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Author Topic: 1000 hour decoke  (Read 5681 times)

Hugh Conway

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1000 hour decoke
« on: June 04, 2016, 11:18:49 PM »
We started running this JKSON in 2013 to drive an Utterpower PMG for off-grid service. It has given relatively trouble free service so far. An oil change every 250 hours, the valve gear gets oiled before each run, it gets wiped down once in a while, other than that, it just gets run. The engine lives outside under a shed roof here on the Canadian we(s)t coast.
A few days ago, pulled the head for a 1000 hour decoke and to check on things generally.
Found carbon build up to be very little in the head and comet. The exhaust valve and port had most build up. I pulled out the valves and gave them a clean-up and light lapping. Noticed that the piston head had an area of no carbon and some light pitting. Every so often, I spray about 1 litre of water into the intake at high loading, this may account for little carbon and the pitting. A visual check showed no discernible wear in  in the bore, some cross hatching was still visible and no ridge can be felt at top of ring travel.
When I first started running this engine, I knew next to nothing except to pull it down, clean out the sand, reassemble, and run. Over the hours and years, much has been learned from the expert advise and sometimes questions and mistakes from other amateurs like myself here on the forum. I kept this in mind when putting things back together. 
A major item was to check bump clearance! Before I pulled the cylinder off, The bump measured .120" .No wonder it was hard (read nearly impossible) to hand start in cooler weather. What a difference in starting with the bump set at .075". Now this JKSON starts as easily as my Dursley 6/1.
One reason for the large clearance was several thick cylinder base gaskets. Another problem, the wet sleeve protrusion above the deck was out of tolerance......too proud  by about 7 thou. That was remedied with one of my hand operated milling machines.........patient draw filing did the trick to bring the protrusion into limits.......made the head gasket seal the water passages better as well!
Just for grins, visually checked the crank journal, shiny no scratches. Rod bearing clearance was in tolerance.
Drained the sump, wiped it out with a quart of diesel, changed the aftermarket filter, oiled it up and it is ready for another 1000.....I hope many 1000s!
Thank you all for the help, advise, and assistance. The readily available wisdom and information here makes things lots easier.

Cheers,
Hugh

BTW, I still have that SR2 to give away. Found some time to reassemble it, so might be easier for one of you to get it.
JKson 6/1  (Utterpower PMG ) Off-grid
Lister 6/1 Start-O-Matic engine......running with PMG
1978 Royal Enfield (glutton for punishment by Indian iron)
1963 BMW R-27 project

BruceM

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2016, 11:34:14 PM »
Glad your new bump clearance and "hand milling" of liner protrusion did the trick, Hugh.  I'm a fan of the water spray bottle under full load method, too. This fall I've got to do a proper decarbon and journal bearing replacement. The old girl is pushing 3000 hrs. Looks like she will easily outlast me.


Gippslander

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2016, 08:38:31 AM »
Excellent  :)

My Jkson 6/1 has about 30 seconds of running time on it  :o

West Canada ..have you heard of a book. " Three against the Wilderness"  by Eric Collier ?  Good read
Gippsland is in the S.E. corner of mainland Australia

veggie

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2016, 03:10:11 PM »
Hugh,

That's good feedback. Thanks for posting.
Are you burning dino diesel only? or are there some "alternative fuels" too?.... like veg oil.

A couple more questions....  :)

How many hours per day does it run?
Driving loads directly ?  or charging a battery bank?

Cheers,
Veggie
- 6/1 GM90 Listeroid - Delco 33si Alternator
- Changfa R175 - Lease/Neville Alternator
- JiangDong R165 Air cooled - 2 kw
- Changfa S195 (Waiting for a project)

Hugh Conway

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2016, 04:50:48 PM »
@ Veggie

Yes, Dino diesel. I have mixed in a small amount of old saw/weedeater  gas a time or two, but really it could be considered as diesel from the pump. There is not the opportunity to try anything else here except used motor oil, and not worth the effort IMHO. I'm not really an experimenter, need a reliable machine and have a lot other things higher on on our priority list.

Mostly used for battery charging. 24V 85T-17s via Magnum 4024. Occasionally, we bypass the inverter to run tools, but mostly the inverter handles everything. Two days ago, was running the table saw and planer for most of the afternoon on inverter with solar recharging the batteries.
Out biggest power draw is the 3/4hp deep well pump. We have to avoid using water and machinery at same time.

