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Messages - mjn

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106
Listeroid Engines / Re: Unground Muffler design
« on: May 12, 2006, 02:53:26 AM »
Quote from: hotater on May 11, 2006, 06:18:45 PM
..snip..
Once the tank is flushed with air I've cut, drilled, sawed, welded, brazed and torch-cut on them without harm.  They still SMELL dangerous, though!!
..snip...

I used essentially hotater's procedure when I made a WVO tank for my Changfa.   I took the valve off , flushed it with air and water.  It still smelled like propane, but I went ahead anyway.  I turned it upside down on my drill press and proceeded to drill the hole in the bottom of the tank.  While I was drilling a thick greenish yellow oil came dripping out of the valve hole onto my drill press.

My drill press and shop smelled like propane for a week.  My theory is that the odorant used in the propane does not fully evaporate with the propane.  The oderant builds up as oil in the bottom of the tank over time.

Here is one of my tanks with the fill pipe brazed on before painting...


Yes... that is a piece of galv pipe, but I chucked it in the lathe and  machined the zinc off the inside before I brazed it on.

107
Waste Vegetable Oil / Re: Vegie oils & conversions
« on: May 04, 2006, 05:40:18 PM »
Quote from: Ironworks on May 04, 2006, 04:43:11 AM
I have been told not to let the VO get over 200F. ....

160-180F should be the target for VO entering the injector pump.  At that temp VO behaves like diesel around freezing (See the frybrid viscosity chart http://www.frybrid.com/svo.htm)  Getting it hotter than that at best is a waste of effort because the IP acts as a heat sink and cools the VO to 160-180.  At worst, high temps can damage the IP.

The optimum temperature after the IP is a whole other story.  When injector line heaters wre first introduced, there was a huge flamewar on the infopop forum about how they would either cause problems or be a total waste of effort.   

The people who claimed that it would be a waste of effort pointed to the huge heat sink in the form of the injector bolted to a huge chunk of metal.  They claimed that the VO would get heated/cooled to head temperature regardless of what temperature it entered the injector.   In response, the proponents pointed out that their engines ran better, did not get all carboned up, and had fewer hydrocarbon emissions when running with the heaters on.

Other people were concerned that the heaters would cause coking and/or polymerization in the injector lines. Injector line heaters are still fairly new, but to date, there have be no reports of damage caused by the heaters.

Personally I think there is valid concern about overheating the VO, but I don't think that becomes an issue until you get it over 300F.  (My reasoning is that this stuff sits all day in fryers at 350F without coking or polymerizing).  I know for certain, that injecting cold VO will cause problems, so I went with the line heater to ensure that I can't inject cold VO.

108
Listeroid Engines / Re: What about a real oil bath air filter....
« on: May 03, 2006, 08:13:20 PM »
Back in the '70s fresh out of high school, my first job was working for a logging operation.  I had firsthand experience with the effectiveness of the centrifugal prefilters on the Cat machines.

The centrifugal prefilter on the Cat skidder was the key to one of the pranks they would pull on the greenhorns

During one of the breaks, the old guys would be clustered around the machine "looking for a leak in the radiator".  Of course the new kid wants to help, so while they rev the engine, he looks for leaks. 

On these machines the fan blows forward.  While the new guy has his face down near the radiator, they dump the entire contents of the prefilter into the radiator fan.  The new guy comes up for air coated in a very thick layer of the finest dust you have ever seen.

I nearly got caught, but I saw the guy unscrewing the prefilter lid, so I stepped back to watch the action.

109
Waste Vegetable Oil / Re: Vegie oils & conversions
« on: May 02, 2006, 06:08:57 PM »
Ken is using heaters on his injector lines after the injector pump.

The concern about overheating the veggie oil causing lack of lubrication relates to the injector pump.   After the injector pump, there is not a great need for lubrication for the injector.

When the injector line heaters first hit the scene, there was a heated discussion on the infopop forum about the potential downsides.  At that time, the fear was that heating the injector lines could cause the oil to polymerize and lead to clogged injectors.

At this point, I think those fears have been dispelled.

--
mjn
WVO changfa generator
http://martin.nile.googlepages.com/

110
Waste Vegetable Oil / Re: Changfa ZS195
« on: April 05, 2006, 07:37:06 PM »
Hi Stan,

I have a Changfa 195 which I just got running on WVO yesterday.  It didn't even miss a beat when I switched from diesel to WVO.  I'm using a fattywagons injector line heater (http://www.fattywagons.com) to ensure that the WVO is up to temp before being injected.

