New guy here with an 803a

[Buickrat]

First off, I want to say thanks to all the folks on here. The amount of info and great advise is priceless.

I recently got me an 803a on a 1 ton trailer with 126hr on the 2012 Letterkenny reset clock (1999 fermont unit), for whatever that's worth. I gotta say its a workhorse.
This thing will power everything in my house including 5kw dryer, water pump, **** pump, 220 space heater(a stove burner with a fan),
fridge, freezer, 2 pellet stoves, and the most I can get it up to is about 125% when the 220 compressor kicks on. At The Same Time!

New fuel filter, couldn't get the water separator off (no surprise), but it drains clean with no particles, new t6 5w-40 and wix filter,
new coolant, belt looks good but I will replace it anyway, I figure its been on there since the reset. I see no signs of wet stacking, but
I make sure to load it up good just because. I had to replace the injector pump feed hoses/manifold lines. I was actually able to find manuli hose for them.
I have extra in case anyone here wants some.

I have put 17 hours on it(all loaded between 35% and 100+%), in 3-5 hour runs with only a couple anomalies.

The oil pressure gauge flickers a bit at times, usually at start up, but oil pressure seems good, 60 cold, 45 psi hot. Sender?

One night, for a short period of time, the frequency meter was wavering all over, from 59 to 64. My guess is a crappy appliance??

It uses some oil. Not a huge amount, maybe a 16-8th of a qt on a 5 hr run. Is this normal?

Also, my nice expensive t6 5-40 is starting to darken some. Granted, I am an auto mechanic so dark oil is bad oil. (I will get over that someday
now that I have entered the diesel world).
I remember diesels of old always had the blackest, nastiest oil in them. You could change all the oil and filters, and the new stuff would
be just as nasty as the old **** you just drained out as soon as you started it up.

Any insight any of you folks have will be most welcome.

Thanks again for a great site!
Steve Mario

ps thanks for all the technical manuals on these units.

 

[Tracer]

Welcome aboard from Nevada.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
Welcome to the forums.

You could start here. MEP-802/803 Filters and Parts

The second post has quick links to lots of stuff. The fuel/water separator is put on dry by King Kong.

The third post has the link to the manuals.

It sounds like you are off to a good start. Attach a good multi-meter to ensure the gauges are correct for volts and Hz.
The meter selection switch seems to be a issue sometimes with units.

The oil pressure is right in line for cold and hot temps. Here are some logs I did with a MEP-802 and MEP-803 while working it on a load bank. Acquired a Military surplus load bank. A lot of the oil pressure differences between units could all be by break-in procedure.

With the unit off, turn the meter selection switch back and forth a bunch of times. Some have also used cleaners while doing this too. Also run the power selection switch back and forth a bunch of times to help clean off the contacts.

There are threads with the different sprays (WD-40, DeOxit, and others)

How many hours on the unit from reset time? 126 hours after reset? Might want to use a break-in oil if the unit is less than 100 after reset. A fresh engine will need that non-detergent oil for proper break-in. Oil usage could be that the engine was not broken in. The rings did not seat properly. Goes to a bad break-in procedure.

 

[1800 Diesel]

A few comments to consider: 1. The part where you mentioned "couldn't get the fuel separator off" would cause a little uncertainty just in case it was partially clogged or something. It would be nice if that uncertainty could be crossed off the list.

2. On the frequency variations I suggest you connect a Fluke or other known good meter that has a frequency display and then you can verify if the meter is bad or frequency/engine speed is actually changing. With that much spread though I would expect you could tell that the engine was hunting. Either way, connect a known good freq meter and verify what's happening with that issue.

3. On the oil pressure issue you can always connect a tee in the line and install a temporary (and known good) mechanical gauge. Then you can observe both gauges during start-up & look for similar (or not similar) displays of oil pressure readings. Again, this will help isolate real oil pressure fluctuations or those resulting from defective gauge and/or sending unit. (I have a couple of these units (803As) but haven't had the time to work on them so I'm assuming the gauge is electrical not mechanical since you mentioned the "sender".)

4. Regarding oil consumption, that amount sounds a little excessive. First question I would ask--are you seeing the same consumption rates for multiple running events? In other words is this a one-time test or are the results repeatable when the unit is run for this length of time for different run events? A one time test could have resulted from not getting a good dipstick reading, but seeing this oil loss over several runs--that would be credible data. Have you looked closely for any blow-by or any blue smoke while running?

On the oil type, I'm wondering why you don't just use 15/50 Rotella or other similar oil? I know NH gets a little colder than FL but I don't think the 5-30 is worth the extra expense but that's just my opinion. With the limited amount of run time that most generators see, the oil should be changed at least once a year if not every 6 months. Synthetic oil doesn't prevent condensation dripping into the crankcase and it needs to be changed just as frequently even though it is "clean" and with few hours of run time on it. Therefore I would conclude the added cost for synthetic oil not necessarily worth the drain on the wallet, but again--that's my personnel opinion. Now if the TM said to use synthetic (like my wife's TDI VW) then I would definitely use it.

Hope you get things sorted out--especially the oil pressure & frequency variations. Good luck and forgot to mention it earlier, but a big welcome to the forum! There's lots of great folks in this group that will go way beyond to help.

 

[csheath]

Welcome to the forum!

