Not so slow, these are like the 3600 RPM Yanmars and clones but yoikz, look at the prices.      See also how you can spend almost five grand on a B&S engine.  Well certainly won`t be me.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NTESearch?storeId=6970&in_dym=1&Nty=1&D=than&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt=diesel%20engines%20small&cmnosearch=true&cm_ven=PPC&cm_cat=Yahoo!%20New%20Sponsored%20Search&cm_pla=nt_engines&cm_ite=diesel%20engine%20small&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=5136118022&OVKEY=small%20diesel%20engine&OVKWID=44256378022&OVRAW=Small%20Diesel%20Engine

Boy, those Chinese horizontal water cooled engines like Changfa sure look like a bargoon don`t they!?  Personally I think that sweet deal is going to disappear with all the other good deals from China when they adjust their currency to meet the wishes of the rest of the world.  With the Canadiian dollar at a healthy high, now on par with the US buck, it is time for us poor, financially struggling Canadian DIY`ers to buy the engines and tools we need from China.

Princess Auto in Canada has been importing a very impressive and attractively priced lineup of tools and shop related equipment for quite some tiime now.  I have seen the quality really improve in recent years.  I can only imagine what may be showing up on their shelves soon with the latest jump in our currency.

Now if only the Chinese engine factories would start making a Lister 6/1 CS clone!!!!!!!

I stopped by Princess Auto in Barrie, Ontario today for some parts for my electric vehicle project and was pleased to see they finally brought in some single cylinder, high speed, lightweight Chinese 10 HP Lanmar clone type diesel engines.  They have electric start and keyswitch. The displacement was just shy of 500 cc.  These will be a nice alternative choice for those like me simply not interested in gas lawnmower engines.

I asked George B. once what `ST` stood for as in Chinese ST generator head, but quickly forgot.  For the life of me I cannot even conceive of a meaning that seems to make sense using these two letters.

Some Trouble?
Second Troublefree?
Saves Time?
Saves Taxes?
Sans Transformer?
Synchronous Tone?
Sweet Thing?

If  they really wanted to hype these they could call `em ` RA`,  touted as having a `Revolutional Armature`design.  How`z that for missing a marketing opportunity?   

Anyone know?

I am watching the alleged TV news and just saw the tragic tornado school damage and loss of life in Alabama due to this big storm today.  It hit my location a couple of hours ago and has been hard wind driven wet snow pellets turning to freezing rain later.  The wind is brutal.  i just tried to get my car closer to the road so I would be able to get out and I got stuck.  Looks like I`ll be going nowhere for a few days.

My power is pretty reliable here because I am on the same feed that supplies an area Honda affiliate factory.  When they were building that plant the same summer Ontario Hydro crews were all the way down my rural road replacing poles, insulators and other components of the big 44 kV, 3-phase line that runs down this road.  Obviously Honda has the ear of the provincial government!  Power has been much more reliable since that maintenance job, and outages generally shorter.

I went to the shop and fired up my JD175 genset just to make a bit of heat running a 1 kW load and to be ready in case the power goes off and I have to go out there in the dark to get the larger plant started up.

Anyone else running a genset yet related to this storm?

I have an opportunity to acquire some brand new synthetic oil which I hope will be useful as a motor fuel.  Unfortunately I have no data on it but am told it is synthetic.  It is very thick, like 90W gear lube and a nice golden color like corn syrup. I was thinkling of cutting it with kerosene to make it less viscous.  All I know is that it was used as an additive in the manufacturing process of making automobile tire rubber.

I`m not a petroleum chemist so I really don`t understand what the differences are between what are commonly called synthetic oils and regular mineral oils. Are synthetics based on mineral oil stock or are they something else altogether?  Now I`ll assume this synthetic isn`t the same formulation as an oil desiged to work in a car`s crankcase in all temperatures and severe service like say Mobil One. 

That being the case still I wonder. has anyone tried burning synthetic motor oil in their diesel engine?  Were there any coking or deposit problems?  Obnoxious smell?  Babies being born deformed in the hood?  Under the hood?

Tank,

Since you closed the thread you posted I`ll ask in a separate thread. 

Your Clause #6 prohibits sales announcements.  Does this apply also to help intended notices of say an ebay auction for an engine or part that the participants in the particular thread might appreciate knowing about that is not anything to do with the person posting the `discovered this sale` tip?  Personally I think losing that ability would be harmful, not helpful.

I agree if a member wants to offer goods for sale that should go in the special forum intended for such activity.

All,

I have been aware of an old ThermoKing reefer unit mounted on a deconmmissioned highway trailer now for some time in a farmer`s field not too far from me and decided to finally pursue it after some research and glowing praise for the very long lifetime expectancy and reliability of this engine as from the mouth of one of our guru engine experts here.

See the engine here. http://thermoparts.com/isuzu_diesel_engines_repair_c201.html

Check out that massive 17 litre (quart) cast aluminum oil pan!  Someone please correct me if I`m mistaken but I think I read this engine has replaceable wet cylinder sleeves and both pressure lube circulating filter as well as bypass filter.  Wow.  That is serious, made to last, made to run long hours unattended, re-buildable industrial engine technoliogy.