You can see my progress so far at http://martin.nile.googlepages.com/


111
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: Changfa 195 lazy governor
« on: April 05, 2006, 07:25:01 PM »
Quote
  Try to find a spring that has to be stretched quite a bit to maintain the speed you want.

Thanks Dirtbike,  That helped.  I found a softer spring that behaves just like the 8 inch mess that was my best attempt to date.

Here is my hacked together test mount with the 2.5inch soft spring.


Now I just need to rig a better mount. 

112
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: Changfa 195 lazy governor
« on: March 27, 2006, 09:24:16 PM »
Quote from: DirtbikePilot on March 09, 2006, 04:03:57 AM
..snip. Get a longer spring, one that doesn't have as much change in tension per length stretched. ..snip...

Over the weekend I rigged up a mount where I could try different length springs.  The stock spring is about 1.5 inches long.  Using a standard load, with no load freq set at 60 hz I tried a 2 inch spring with no noticable affect at 57hz. A 4 inch spring,  is a bit better at 57.5.  A 6 inch spring is better still at 58hz.  An 8 inch spring gives me 58.5 to 59 hz.  I consider this an acceptable level governing, but it is still not perfect because the speed hunts up and down .25 hz.  I don't know if this is because it is too long, or the whole spring is vibrating in harmony with the engine.

All of the springs I'm using are from an old desk lamp.  I'll keep poking around looking for other springs to try to find a better match.

You can see my work in progress on my Changfa Generator Page:http://martin.nile.googlepages.com/.
--
mjn

113
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: Changfa 195 lazy governor
« on: March 19, 2006, 06:47:21 AM »
Dirtbike:  Thanks for your input.  I'm searching for the appropriate spring.  So far, all of the springs in my junk pile are too stiff.  There is about .75 inches of adjustment on the spring mounting point.  Hopefully that is enough room once I find the right spring.

Jim Mc:  I did some tests to see how much power I can actually produce with the 195.  In addition to running at 1800 rpm, I'm also at 3500 feet elevation so I  have that against me as well.   In my earlier post, the watt readings were quick guestimates and turned out to be a bit high.

By adding load 1000 watts at a time and adjusting the frequency manually back up to 60 hz, I was able to find the maximum power point.   Your estimated max power of 6kw is very close to what I can get out of the engine without creating lots of smoke and still keep at 60 hz.   I start seeing smoke around 5700 watts.  Above 6000 watts, I can no longer adjust the speed to keep the frequency at 60 hz.  At 6500 watts the engine is wide open making clouds of black smoke.  The frequency is down to 58 hz and the voltage is down to 225 pulling 29 amps. 

You are also correct in observing that the loads in the house should have no problem with the 57 hz frequency.  At that load level, the voltage is 222 volts which is lower than I would like to see.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with how well the 195 handles the load.  Especially considering my elevation which by all rights should prevent me from reaching 6000 watts.  Hopefully I can get the governor working up to my expectations

114
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Changfa 195 lazy governor
« on: March 08, 2006, 07:13:48 PM »
Hi Group.

I am totally thrilled to find this forum. (I followed a link on rocketboy's site).

After drooling over a listeroid for 8 months, I purchased a Changfa 195 from Joel on ebay in hopes that it would help ease the symptoms of listeroiditis.   Unfortunately the symptoms still remain.  In the meantime, I a least have a diesel project to work on.

My engine is direct connected via a Lovejoy l-150 coupling to an ST 7.5 gen head.  So I'm running the engine at 1800 rpm instead of the rated 2200 rpm.

At no load, I set the speed to produce 61hz (as read on a kill-a-watt meter).  As I start applying load, I can hear the engine picking up and working harder, but at 3000 watts load, I'm under 60 hz.  At 6000 watts, I'm running at 57 hz.  As I approach 7000 watts I'm down to around 55 hz. At 7000 watts the engine is starting to smoke, but nothing really heavy.

The engine has plenty of power to carry the load because I can manually re-adjust the speed back to 60 or 61 hz.  The problem is that when the load drops off, the engine overspeeds and I end up making 250 volts at 65 hz.

From what I have read on George's site, it seems that the Changfa engines have better governors than the listeroids, but I would hope for much better speed regulation than what I'm seeing. 

Is this normal?  if not, what are my options for improving my speed regulation.  I'm considering a microcontroller based system to automate the generator, and it would not be too difficult to add a stepper moter to "assist" the governor, but it really seems silly.

-------------------
mjn   
Changfa 195 WVO conversion in the works

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