Changfa 1115G

[Phiberoptik]

A word of caution on the 1115.

I bought a 1115ZS from Mohammed. I really liked the engine, but I had some problems with it. I've had two major failures. I'm not discouraged by these failures, just the unavailability of repair parts. These wouldn't have been major problems except that no one, including Mohammed, can come up with the parts I need to fix it. I've had an offer from another Changfa dealer to buy up a returned engine that the customer said "runs rough" for $450.00, but when I add the freight to that I'm only $300.00 away from the cost of buying another new one from Mohammed and shipping it to me. I'm sure that Hardy Day can get the parts for me, but again, the price of the parts vs the cost to replace the engine is a factor.

In the first failure, the governor ball retainer broke inside the engine, releasing the governor balls and tearing up the timing gears. Mohammed said he could bring the parts in from China for me, but I wanted to get it running quickly, so I got the parts that I needed from Hardy Day. I paid about $300.00 for the parts, but I had them in two days. Mohammed told me it would be a whole lot cheaper to bring them in from China, but I'd ether have to pay for air freight or wait for a container shipment. I fixed it and put it back into service.

I think the governor ball retainer failure was just a freak thing that would probably never happen again in a million years. Here's what you need to watch out for. This is what turned my 1115 into a doorstop.

The second failure:
The valve cover on a 1115 ships from the factory with no lockwasher on the one nut that holds it to the stud. Even the book shows this. During the night, this nut worked loose from vibration and emptied the contents of the oil sump onto the floor. The engine spun the big end bearing on the rod and ruined the crankshaft. I was almost asleep when I heard the BANG from the generator shed, followed immediately by a stomach churning silence.

I tore it down and got the parts list together within a couple of days, complete with part numbers, and got it to Mohammed. He agreed that it would be best to put all this on his next container shipment because the parts, including a crankshaft, were just too heavy to do this by air freight. Mohammed was unable to get the parts onto the container. At that point, I decided that I didn't want to wait anymore for another container to try again and I bought a genset with a Chinese 495 engine on it.

I put the Changfa on a dolly and pushed it into the corner of my shop. There it still sits today. Someday I'd like to get the parts and fix it because I think it's a really cool engine, but it had problems with running it on WMO blend because it's a direct injection design and even at 66% WMO I had to clean the injector at least once a week, so it's not an urgent priority for me anymore. I won't run any direct injection engine again on any alternative fuel other than biodiesel. Indirect injection works so much better for most alternative fuels.

My advice for you Changfa owners is to get another nut for the valve cover stud, install it right on top of the existing one and tighten the two nuts against each other. A 20 cent nut at the hardware store could save your engine. Since this is one possible failure out of many that could easily occur with this kind of vibration, I'll never run any engine, especially a Changfa, unattended without at least an overtemp and a low oil pressure shutdown. If you haven't already installed these things on the Changfa engines, I recommend that you turn the engine off and don't run it unattended until you do install them.

These Changfa engines create some nasty vibration. 1.2L in a single cylinder has to. It has counterbalance weights, but I think these just keep it from leaving town on it's own.  A little time and money spent monitoring this with a couple of simple sending units and a shutdown solenoid, even if was only hooked to the compression release, would have saved my engine. With all this vibration, the likelyhood of this or something else leaking is pretty high. Setting them up with an emergency stop to monitor temp and oil pressure should be a priority.

Don't read this the wrong way. I like these little engines a lot. I just think that because of the vibrations, there a few things that need to be done to make it reliable.

[mkdutchman]

I bought a 1115ZS from Mohammed. I really liked the engine, but I had some problems with it. I've had two major failures. I'm not discouraged by these failures, just the unavailability of repair parts. These wouldn't have been major problems except that no one, including Mohammed, can come up with the parts I need to fix it. I've had an offer from another Changfa dealer to buy up a returned engine that the customer said "runs rough" for $450.00, but when I add the freight to that I'm only $300.00 away from the cost of buying another new one from Mohammed and shipping it to me. I'm sure that Hardy Day can get the parts for me, but again, the price of the parts vs the cost to replace the engine is a factor.

In the first failure, the governor ball retainer broke inside the engine, releasing the governor balls and tearing up the timing gears. Mohammed said he could bring the parts in from China for me, but I wanted to get it running quickly, so I got the parts that I needed from Hardy Day. I paid about $300.00 for the parts, but I had them in two days. Mohammed told me it would be a whole lot cheaper to bring them in from China, but I'd ether have to pay for air freight or wait for a container shipment. I fixed it and put it back into service.

I think the governor ball retainer failure was just a freak thing that would probably never happen again in a million years. Here's what you need to watch out for. This is what turned my 1115 into a doorstop.

