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Messages - Tom

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1636
Listeroid Engines / Re: Whats the story with biodiesel eating paint?
« on: January 10, 2006, 06:42:24 PM »
Georges lister longevity CD has a pic of a leaky fuel filter with the paint bubbled up. Is that the one you're thinking of?

1637
Listeroid Engines / Re: Balancing out the Bounce---
« on: January 05, 2006, 05:57:03 PM »
I made my base out of 4" chanel iron and it seems to be fine so far. Currently the base sits on some redwood logs I had laying around, but I have plans to eventually mount to a concrete slab.

My plans are to bolt 3" chanel, legs down, to the slab. I will then use a set of 8 urethane Scout II body mount bushings to isolate the base from the mount. These body mounts are round with a 1/2 inch hole through the center and 1 1/4" hole through the 4" chanel on the base.

1638
Listeroid Engines / Re: Feeding Used UPS for backup?
« on: January 04, 2006, 10:30:34 PM »
Mice must love those inverters as mine had them too. My first clue was a tip of a chicken feather sticking out near a button on the control panel. When I pulled on it there was a whole feather attached, now how did that get in there. Well it was operator error I left one of the covers off and the mice found their way in. In fact the interior was packed with stuff, good thing it didn't get warm enough for the fans to turn on! :o

I took mine apart and and cleaned the boards with WD-40. It was still running fine 6 months ago when I took the system apart to move.

To bring this story back on topic (well sort of), this is why we need to mouse proof those ST-5's

Tom

1639
Listeroid Engines / Re: Feeding Used UPS for backup?
« on: January 04, 2006, 04:59:25 PM »
Other than the price, as pointed out above, the only down side I've seen with the Trace is that it hums that 60HZ hum rather loudly. At least mine did the newer ones by Xantrex might be better. Right now my plan is to run our off grid home on 2 SW5548's. If you buy them all setup in a "power center" that includes disconnects and stuff the cost is around 7.9K. The SW's make a nice clean sine wave power and all my electronics ran fine.

One thing to look on a ups is the "idle" current. A Xantrex SW inverter uses about 18 watts of power. I'd imagine the ups designer was not concerned about such issues. 

1640
Listeroid Engines / Re: Feeding Used UPS for backup?
« on: January 04, 2006, 03:21:28 AM »
Just get a Xantrex/Trace SW series inverter. I have a 2512 unit that's rated for a 2500 watt 120V AC continuous output and has inputs for 12VDC 120VAC utility and 120VAC generator. This unit will charge batteries and power the house at the same time. It contains programmable genset start/stop controls and if you manage to exceed the 5000 watt surge rating it will start the genset, synchronize to its frequency and combine both outputs.

I used it with an 6.3 kw Onan LP genset with good success for several years. The trace inverter will even allow you to set the battery charge rate so we can run our Listers and maximum efficiency. These inverters can produce 240VAC by hooking 2 of them together and running out of phase. The utility interconnect allows you to buy or sell power to the utility co and allows you to use the system as a whole house ups. YES they are cool. Oh yea IIRC they have 5 programmable relays.

1641
Listeroid Engines / Re: Where are you calling from?
« on: January 02, 2006, 05:44:56 PM »
Who: Tom - Tom Reed
Where: Hopland, CA - 10 min from Real Goods
What: Small Business owner/Software developer
How: Some mainaic went and posted about listers on Timebomb2000  :) and I was bit.

I've worked with a lot of Onan & Kohler RV gensets and had a 6.3 KW Onan LP for backup at the old ranch and wow could that thing suck the fuel. With LP at 2.60 per gal it could cost $4.00 per hour to run (and we ran a lot).

Now we're building an off grid homestead and I bought the Lister for construction power and then backup power after the house is built. I plan to try WVO and Biodiesel in my system.

My Ashwamegh 6/1 is the sibling to RenoSpeedsters and Quinfs 'roids #217.

1642
Listeroid Engines / Re: Oil Filter!!
« on: December 28, 2005, 04:34:55 PM »
Can you show us a pic of what it looks like dirty?

1643
Listeroid Engines / Re: New member & pics
« on: December 27, 2005, 04:37:55 PM »
Unfortunately I was on a tight deadline to move and was losing my shop. #199 went to a fellow in the Bay Area who had the machine tools and time to rebuild it right. There was so much sand sucked into #199 on the test run that the rings were stuck in the grooves. #217 looks like a winner!

1644
Listeroid Engines / Re: LUBRICATION RELATED
« on: December 27, 2005, 01:04:16 AM »
I don't think the oil level could fall below the level of the dipper on the crank. That leaves a lot of room for things to settle out.

Hotater, does your oil remain separated while running? Mine seems to remain separated as the dip stick shows clean oil.

1645
Listeroid Engines / Re: New member & pics
« on: December 27, 2005, 12:05:37 AM »
IIRC # 217. The first one I got that had sucked a lot of sand during it's short test run was 199.

1646
Listeroid Engines / Re: 3,4,6, and turbo 600 RPM engines
« on: December 26, 2005, 10:37:52 PM »
It would seem to me that the centrifugal force stored in the turbo would over come the "big gulp" of our Listers, just like those big flywheels to when a large electrical load is switched on. The constant RPM in a governed engine seems like it might be well suited to a turbo too.

1647
Listeroid Engines / Re: LUBRICATION RELATED
« on: December 26, 2005, 10:30:45 PM »
The oil is dry, just a dark layer on the bottom and lighter on top. Since I've never peered into a crankcase before ;D I don't know if this is normal or unusual.

I've already checked the main bearing on this engine once and found it to be clean, I'll drain the sump and check for grit again before going further.

I used to be a factory rep for Motorguard in the early 80's. I sold a unit with 2 filters a small gear pump and a pressure gage for $1,000.00 to clean oil in vacuum pumps. They really do work. However in this app I don't think I'll add a filter because I like KISS. I think heavy particles will settle in the sump and the likelihood of a hose or fitting vibrating loose on this beast and leaking out the oil is more potential damage from dirt. Does anyone have any experience to report otherwise? 

1648
Listeroid Engines / Re: LUBRICATION RELATED
« on: December 26, 2005, 07:37:14 PM »
Hello Shipchief,

I noticed the same dark bottom/light top oil layers in my Ashwamegh too. I have about 5 hours on the engine and had the cover off to put the new valve lifters in and noticed the same thing you did. Fortunately when I checked the bottom of the sump there was no grit and the magnets were clean too. Where to you think the dark oil came from?

1649
Listeroid Engines / New member & pics
« on: December 26, 2005, 07:31:01 PM »
Hello All,

I bought an Ashwamega 6/1 and a ST5 from George last fall. Here some pictures of my buildup: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=163918

My rig is to power construction of our off-grid home and then to function as back-up power. I expect a lot of hard run time and am looking to get a long life out of the setup.


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