Wet stacking question

[JRM]

A few years back I won the auction on a sweet 803A only to find it was wet stacked, I saved it with a 2 hour run at 100% with it throwing fireballs, so that was quite the introduction to a problem I had no idea existed. This past year I picked up a Honda EB12D 3600RPM unit with only 16 hours on it for my fathers place. we tore into his breaker box and built a lock out 50A sub panel- we wired in his entire first floor and his water heater plus the well pump, all freezers and his wood stove fan. The issue is even with all of this on we have trouble reaching only 6kw.... do 3600RPM units wet stack like the MEP'S do?

 

[robson1015]

That is not mouse proof. Mice will easily get through that grate on top of the unit. You need 1/8" hardware cloth covering the top grate. I would also wheel the genny away from the door and from under the roof above. It looks like it is on wheels....Any diesel generator will wet stack if it is not ran hard to near capacity. You will need a load bank to exercise it occasionally near 100% load to keep it from loading up(wet stacking). Nice looking unit-looks new !!

 

[Chainbreaker]

That's a nice looking and sounding generator! Good work repairing all the mouse damage you encountered.

You just might need the generator with the weather heading your way that is coming in off the Pacific if it intensifies any further. We are supposed to get some heavy rain and wind tonight further South than you in the Eugene area. The ground around here is already saturated and we already experienced a few spotty pwr outages during the last storm, couple that with more rain and a substantial wind and trees will be coming down.

 

[Guyfang]

All Diesel gen sets will wet stack. What you need to do is run it close to rated LOAD, and rated TEMPERATURE. Diesels like it hard. a good load brings up the temp, and its happy.

Maybe you have other problems. Dont focus on wet stacking, check everything else. If you run that set at say full, or near ful load for a few hours and its spitting things out the exchaust, then wet stacking could be a problem. If nothing is comming out the exhaust, then look someplace else.

 

[Falstaff]

What does “wet stack” mean?

 

[Coug]

What does “wet stack” mean?

Wet stacking is where the engine doesn't get hot enough to burn all of the fuel, so as it runs wet carbon starts building up in the cylinder, on the valves, and in the exhaust system. The fix is to run the engine under a heavy load occasionally to get it good and hot to burn out all the wet carbon buildup. Depending on how bad it is, it can drop the engine power output to where the unit will barely run, and can take many hours of running at full load (80% or more) to burn it all off.

Pretty much just a diesel engine issue.

 

[155mm]

This is what wetstacking at the extreme looks like. The motor was stuck from carbon build up when i got it.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
Wet stacking
Came from tug boat engines which would ooze black goo (un-burnt fuel) out of every crack and seem along the exhaust. It hurts power, cylinder walls, pistons, valves, exhaust, mufflers, anything downline from firing.

How do you keep wet stacking at bay?
A diesel engine likes to be in its power band. Sizing of generator size is important for this reason. Obviously you would not want a 60kw diesel genset if your max load would be 8kw. Any diesel engine would be happy be loaded 50% -100% load. A diesel engine is meant to work. and work hard.
After running at lighter loads, a good hard running helps to clean this condition up.

 

[CMPPhil]

Hi

Wet stacking is not a diesel only thing. I have an M5 military generator which is WWII 3KVA which any of you who have attended the Weare Rally have probably seen running near the registration tent. That unit will start blowing little carbon balls ot the stack if it is left running at low load like the just the PA system. The engine runs at 1200RPM at load or no load.

Now the M5 was built as a 125 volt 3 phase unit with a manual load adjustment. With a few simple changes and addition of an automatic load control is perfectly happy putting out 3 sperate 120 volt 20 amp circuits.

Now back to wet stacking, normal at Weare the weather is warm to hot so the unit is carrying load of the air conditioner for my radio/camper or the electric hot water heater. So when we had a cool day, no need for air/con, the unit was running at very low load. After 6 hours of running time, stop to refuel and found little balls (1/16") all over the top of generator and the stack was gummy. By then it was getting hot so turned on the air conditioning loaded the generator to base load of 20 amps. By the end of the 5 hrs, time to refuel, no more little carbon balls and the stack inside though black was not gummy.

Cheers Phil

 

[Light in the Dark]

Real sharp genset... love the old styling!

 

[Chainbreaker]

Saw one of those M5 gensets listed on Craigslist a while back while I was scouting CL 2-3 wks ago. It was sitting out in a field near some other old farm implements somewhere East of here that I can't remember where...Montana, Idaho, Nevada?. It was neglected but looked totally intact and even had some spare parts sitting inside. Price was around $200 IIRC. I have seen some that were nicely restored and they have a very cool retro classic look to them.

 

[JRM]

Thanks for the response, to address some of the above- the new (used) Honda isn't wet stacked- I just want to avoid it. As for mice we have a custom made mouse proof Kevlar cover (seen to the right 1:15) that covers that top vent and use that ratchet strap to secure it to the wood with zero gap. We are adding wattage gauges for the breaker box, will probably just buy a couple electric heaters to keep the load up- and maybe even not need the wood fire What is a good easy install energy monitor?

 

[155mm]

I have bought and used 6 of these, you will need one for each phase. I have been very pleased. So far no failure in1.5 years of use.

AC Multimeter 6in1 Combo Meter Voltage 110V 220V Current 100A Power Factor KWH Frequency Multifuction Tester https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXY6GT5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_E-VkEbHADQ3J3

 

[Chainbreaker]

...What is a good easy install energy monitor?

There are various methods for monitoring household energy consumption. You can do it "per leg" at the generator, good for load balancing purposes among other things, or use a more detailed method that monitors various circuits within your breaker box.

Here is a thread that a SS member shared how he was doing it off his breaker box that uses WiFi. It can be expanded into a fairly sophisticated energy monitoring system.