The second failure:
The valve cover on a 1115 ships from the factory with no lockwasher on the one nut that holds it to the stud. Even the book shows this. During the night, this nut worked loose from vibration and emptied the contents of the oil sump onto the floor. The engine spun the big end bearing on the rod and ruined the crankshaft. I was almost asleep when I heard the BANG from the generator shed, followed immediately by a stomach churning silence.

I tore it down and got the parts list together within a couple of days, complete with part numbers, and got it to Mohammed. He agreed that it would be best to put all this on his next container shipment because the parts, including a crankshaft, were just too heavy to do this by air freight. Mohammed was unable to get the parts onto the container. At that point, I decided that I didn't want to wait anymore for another container to try again and I bought a genset with a Chinese 495 engine on it.

I put the Changfa on a dolly and pushed it into the corner of my shop. There it still sits today. Someday I'd like to get the parts and fix it because I think it's a really cool engine, but it had problems with running it on WMO blend because it's a direct injection design and even at 66% WMO I had to clean the injector at least once a week, so it's not an urgent priority for me anymore. I won't run any direct injection engine again on any alternative fuel other than biodiesel. Indirect injection works so much better for most alternative fuels.

I was reading this with some interest, especially the part where you said you are dealing with Mohammed. As it happens we are repairing a Changfa also, and are dealing with a Mohammed (I think it's the same person you are dealing with) too. I can sure relate to your lack of parts/parts availability problem, our changfa was supposed to be out of service for maybe two months, it's been about 7 now, sigh...........

[Doug]

There sure is a lot of hype that goes along with all these slow speed engines.....

Then the reality sets in, you need to work to keeop them running and un less you bought an arm load of parts ahead of time your looking at down time or in Gus's case never been up time...

Doug

[mkdutchman]

.......you need to work to keeop them running and un less you bought an arm load of parts ahead of time your looking at down time or in Gus's case never been up time...

Doug

Just out of curiosity, where are you with the Gus project by now?

[Doug]

I've been a little side tracked with cosmetic touches but I could start to assemble...

Right now I guess if I were pushed.

The last of the parts are back from the machine shop and I have every thing I need for the assembly. Maybe a few studs missing I'll have to make and lots of painting to do.

I've been buisy trying to make an upgraded intake and air cleaner. The intake is ready to go but the gtlow plug and air filter half are still in the pipe dream stage.

My own bypass oil filter housing was a flop, I'm still searching for a cartrage filter that will fit my needs to replace the Indian unit that uses filters I can't match.

The exhaust manifold and mufler are also in the pipe dream phase. Canadian tire has some cheap muflers for sale and that may be an option.

My choice of Using JCI fittings for the intake exhaust and coolant fittings is a double edged blade. Sure they will make service easy but they were never intended for this purpose and I actualy have a lot of fab work that goes into making one.

Stripped the paint off the main rear bearing carrier today. I was going to just paint over it but something told me to look it over. That was a waste of time nothing to see, and I ruined the rear seal on removal.

Here is an interesting link.....
http://www.jic-fittings.co.uk/BSP-Fittings/BSP-Male-Insert/p-92-355/BSP-Male-Insert.htm
BSP to JIC so you can have simple hydraulic shop common hoses for fuel and oil lines.

The #24 fittings I am using are about 1 1/2 inch, this makes them perfect for my intake and exhaust needs. And the gental bends and smooth surfaces should flow much better than my stock restrictive parts.

Doug

Follow this link for a complete start to current list of photos
http://www.putfile.com/dougwp/images/31565

[mobile_bob]

Doug:
"There sure is a lot of hype that goes along with all these slow speed engines....."

Damn you have a dim view of these engines

to all others:

i have been around diesel engines from little guys from 6hp aircooled to 1710 ci cummins and 12v149s, and just about everything inbetween.

without exception the common offerings from cummins, detroit, mack, navistar, cat, perkins etc
are much more of a problem to repair, requireing all manner of specialized tooling, expensive parts
(albeit easier to get sometimes) special processes and more than the average DIY'ers ability to effect any meaningful repairs. my bet is kubota, isuzu, etc are nearly as heavy on the above requirements.

as opposed to the listeroid, petteroid, and to a lessor extent the changfa, where most able bodied DIY'er can effect a repair and get his engine back online using some pretty crude methods, few tools and low expense.

are they perfect? certainly not.
but what engine is?

are they reasonable in price? yes!
what other engine meets this criteria?

i have said this before, and it bares repeating..

