Stan, I dont have an engine yet so I do not know ahat type of oil I will run. Good point about load during break in. Just trying to understand if I would have a slobbering problem if i were to run it with a light load.
Well when you get an engine, get it loaded up and broke in as soon as practical. Look around at garage sales for old baseboard heaters. They are inexpensive and make excellent loadbanks for an electric generator.Â
http://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?UID=2009021413260536&catname=&byKeyword=yes&search=heater has a bunch of them for not a lot of money. Two 4'/1KW and one 6'/1.5KW heaters would make an excellent loadbank setup for a 6/1 genset, for around $44... I have a 1KW and a 2.5KW mounted to the cinderblock wall in my generator room. They were basically free as I removed them from my house during some remodel work. I have had virtually no slobber issues with my 6/1. Within a few hours of getting it running(after a through teardown inspection), I got a load onto it and broke it in. I also have typically in excess of 2KW of electric load on it when in operation. I also use a thermostat and the head temp stays in excess of 190F.
Now the question for you is why would you want to run the engine lightly loaded? Diesels don't like this. Even with the use of a thermostat to keep the coolant temp up there, the light loading only puts so much heat into, in the case of a roid, a rather massive metal heat sink. This keeps combustion temperatures low and does not allow as complete a combustion. This is less efficient and combustion gasses condense into carbon on the cooler surfaces. A more heavilly loaded engine has much higher internal surface temps, more efficient combustion and less carbon buildup. You run into the same thing with wood stoves. A small cool fire doesn't combust as cleanly in the firebox and dosn't put as much heat up the chimney. The unburnt gasses condense and form a layer of carbon and cresote on the inside of the chimney. Conversley, a good hot fire burns cleaner and keeps the chimney temp such that deposits do not form.Â
A properly configured power setup is a ballance between supply and demand and bigger is definitely not better. I have seen the results of this thinking several times, and they usually result in failed equipment and a redesign of the system. If your average running load is below 50% of the engines capacity, then you need a smaller engine. If you have some single large loads, then perhaps you need a larger demand generator to meet those needs, or move them to another power source such as shifting an electric water heater or dryer to gas. Another option is to have a large generator to meet those peak demands, and add additional load to the engine during off peak times, such as heating water electrically and storing it for later use to heat a home. This of course is not as efficient as a properly sized small generator. Another option would be to keep the engine properly loaded and put excess power into a battery bank and only run the generator at peak/charging times, and power the small average load off of the inverter.Â
There are usually a bunch of ways to solve different problems, but IMO, oversizing/underloading the prime mover is not the way to do it.
My .02Â Â Â
