MEP802A water in crankcase

[1brassjunkie]

I just picked up a 2009 MEP802A with water in the crankcase oil. The meter reads 8hrs and appears to have little use. Does anybody have any experience in resurrecting an engine with this problem? I'd greatly appreciate some guidance.

 

[Korgoth1]

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?125824-Picked-up-3-MEP-802A-gensets-and-will-be-documenting-making-them-all-runners-here&highlight=documenting


To do it right, you are gonna have to pull the head and assess the damage. Also the oil bypass is low enough to get rusty in the crankcase. Will it turn over freely by hand(dont crank it with starter)? If it turns over freely you may be in luck. If it binds at all, I would pull the head.

 

[1brassjunkie]

Korgoth1,
Thanks for the response. I have not tried to turn it over yet. I'm still draining the crankcase of frozen water and oil. Don't have a heated shop to put it in so this will be a slow going project for now. I'll pull the head and thinking about pulling the crank plate as well. Heard some bloggers pouring ATF in the top of the exhaust manifold to loosen things up.

 

[cuad4u]

Lets hope that "somebody" did not just put plain water in the radiator or not enough antifreeze. Is the color of the water in the radiator good and green which indicates some antifreeze? If so lets hope the problem is a cylinder head gasket or something simple.

 

[1brassjunkie]

The radiator coolant is green and not draining into the crankcase. I believe the source of the water is from the lack of an exhaust flapper so that left it open to the elements....for how long I don't know..but there is plenty of water inside which has partially frozen..working on getting that out now. After all it's winter in North Dakota!

 

[cuad4u]

As someone who has refurbished some 30 MEP 002A and 003A generators and who owns an 802A and an 803A, I think you are right. If the exhaust is missing the "flapper" or the small square cover originally installed, rain water will run down the exhaust pipe, into the cylinder, and finally into the innards of the engine. Lets hope the engine turns freely. If so you are lucky. You can drain the crankcase and change the oil filter and crank it up. After running the unit for a while, stop it and look for any signs of water getting into the oil. If so the oil will start to look brown or milky. Even after running the unit for an hour and you are getting no indication of additional water getting into the crankcase, I would drain the oil once again and change the oil filter once again - just to make sure you got all the water out. After that if all is well, I think you will be "good to go". Keep us posted.

 

[Korgoth1]

I have put a heat lamp(kind used for the chickens) inside enclosures and been warm enough to melt the ice. Just lay it in there away from rubber parts and lightly close the door.

What is the temp there?

 

[1brassjunkie]

I have a flood light lamp in there as of this morning and it's slowly melting out, it's forecasted to hit 43 degrees today....it's nice here last few weeks so it okay to be working outside on this.

 

[1brassjunkie]

Will do, thanks, I'll keep you posted

 

[jimbo913]

What are the odds the block would be cracked?

 

[Isaac-1]

I bought a Kohler diesel generator (John Deere 4039D powered) from GL some years ago that had an oil pan full of water thanks to an open exhaust manifold. Engine was lightly seized, but I was able to free it up by pouring a 50/50 mix of ATF and Marvel Mystery oil down the open exhuast and giving it time to soak. I was able to get it freed up and running after 2 or 3 weeks of soaking. Note I started the process just after picking up the generator and finding the water in the oil pan, so it had 220 miles of bouncing on a trailer with the ATF/ MM oil mix in it.

 

[1brassjunkie]

That's unknown at this point if the block is cracked or not. It did not appear frozen solid when it got to me. Nothing showing on the outside as far as leaks go. I Won't know till all the ice has melted out and I refill with fresh oil. I'll fill exhaust ports with ATF and Mystery oil and let soak for some time. (see latest post) Then I'll try manually turning the crank. But I'm not at that stage yet. Hard to tell what's happened internally though.

 

[1brassjunkie]

I picked up some ATF and Mystery oil today to do just that. Did your unit run after you got it cleaned out?

 

[Isaac-1]

Yes, it has ran for probably a couple of hundred hours since then (6-7 years ago), runs good only slight smoke on startup, but that may be the injection pump starting showing signs of needing a rebuild, smoke is very slight and clears up after a minute or two, nowhere near as much as my MEP-002a or MEP-003a.

Ike

p.s. lots of oil and gunk came out the exhaust on first start up, hit the ceiling of my shop building about 16 ft above ground level, and rained down everywhere BIG MESS.

 

[1brassjunkie]

Update:
I got most of the ice/water out of the crankcase and removed the bottom plug to get the last remaining gray sludge out.
Poured 1qt of 50/50 ATF and Mystery oil into the exhaust port and turned the crank with no problems. I cranked it back and forth to work it into the engine several times. Got very little seepage of red oil from the crankcase after awhile. When I figure out how to get the 1qt 50/50 mix out of the exhaust/engine, I will add oil and filter and install the batteries, (optima 51, I put on a conditioner but it did not give me a green light) and see if they will turn it over. If not, I'll go to battery plan B....My next question is.. How do I get the 50/50 mix out?

 

[1brassjunkie]

Ike, when I crank this up I was thinking of using some pipe fittings on the muffler to redirect the blast residue in a manageable direction. But without an appropriately fitted flange and plumbing enabling me to bypass the muffler and bolt directly onto the exhaust manifold, what will happen when that crap goes thru the muffler? Will it burn off after awhile or will I need a new muffler?

 

[Triple Jim]

I don't mean to butt in front of Ike, but it won't hurt the muffler. It will make a lot of smoke for quite a while, and some of it will blow out as well.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
It really depends on how much you put in, and how you put it in. You can remove the top panel, remove the muffler, place a bunch of rags and such around the exhaust manifold. Start with hand turning to see what you can get out. Connect the batteries and use the dead crank at short intervals. Like crank for 2-3 seconds, wait a while and crank again. Then put your muffler back on.

Not the same as you, but my MEP-803A showed signs of severe wet stacking, I removed my muffler, and the exhaust manifold. I then pressure washed all the crap out of the exhaust manifold. I then used screw drivers and knives to clean out the black goo. Shop vac the last little bit. Put it all back together and fired it up and put a load on it, which really finished cleaning it out. Black rain.

Since you have the marvels mystery oil, you could also prime it thru the fuel system to make sure things are lubed up.

Batteries = Most of the Optima batteries will come back to life. It takes some time. Put it on a charger conditioner which has a AGM mode and let it sit and do its thing. Might even take a day or two or three.

 

[Korgoth1]

Looks like you got lucky! You might not have got much oil in the cylinders depending on how level the set is, or the whole qt may have went in one cylinder idk.. If it makes a full rotation by hand(no hydrolock) you could try dead crank as angus mentioned, than move on to start. If it does hydrolock, I would pull the injectors and dead crank it, it will spray it out. Good time to inspect/clean the injectors(or just replace them, probably easier)

It's gonna smoke like crazy! Marvel smoke stinks.

 

[Guyfang]

Daybreak and Korgoth1 are giving you the straight poop. And if you pull the injectors to dead crank it, like before it was mentioned, that crap WILL fly out, at the speed of sound! So be careful! I got a mouth full when I poked my nose into a set just when someone did this. Don't give up on the optima batteries. Hammer em just like Korgoth1 said. Flush the oil system with Dextron. Buy some cheap oil filters. Change em at 5 hrs interval, once or twice. If you think the muffler is full of crap, simply run the set at full load, (at a later date) for several hours. It WILL burn everything out. I would do this out side. The some will amaze you!