Run time is usually 2 hours daily, and that is predominately October to March with a few hours here and there during the rest of the year.

And Gippslander;  sorry, did not respond to your question. No, have not read that book, but will put it on my winter reading list. We go through a lot of books in the dark days and really look forward to our winter reads.

Cheers,
Hugh

JKson 6/1  (Utterpower PMG ) Off-grid
Lister 6/1 Start-O-Matic engine......running with PMG
1978 Royal Enfield (glutton for punishment by Indian iron)
1963 BMW R-27 project

veggie

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2016, 04:59:57 AM »

[  QUOTE" Mostly used for battery charging. 24V 85T-17s via Magnum 4024. " ]

So... are you generating 120 volts with the Listeroid to feed the AC-input on the Magnum ? and in turn, the Magnum charges the batteries?

OR

Are you generating 24vdc with an alternator and feeding the Magnum?

I ask because I too have a Magnum 4024 that I have not yet put into service.
I was thinking that I would have to generate 120 volts with my Listeroid and feed it into the AC-IN connections on my Magnum.

Veggie
- 6/1 GM90 Listeroid - Delco 33si Alternator
- Changfa R175 - Lease/Neville Alternator
- JiangDong R165 Air cooled - 2 kw
- Changfa S195 (Waiting for a project)

Quinnf

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2016, 07:21:25 AM »
Hugh, glad to hear your 'roid is still chugging along.  The cylinder liner protrusion on my 6/1 needed attention, too.  I have an ST2 generator in a shed next to my shop.  We're on Fox Island in south Puget Sound.  The genny only gets used when power goes out.  It's a nice engine, but when running it makes the place sound and smell like a large truck stop.  That's a hard engine to silence! 

Quinn


Ashwamegh 6/1, PowerSolutions 6/1 "Kit" engine, and a Changfa R175a that looks like a Yanmar I once knew

Hugh Conway

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2016, 05:03:47 PM »
@ Veggie: The 'roid is driving an utterpower PMG wired for 240V split-phase. That power is input to the inverter, the built-in charger tops up the batteries from there. I am not sure if you can feed the Magnum 120V only........Never checked, as before getting the inverter, when we powered everything with the JKSON/PMG, the deep well pump required 240, so wired the PMG for that output. Now our refrigeration uses 240V as well.

Hello Quinn, glad to see you are still around! Your ST2 is similar to the air-cooled SR2 , if I'm not mistaken. I used to have one of those in a boat. Reliable and trouble free, but sounded like the engine room in a destroyer at war emergency power. Hot air was ducted into the cockpit, so was a welcome dry warmth on a wet cold day.

We started this off-grid set-up unintentionally. Winter power outages were frequent and long, so the Listeroid and 3 KW PMG were a good solution. When $martmeters came along, we were not interested, so called up Hydro and got them to disconnect us from the grid. Good decision.
This combination seems a good match-up. When charging batteries, we are using about 2800 watts max. I have run a measured 3800 watts of resistive load for 1/2 hour just to see what happened....nothing out of the ordinary. The engine pulled the load nicely, and maintained 59.4Hz The generator did not get discernibly hotter, so 2800W is probably a nicely loaded sweet spot for this combination of engine, gen head, and inverter/charger.

Cheers,
Hugh

 
JKson 6/1  (Utterpower PMG ) Off-grid
Lister 6/1 Start-O-Matic engine......running with PMG
1978 Royal Enfield (glutton for punishment by Indian iron)
1963 BMW R-27 project

38ac

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Re: 1000 hour decoke
« Reply #8 on: June 16, 2016, 02:34:44 PM »
Glad to read about a user getting good service from a properly prepped  Indian engine.  It is unfortunate that enough bad engines were sold to the unknowing that the reputation is ruined among a lot of users. Around here that is primarily the Amish. Even though they dont do Cyber they DO communicate across long distances and you cant give a Listeroid to an Amishman. 
My personal 6/1 clone gets used whenever I can dream up something for it to do but it doesn't have 200 hours on it.  Power hasnt even blinked here for 6 months and hasnt been off long enough to start up a generator for 3 years, or long enough that most everyone has quit maintaining their generators this none of them will run when it does go off, LOL

Water most certainly helps with the decoke, as does using only clean #2 diesel and a good loading.

Our power here is still too cheap to consider off grid in my opinion, bills at the new place are running around $110 per month after a $25 discount for letting them put a cut out on the water heater.
Collector and horder of about anything diesel