Hi Jens

The solenoid shutdown is, at present, only for overtemp shutdown  -  plan to add an overspeed trip soon. I still start by hand using the decompression levers and shutdown the regular way. Sorry, don't have anything to offer for autostart.   Engine is easy to start by hand, but have been thinking about air starting - like what you have done - but probably won't get around to adding that til after I hurt myself 

The auto overtemp shutdown works well - so does the emergency air shutdown - closing the emergency shutdown air valve slows the engine down nice and easy.  Using a 12 volt system to power the radiator fan, solenoid, hour meter, wvo pre-heat as well as some lights etc.

Hope something here helps

Fred

Hi Jens - don't have much to offer, but I'll do the best with what I've got

Ive an Outback VFX3524M (non- gridtie), continuous integrated into my home electrical for over 3 years - not one hiccup - tropical temperatures and humidity (today it's 90%) - not that it applies to your situation but I think it says something for quality.

The unit samples the grid power and if it is outside user set parameters it switches over to battery/inverter until power is back into normal range, when that occurs it then over back over to  grid power and the charger takes over and tops off the batteries.  Works just fine with my roid power too - with all our power outages (sometimes 3hours at a pop - 3 times a day) the roid has been doing a lot of the battery charging  - again mine is not grid-tied - but a friend is on occasion doing the same thing with his roid and grid tied Outback - more as a last resort emergency during extended outages.

He's got solar panels feeding his outback - when the grid drops out due to load shedding, no problem - still has power in the house running off the batteries being charged by the panels.

My guess on the recommendation to not use a generator -  if you're producing excess dc from solar wind etc the grid-tied units may want to sell to the grid, or in this case your generator - kinda bad for your generator.

Unfortunately, the only way for the grid tie inverter to put  juice back into the grid is if there is a surplus of power on the dc side - thats where that  big dc alternator would be nice (one reason I went 24volt instead of 48)

Don't know where Xantrax is but Outback is in Arlington WA, not too far south of the border- might be worth a trip - doubt they'd give up a service manual - but maybe a personal inquiry at their doorstep might help.

Hope you find something helpful, Good luck, Fred

Hey Scott, thanks for the information - I'll check it again with plastigage after assembly - we've another set of rods if one's bad, maybe I can get one of the engineers on the prepo ships to check it for true - isn't anything on island.

Funny you mentioned your oiler mods for the injector pump - I was just reading that other post cuz I'm thinking of adding oil filtration to my engine - oddly enough it was the one on the governor side - we ordered 4 new spares and only one rotates, need to take em apart and adjust the clearance between the plunger slot and the end roller.

Guess part of the problem is mine - grew up working in an automotive machine shop where we had virtually everything - fitting bearings was easy with that old sunnen rod hone etc.

A lot to be said for working with a guy who's done this kind of work all his life by hand.

Hoping to get a bit more service this go around.

Thanks again, Fred

Hey Jens, you just posted as I was about to post this -

I thought the same thing about the changeover valves and increased compression for the wvo - til I read another post about possible bearing damage by running with em screwed in, so I screw mine out during running.  I mentioned the unheated wvo just because - wanted to provide some background to the running of the engine prior to the rebuild - I only heat mine from the coolant and the engine heat - temperature at the injector runs around 180 F - just posting these particulars for information.

Cheers, Fred





Thanks again, Fred

Pulled the crank out and set it up in a jig to fit the rod bearings - here's what I got ...



As per the book torqued down the nuts to 55# and backed off - got 5 thou as in the picture (between the recommended .004 and .006)



installed the conrod on the crank with .004-.009 plastigage and torqued to specs - rod wouldn't move - ended up installing three shims  with another plastigage check and it came out .004 clearance.  Now I'm a little lost.

Don't believe there's anyone on island  with a sunnen hone to fit the rod bearings to the crank - and I agree with Bruce that a bunch of shims isn't the best solution for longevity (that's the idea behind this rebuild - longer reliable operation)

Any ideas would be most appreciated.

Cheers, Fred

Hey Jens,

The friend with the rebuild tried a multitude of exotic fuel mixes - really liked the wvo/rug and the wmo/rug (really fouled up the centrifuge with gunk though).  After looking at the inards of an injector pump run on this stuff as a single source, I'm still inclined, for now, to continue with the duel fuel so that diesel sits in the pump, lines and injectors when the engine is idle.

For testing purposes I'll continue with the fuel mix I'm running with up to 1000 hours (if I get that far ) then try a wvo/rug mix after that.  Like you said the rug has some distinct advantages - and it's cheaper too.

Cheers, Fred

I hunted quite a while for a simple (murphy switchgage - always liked them) solution to the overtemp auto shutdown for my roid and am very happy with my present setup (I haven't needed it - yet - but since I'm running the engine every day it has freed up some of my anxiety over an overheating issue - I'm not as nervous or feel I have to check the "iron bitch" every 10 or 15 minutes as I did when the system wasn't there)

Anyway, this is what I ended up with on the electrical side ...



Here's a picture of the mounting bracket for the solenoid (energize and hold to run - overtemp or loss of 12 volt power - shutdown)



Here's an image of the wiring of the switchgage, tattletale, ignition switch etc



I know that thermosyphon cooling is the simplest but I wanted to protect my investment from some really nasty weather and the generator shack gets pretty hot - 120 F on a sunny day - wanted to move the cooling outside of the space so chose the radiator option the the  electric fan and adjustable (between 160 deg and 250 deg F) thermostatic control -

Cheers, Fred

Thanks for the responses Leland and Geno, will look into them tomorrow.  I asked about plastigauge at several parts stores and they were clueless - should have known better - will order some, but with the power situation, my friend (it's not my engine. really  ), would really like to get the beast running - would take a week to get plastigauge mailed out and no sunnen equipment on island to properly hone bearings if required