Funny you mention how diesels used to turn the oil black. I remember the old Mercedes I have changed oil in and they would in fact turn the new oil just as black as the old as soon as you started them. None of my current diesels turn the oil black including my 803. I have a John Deere 855 tractor and a New Holland 575E backhoe/loader and all of them keep the oil as clean as my gas vehicles. I assume this is due to better ring sealing. I'm thinking your oil consumption and black oil may be related. You might want to give it a run with some JD break in oil to see if that helps it. My 803 dipstick registers a little over full but has not changed in over 40 hours use.

If your oil pressure gauge is telling the truth it is better than mine. My gauge drops a little below 20 after it's fully warmed up. I will test with a mechanical one of these days.

 

[robson1015]

Congrats on your 803 and welcome....

 

[twisted60]

Welcome from South Florida.

 

[Guyfang]

Let's see some good pictures of the insides. Control cube and engine compartment.

 

[Buickrat]

Thanks for the welcome! And the advise.

Daybreak, after I saw the frequency wavering, I worked the power selection switch around a few times, have not seen it waver since. I will try the contact cleaner thing. it always worked on our old Marshalls back in the day. What you say about proper break in could well be the problem. Will have to re-read(again) the tm.

1800 Diesel, yeah, I want a new separator, but haven't been able to find one with the proper drain cock on it that has the T for the hose above the drain.

Didn't hear the engine hunting, and I'm no stranger to that sound, but I was 5 beers in..? After some thought, this happened at the same time that I tested the aux pump and sucked 3 gallons of diesel from a can that had no pri-d or additive of any sorts, just fresh ulsd. ? (previous fuel had additive)

I was gonna do the mechanical gauge thing, but was wondering if anyone has seen this issue before, or if there is a common problem. To me, It looks like a sender or gauge issue.

As far as oil consumption, it seems consistent. Every run, I loose the same amount. It does smoke on start-up and for a few minutes after, till it gets close to 160-170. After that I only see smoke when it's over 75% output.
I run the synthetic only because of our winter low temps. -15F is not uncommon here, and the synthetic flows like it's 70F at that temp. I figure less strain on batteries/starter/oil pump etc.

I will get some pics this weekend, want to do a cold start tomorrow, forecast is 12F overnight. Guess I'll give the preheaters a try. Wish me luck!

thanks, all!

 

[ageregunner]

Hello from PA.

 

[Guyfang]

I would put the oil gage and sending unit on the back burner. Its not real important, as the oil pressure is good, and the gages, all of them, are not what you should think of as 100% trustworthy. If you were talking about a hertz or volt problem, then I might be of a different opinion. Save it for a rainy day, when you don't have other major problems, and don't want to work outside.

 

[Buickrat]

some updates

OK, couple questions...

When I turn to preheat, I hear a loud click, but fail to see excess draw on the ammeter, (-20). I would expect to see a large draw on the battery.

When in the start position, draw is 100 plus. Even after the engine starts. Is it turning the pre heaters on? Manual says to hold it in "start" for 15 seconds after start. If I don't hold it in for at least 5 seconds, it will stall. When I release it from start, draw goes away.

After last nights run, oil level did not drop.

She started right up at 19F.

 

[Bmxenbrett]

The preheat dosnt draw that much from the batterys. So what your seeing is normal. Mine just barly moves the amp meter.
You need to hold the starter switch until oil pressure shows on the gauge. Holding it 2-4 seconds after engine fireing is normal.

I have tested fireing these sets off at -6* with no preheating. It smoked and coughed a bit more but started just fine.

 

[robson1015]

How can you start a thread on your new mep-803A and not have any pictures !!??!!?? Come-on Man....

 

[Buickrat]

Can't find my camera. Working on it.

OK, I mis spoke about the high draw.

 

[Guyfang]

Buickrat,

Lots of people have this fear of holding the S1 start switch in the start position too long. They think that the starter will be damaged when the engine takes off and destroy the starter. This should not happen on ANY TQG, regardless of the model. There is a circuit to lock out the starter at a certain engine speed. So don't worry about it. Hold the S1 up at least 4-6 seconds. If you do ever hear the starter clash, that needs to be looked into.

 

[Buickrat]

Pictures!

 

[Buickrat]

I have ordered 2 new Optima red tops, as those are 5 yrs old. This morning was the first time I heard the belt squeal, so that is tomorrows project.

Next spring I will be burying some #2 wire to hook to a 60 amp breaker as opposed to the 50A and #6 wire (50 foot run, will probably be closer to 60 buried). I have a manual transfer switch.

I noticed the manual talks about the aux fuel pump filter/separator. Is that the little canister thingy that attaches to the auxiliary pump and then the fuel line hitches to that?

 

[Guyfang]

I have ordered 2 new Optima red tops, as those are 5 yrs old. This morning was the first time I heard the belt squeal, so that is tomorrows project.

Next spring I will be burying some #2 wire to hook to a 60 amp breaker as opposed to the 50A and #6 wire (50 foot run, will probably be closer to 60 buried). I have a manual transfer switch.

I noticed the manual talks about the aux fuel pump filter/separator. Is that the little canister thingy that attaches to the auxiliary pump and then the fuel line hitches to that?

Roger, that's it

Very clean, very good looking set. Good buy!.

 

[robson1015]

Looks Great ! Thanx for posting...