I have been looking at flat belts and when I saw that 3 inch belt I was impressed. The engine is a Cummins in a John Deere forage harvester. Here is a clip of what it does. And to think my dad cut corn by hand.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTdwNY5g2Y

Score! Those are some fine generator heads! Any more kicking around?  

dieselgman

A local electrician gets them for us. I am not sure where he gets them.

We are now running two units produce 3 phase high voltage for irrigation systems and will soon add a third. The gen head for the 8/1 could be "borrowed" and rewired for the irrigation systems in an emergency. So my toy will serve more than one purpose. That is my story, and I am sticking with it.......

I now have something to turn with the 8/1. Like potato chips, you cant stop with just one. Actually the second one will be used on an irrigation project.

One good thing about working with parts of suspect quality, I can make some of the parts even though I am not a machinist . One of the valve stem cap thingies went missing so I cranked one out on a lathe that I can sneak into a shop an use. Great fun for a plow mechanic.

To get the rings in I used a combination of ideas. I took some HDPE plastic 1/8 sheet and cut it to size and beveled the top edge so it would slide up further into the beveled bottom of the cylinder. Then the block was placed on the studs and set on wood blocks to hold the block just above the piston that was installed on the rod. The plastic sheet was clamped around the piston with hose clamps and the piston was pushed up int the cylinder by pulling on the flywheel.

The gears just went back like I found them. I was trying to find out how to time the engine if the timing was wrong.

I plan to run a gen head. The engine is more toy than work horse for now, but that could change real fast if we have another 6 day power outage. I also want to use the engine as a demonstrator to burn a little biodiesel when visitors stop by.  Dump in some home grown fuel and crank it up...........smell that fantastic biodiesel smoke.     

Were they the ones that bolted it to the crate?

No, they were in the little white box that had the "hardware kit" in it. Things like the fuel tank bolts, bolts for the fuel filter and lines.

Video alert.....the engine is bolted to the work bench on wheels with two bolts. It can get a little wild and crazy at times as the speed goes up. Time to read the balancing threads now that i have something to balance.

http://youtu.be/BZjq34zujjY

Thanks for all the replys.

I took the bottom end of the 8/1 kit apart and blasted out the case it a hot water power washer. Getting the fly wheel keys out was a pain, but I knew that going in. I was pleasantly surprised how clean the engine was. There was some grit and grim, but not tons. I am a farmer and not a helicopter transmission technician, so my standards of clean could be low. The bottom end is back together and the fun begins. From here on it is like putting a big puzzle together without having the box.

Prepare for 10,000 questions like, should the lip on the bottom of the block fit into the case snug, or have an inch of slop? What is a delivery valve and spring, and why don't they show them in the trusty little owners manual when they specifically tell you to remove them ?
Let the games begin.........