Selling my Witte BD Generator. This is a very late production unit from the early '70's. The factory gen head is a 12 wire 3ph Kato 14kw wired to output 4.5kw of 120/240vac. The unit is electric start and has real Murphy gauges automatic low oil pressure or over temp shutdown. The engine is 9hp @ 1040rpm has a rebuilt injector pump and a Frantz oil filter. The bearings in the gen head growel and need replacement. The engine runs good and the gen head makes power. It comes with the factory manual and a 100 years of Witte 1870-1970 sales brochure. The unit is located in Hopland, CA. I'd like to ger $3500 for it.
https://youtu.be/BhAQ0uFinls?si=1TftN5dBt_o4u378 Video running.

With all the rain we've been getting the Listeroid has been seeing a LOT of run time lately. Yesterday it logged 2008 hours. It took a lot of work, but it now is rock steady reliable and almost always starts on the first compression stroke. A lot of parts in the engine have been changed in the last 9 years, some due to bad mfg tolerances and some due to crappy alternate fuels.

The hydronic system is working well and frequently the back bedroom of the house (usually the coolest room in the house) has frequently been up to 75f. Our primary heat source is wood, however when we get a lot of run time like this we don't burn nearly as much wood.

On of this summers projects is to add a compressor to the 6/1 so it can be used to make compressed air for sandblasting and painting projects. The plan is for air or generator, and not both at the same time. Creating as much CFM as possible, given the available HP, will mean I need a good match between the compressor. There is a 12" double B groove pulley on the engine crank shaft that came with it.

I've been exploring 2 routes to accomplish this goal, one is to buy a HF compressor http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/compressor-pumps/145-psi-5-hp-twin-cylinder-air-compressor-pump-67698.html and run the "V" belts on the flywheel. This compressor is for a 5hp electric motor, so I don't know how well a Listeroid 6/1 will power it. Another way to go seems to be to get a used air brake compressor from a diesel truck. An advantage to the truck unit is that the pressure regulator is already there.

And this leads to another question, with the HF compressor, how would the compressor be disconnected when the pressure set point is reached?

Tom

Does anyone know where I can download a manual for a 6/1 injector pump. My origional pump started leaking out the bottom, so I'm now running my spare. I've got the rebuild parts, but don't want to have it spring apart and then try to figure how to get the parts back together.

The engine now has about 850 hours on it and last weekend it was chugging hard and puffing lots of black smoke. Also it would spin up slow when starting and not handle much of a load on the generator. It was starting on the first compression stroke though.

So since decarboning is scheduled every 1000 hours and I've been running all kinds of alt fuels it seemed it was due. There wasn't much carbon under the head or on the piston crown. But I scraped it any way. Removed the valves and found a bit of pitting on the faces so I lapped them. There was a bit of carbon on the injector tip so I cleaned it and tested the spray which looked good. Then put it all back together and..... it runs fine! The only problem may have been the carbon on the injector, but I'm really not sure.

As we approach "generator season" in our off grid life style, I though I'd share a bit of how the preps for the new season are going. I've finished most of the hardi plank siding of the generator shack and have spent some time experimenting with the drum of used hydraulic oil. The engine now has 760 hours on it.

But before that lets visit some old issues the first being a very stiff rack. It seems that the WVO I'd run during construction of  our home had polymerized on both the inside and outside of the engine. I'd tried acetone to clean it out with no luck. The situation was so bad that the engine would over shoot on RPM's on startup. It looks like that problem was fixed today with a bit of marvel mystery oil and some carb cleaner. The MM Oil cut right through the deposits on the fuel cans so I tried it, last week, on the rack and it helped, but only a bit. Today I doused the rack alternately with carb cleaner and the MM Oil while moving it back and forth and suddenly it penetrated and the rack started moving real easy. Yay!

Last winter I mixed the diesel with 10 to 20% WMO with good results. On starting this year there was a lot of slobber and white smoke. So I added some acetone and MM Oil to the tank and after running it through things cleaned up real nice! Yay number 2! Now that it was running clean it was time to try some of the 55 gal of used hydraulic oil I was given from work. I don't know exactly what kind it is, but it looks to be a clear reddish brown. It was transferred out of the tank and through a 10 micron string wound house filter with no detected residue. I mixed some in a clear 1 liter pop bottle with 50% diesel to see if anything settled and it looked good so in the tank it went. Since there was already some fuel in the tank I'd guess the mix was about 25% hydraulic oil. Ran it a few yours and the exhaust was nice and clean. A test start today went flawless. I will continue to up the percentage of WHO and see how it goes.

Later.

A long time buddy of mine was over today and was oggling the 'roid. So any way he wants one bad and is trying to figure out what to do with it and we came up with the idea to heat and run a hot tub. Use the generator to run the jets and pump and heat the water in the water jacket of the engine. Add a little scented biodiesel and who knows, it could be the start of a new fad.

Well I've got the the Listeroid properly mounted to its brand new block of concrete in the new engine shed.

The exhaust goes down into an LP tank muffler buried in the floor.
 
 And then out the side of the hill.

And the oft discussed block of concrete. I chose to sandwich a bit of wood in there for a bit of cushion.
 

It had a 3.5 hour run yesterday charging batteries and joy of joys no cracks in the concrete, which is a significant achievement since now that it is firmly attached to the ground it shakes the ground, shed and house. I guess I'll have to add balancing to the list of things I need to do.