Please excuse me if these questions seem stupid but I am new to this and I want to do it the right way the first time.  This gen set will be used for backup only since I am grid tied.
While I have never worked on diesels before I have over 20 years working on high performance V8 gas engines.

 I ordered a 6/1 Metro with a 4kWh head and readout from Sam Crosby (seems like a very nice and helpful guy) up in Maine on Tuesday and it is scheduled for delivery tomorrow.  I have been reading posts here for some time now and I was looking for opinions as to weather I should take it apart before even starting it or should I start it to see how well balanced it is first. 

If I take it apart should I completely strip it down and remove the crank and flywheels (this seems to be a real pain) or just pull the head, piston, rod, gears and IP and clean an paint the internals with Glyptal ?

Is there any way to check the balance of the Crank/Flywheel assembly without removing them from the engine?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Carl

Hi,

My name is Carl and I am a total newbie to this forum and to slow speed gensets in general.  I have been reading this forum for about a month now and I am ready to start planning out my generator. I am intrigued by the Lister type engines and think they are very cool.

I would love to do a Lister type genset but I don’t know if it is really feasible and had a few questions I wanted to ask.

We live on grid and have a grid tied 7kWh solar array and a 1.8kWh Skystream wind turbine (these produce all of the electricity we need plus about 1.5mWh surplus each year that we sell back to the utility) . Both of these only run when the grid is up due to UL regulations.  We only have power failures once or twice a year at most, and normally less than 8 hours each time.
I have been working of gas race engines for over 30 years so I know my way around an engine, I have a background in electronics so neither of those issues are a problem with maintenance or installation.  I also do welding but my machining skills are not great.

Based on the above information I am looking for recommendations for a backup / standby genset.

I love the simplicity (and idea)of the Lister / St combination and if I go that route I would also have to add a Transfer switch to connect to my mains. Thinking of a 6/1 with 3 or 4kw ST type generator

I also like  packaged natural gas fired Generac type automatic standby generators but I know their life span is pretty short (no muss no fuss ).

I guess lastly a portable gas or diesel generator connected to a transfer switch would work also.

We do not have any batteries so we would only run the genset to power the house when the grid is down.

I suspect we could run all of our necessary loads with a 3 to 4kw generator

Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,


Carl.