"as a certified diesel mechanic that has many years experience with many differing engines..
if i were to pick an engine and a generator head to be dropped on Mars with,,, you damn sure bet
that it would be a listeroid and an st head"

i would hope that folks would read the meaning behind that statement

you might ask why i would make such a choice?

because i can think of no other engine that is so easily made to run, and run long hours,,, even if it smokes, rattles, knocks and leaks.... it will continue to run.

if i needed a big end brg,, i am confident i could relign the old one with tire weights if need be and scrape to refit and it would work

if i had a badly scored crank journal and given enough time, i could resize it in my garage as well, and it would run

if i had a bent pushrod, or a bent valve, i know i could straighten either and make it run again.

if i had a noisey ball or roller brg, i know i could repack as necessary and make it work,, maybe it makes some noise,, but it will run.

if i have a scored injector pump, i am confident i could make it work again as well, same for an injector.

if i had an idler with a broken tooth or three, i know i could put new teeth on it as well if pressed to do so.

i cannot think of an easier to repair and make run engine

there is literally nothing on these engines that cannot be made to work given a bit of time and some
forethought

would it operate at western standards, probably not... but faced with running and not haveing a runner.. which would you choose?

i think it also should be stated that most folks regard this "hobby" if you will with some bit of passion,
there are many good importers that work tirelessly to improve the product. I think to continually berate the engines based on "small sampling" is not fair and undermines the efforts of those that are
doing the work to improve not only engines that are imported but those that already are here.

again i will state for the record that these engines and the st head are an amazing product for the dollars spent.

i can if i chose find all the faults with either the engines or the st head, but what good does it do?

better to analize the faults, find ways to make them right,, than to just call them junk, wouldnt you think?

especially when there really is no alternative engine or genhead that:

1. is within the DIY'ers price range
2. is within the DIY'er means to not only maintain but repair
3. is within the DIY'ers budget for tooling
4. is within the DIY'ers ability to understand without specialized training
5. will continue to run, even if it smokes, rattles, knocks, and leaks
6. seems to run for thousands of hours with sand, dirt, grit and poor quality control
7. will burn just about any fuel that is flammable
8. can be hand crank started... and...
9. is commonly available (ok ,, relatively speaking)

now then if you can find an alternative that fills these 9 criteria, step up and tell me

i am all ears,,, rather "eyes" 

bob g

[ronsmith]

I got the changfa 1115 installed at my home. It is belted to a 12kw st head. I tried it out over the weekend. It ran fine and carried the load . It ran (not all at the same time), My lights, tv, computers, ref., and washer and dryer, ceiling fans etc. It really ran hot with the washer and dryer on at the same time. So I am installing a manifold plate from utterpower w/ a 40 gal thermo-siphon tank. I hope that will give me enough cooling capacity for the heave 220v loads. Will keep you posted. PS went to Columbus, Ohio on saturday to Mohammeds house to exchange a dead 12kw st head and he exchanged with no problem. While there I couldnt resist temptation and bought one of the 4.9 hp water cooled changfas he had on ebay. Well that will be a future project!

[rcavictim]

I got the changfa 1115 installed at my home. It is belted to a 12kw st head. I tried it out over the weekend. It ran fine and carried the load . It ran (not all at the same time), My lights, tv, computers, ref., and washer and dryer, ceiling fans etc. It really ran hot with the washer and dryer on at the same time. So I am installing a manifold plate from utterpower w/ a 40 gal thermo-siphon tank. I hope that will give me enough cooling capacity for the heave 220v loads. Will keep you posted. PS went to Columbus, Ohio on saturday to Mohammeds house to exchange a dead 12kw st head and he exchanged with no problem. While there I couldnt resist temptation and bought one of the 4.9 hp water cooled changfas he had on ebay. Well that will be a future project!

Ron,

At those power levels the 40 gallon tank will keep your engine cool only until it gets up to temperature.  After that it will have insufficient surface area to shed the extra heat.  I suggest you also incorporate some sort of fan forced radiator with it.

[Doug]

Your right Bob I do have a dim view, not because the engines themselves are bad it s just the poor quality control. Can you amagine what it would be like then done right in volume and EPA compliant?

I love the design, the castings are acceptable, I just wish it had been clean.

And I know a lot of top notch engines are too com[plictaed to service and or don't last. At 2000 hours the CAT engine in our new 50 ton off road truck is done and thats a state of the art engine.

The in frame overhaul should be a freak show, I'll snap pictures of. Its being done in  "Dust's House" 74 Garage.....

Doug

[ronsmith]

Would a truck radiator say out of a 67, 68 ford pickup have enough capacity w/ fan or would I still need the 40 gal. tank and the radiator?

[rcavictim]

Would a truck radiator say out of a 67, 68 ford pickup have enough capacity w/ fan or would I still need the 40 gal. tank and the radiator?

That radiator with a fan ought to work just fine without any additional tank I would think.  You want a rad with vertical cores and the reservoirs at the top and bottom.