for a week or two I was able to get it free and running. It now has about 50 hours or run time since being freed up.