So....yesterday I went and paid the owner a visit, examined the machine in more detail and made a deal with him.  I should have the engine with attached V-twin directly driven compressor and all the associated bits, removed from the reefer enclosure to make handling easy before the snow flies this year.  Won`t be long.  This gives me a nice indoor winter project (like I needed another    )

My intended application is to direct couple this 2 litre, 4-cylinder water cooled, IDI diesel engine which is designed to work well at a leisurely 1300 RPM, or faster speeds, to an 1800 RPM Alternator generator head and use it as a power plant, much like I did from scratch with a 1980, 1.5 litre VW 4-cylinder IDI Rabbit diesel engine here already.  It sure sounds like the Isuzu will make a longer lived package and overhaul kits are much cheaper than for the VW engine.

I want a generator that can be run 24/7 for long periods and while the VW appears that it can, I know it won`t give me 30,000 hours service life between major overhauls.  It sounds like the Isuzu may.

Anyone out ther do anything similar with one of these reefer diesel plants?  Got any helpful tips for me?

In this discussion I freely use the term generator, alternator, induction generator and so forth to mean an AC generating device.  This discussion does not concern itself with DC power whatsoever.

By way of introduction I should explain my motivation for this thought process.  I am fabricating a large DIY wind turbine which will have no more than about 1200 RPM available to turn a alternator at max wind speeds. Most of the time much less than 1200 RPM will be available and I need to be able to make reasonable amounts of power with a generating machine spinning far less than rated shaft speed.  I will have enough horsepressure at 1200 RPM to make 20-30 kW.  If I could simply afford to purchase a 20-30 Kw, 1200 rpm, 6-pole type ST head my problems would be solved.  In reality 6-pole alternators are not manufactured by the budget manufacturers like the Chinese ST heads and to get one you have to deal with a company like Marathon where you will pay big bucks while getting undisputed high quality.  I cannot afford to run a marathon.

I have a 20 HP, 575 volt, 3-phase induction motor whch would be useable if I could spin it close to rated speed most of the time.  I cannot.  My experience with capacitor assisted, stand alone induction generators is that you have to get them up pretty close to nameplate RPM for them to have any useful output, or any output at all.  Even then they cannot handle inductive loads and both regulation and efficiency are poor.

I have experience with a 3-phase rotary converter I built to run my machine shop.  It employs a 3/4 HP induction motor belt coupled to a 7.5 HP, 3-phase motor.  To start I apply power temporarily to the 3/4 HP motor which gets the big motor up to nameplate speed.  I then close a switch that applies 220 volt, single phase mains to one of the three motor windings.  I release the power to the starter motor.  I now have 3-phase power available from all three windings of the big motor which is acting like a rotary xfmer.  Another way to look at the motor is as a form of externally excited, self propelled induction generator operating at a fixed power frequency matching the nameplate design.

This scenario got me thinking about the possibilities of applying an exciting voltage to one winding of a 3-phase induction motor used as a generator head.  If one could synchronise the frequency of the excitation AC with the shaft speed of the induction generator one might obtain an induction generator that would more closely display the desireable characteristics needed and obtained normally from a real power generating alternator.  Those being output voltage and frequency tracks shaft RPM and output would be available at lower speeds than a simple capacitive excited induction generator.  The ability to handle inductive motor loads might be as good as a rotary converter based 3-phase power supply.

Two methods of excitation came to mind.  At first I thought that a audio power amplifier could be employed with appropriate step down coupling xfmer on the input, and step up xfmer on the output  (to match the motor voltage). The input sensing xfmer would connect to one winding of the motor, the output transformer secondary to another.  Delta motor connections would be fine as one terminal of the three becomes a common ground for the amplifier.  The principle of operation would be that residual magnetism would create a sine waveform on the motor windings as the head was first spun.  The amplifier would take that sine and amplify it enough to produce an excitation waveform that was in phase with the rotation speed of the the motor. This synchronous excitation would allow voltage to appear on all 3 windings in proper 3-phase relationship.  The high power on the exciting leg needed by the rotary converter is not needed to spin the motor as the prime mover provides this energy.  Power directly proportional to the shaft RPM should then be available from the 3 windings of the induction motor.  There would be useable 30 Hz power at reduced voltage when the motor was turned approximately half of nameplate RPM, like a true generator head. At 3/4 shaft speed you could expect 45 Hz, and more voltage, and so forth. One problem with this scheme is the need to power the amplifier from another power source before the system can operate on it's own.  Another issue is to provide electrical protection against transients, and physical issues of vibrationn and environment to the delicate amplifier.

Thinking this further it occured to me that a low power, conventional alternating generator like an ST head might be driven mechanically from the source of motive power that also turns the 3-phase induction generator.  Pulley sizes could be selected with a belt drive to couple the units.  This way an inexpensive 1800 RPM (4 pole) head might serve to excite a 1200 RPM (6 pole) induction generator for my variable drive speed wind turbine. Even a 3600 RPM 2-pole head could be used if one could be found that would be reliable and not turn to fuzz inside after a short service life.  In the case of a diesel powered genset if this works it would allow synchronous generator performance from a large, high hosepower yet inexpensive induction motor turned generator.

In operation I suspect the unit would have to be brought up to speed free from the burden of any external electrical load to allow the excitation source to get the juices flowing without being shunted by a load.  I do not see this as an inconvenience.

Comments/discussion welcomed.