Thanks Keith71,
veggie or veggiefuel both work, When the site crashed many years ago, my veggiefuel account could not be reinstated so it changed to veggie.

Powdermonkey, Changfa engines make excellent generators. Either belt driven or direct coupled, they are super reliable machines which have proven themselves worldwide. Take a look at this youtube site where Radoslav builds Changfa generators for shipment to Ukraine and Slovakia.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIVBVYuw4xBMXGzEYPtGueA/videos
The majority of the units he builds are belt driven. (In between the tractor videos there are many good examples of Chinese diesel generators)

I much prefer belt driven systems for two reasons.
1] Simplicity of construction. Direct coupled units need their shafts to be rigidly aligned within a few thousandths of an inch in order to make the coupling last a reasonable amount of time. Belt drives are a bit more forgiving.
2] Belt drives offer great flexibility for engine speeds. By changing a pulley size the engine can be run at any desired speed. This is helpful for noise control and engine longevity (if one wishes to run the engine a bit slower than normal for extended life).
With direct shaft coupled units, the engine MUST run at the speed dictated by the generator, usually 1800 rpm or 3600 rpm in north America.

Hi All,

I'm looking for a Changfa style R175 or R180 engine. (new or used is ok)
Preferably in Canada, but USA would work also.

Veggie

CS6_owner,
This inverter has no settings. It's a small 1000 watt unit.
Just plug-and-play.
I want to limit the power going to it at 800 watts.

Oooops !

*** Duplicate ***

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cujet

Thanks for the numbers. All the research I have done regarding DC alternators states that the average efficiency is around 55%.
So it would seem that the ST generator is far more efficient at making power.
A difference of 30%  (85 compared to 55) is considerable.
In other words, my engine with an alternator would have to work 30% harder to make the same power as an ST head.

I have never opened my Cam oil port. If the bearing is tucked away in an upper corner of the crankcase, I wonder were it gets oil from?
The idea to divert some lubrication to this point seems like a good one. Currently, I'm fitting a pump and oil filter to the sump, so branching
 the return line and running a tube to that port would not be hard to do.

Veggie,  I'm surely not smart enough to help you with electrics but wanted to say I'm sure glad to see Bruce posting.
My ST15 doesnt care how the 110 loads are split but an ST-5 I have paired with a 6/1 will protest loudly if the 110  loads get nore than a little bit imbalanced

Nothing like a good electrical question to pull Bruce out of hiding 
Greetings to you both, 38AC and BruceM

@BruceM,

You nailed it ! Thanks.
I rewired to 120 volts and all noise and vibration disappeared.
If you look at the pictures above, the 4-prong 240 volt receptacle in the orange box now has two 20A, 120 volt receptacles.
Full load and still quiet. No vibration.

My house transfer switch requires split phase 240, so this generator will be mostly useless as a backup house generator.
Fortunately it powers the greenhouse 120vac electrical + heat loads, so it still has a job.
Hmmmm.... time for another generator build for the house ? 

Now, here's a question for you (and anyone else).
The listeroid/ST-3 will be powering a greenhouse that is not grid connected.
It's electric outlets are not connected to the house, so they are not wired to a source that has ground and neutral bonded.
The ST-3 head has a floating neutral (not bonded to ground)
When powering the greenhouse, the whole system is a floating neutral.

When using the ST heads for home service the floating neutral is desired, but for powering anything other than a house, do we bond the ground with neutral?  or not?
As a test, I made a plug which connects ground to neutral, and plugged it into the generator outlet while running. No observable change.
However, the safety aspect changed. For the better? or for the worse? I don't know.

Here's another (but similar) example:
A listeroid with ST head powering a 120 volt 75 amp (24 volt)  battery charger for a large battery bank (1900 watts). No grid connection at all.
The charger is plugged directly in to a 120 outlet on the 120VAC ST head using standard 20A 120 volt plug with L1, Neutral, and Ground prongs.
Should the ground be connected to the neutral somewhere at the origin of the power ?

cheers