Magical Honda Engine

[guest23837]

I know this forum is mostly about diesel engines but I have been looking online for a cheap generator to get the alternator and I spotted this

http://www.adverts.ie/power-tools/generator-honda-5-5hp/12335572

If both the engine and alternator labels are right thats a great little engine 6.5 kva from 5.5 hp!

[millman56]

These generators are 3 KVA output,   fitted with a Honda GX 160 clone engine and they work very well for the money, about £150-160 brand new and delivered, the pullcord assy and capacitor commonly fail and one brand new one had the wrong main jet fitted.   Some unscrupulous sellers apply Honda badges and wrongly claim the engines rated HP as the KVA output.    Compared to a genuine Honda they are quite poor, the bad quality of the engine alloy, weak threads  and the monkey metal carburettor stand out when working on them.   We regularly have some of your fellow countrymen calling and selling these and other tools  out of the back of vans Jondoh.

Mark.

[guest23837]

These generators are 3 KVA output,   fitted with a Honda GX 160 clone engine and they work very well for the money, about £150-160 brand new and delivered, the pullcord assy and capacitor commonly fail and one brand new one had the wrong main jet fitted.   Some unscrupulous sellers apply Honda badges and wrongly claim the engines rated HP as the KVA output.    Compared to a genuine Honda they are quite poor, the bad quality of the engine alloy, weak threads  and the monkey metal carburettor stand out when working on them.   We regularly have some of your fellow countrymen calling and selling these and other tools  out of the back of vans Jondoh.

Mark.

I'm afraid that I don't associate with those purveyors of junk from the back of a transit van or venn as they pronounce it but I am well aware of them and living in a rural area so are my dogs. I have never had much trouble with the Chinese Honda clones the biggest issue with them is people leaving them for weeks or months without draining the petrol. When they try to start it again the ethanol has left gummy residue in the carburettor and fuel system. They can be picked up fairly cheaply at car boot sales Sunday markets etc. You're buying a pig in a poke but usually they're fixable for small money. A new Chinese carburettor for a clone GX160 is under a score. I was interested in that one because of the output but the seller seems evasive so I'll leave it. Even if it's a genuine Honda engine the alternator can't be genuine or original and those Honda engines love petrol

[millman56]

Having been given a large quantity of petrol/diesel mix, as a consequence of people missfuelling diesel vehicles with petrol, I decided to use it in this type of disposable generator  for my low power single phase requirements at work.  After trialling the contents of different 25 litre drums in a GX340 engine I sorted the drums into usable/ needs  petrol adding categories.  the GX160 clone engines start and run fine on both types of fuel but the fuel with a greater proportion of diesel  causes detonation at higher loads,  the unburnt diesel finds its way into the sump.    My thoughts are that if they`ll stand this sort of abuse they can`t be all that bad.   Unfortunately I`ve no sidevalve engined genset presently for I believe one of those would run without issues on this fuel.
Glort, I`ve also tried running diesel engined gensets with petrol mixed in with the fuel and not been impressed with the results,  ie less power.

Mark.

[quinnbrian]

If your just looking for a gen head...well I have a couple 3500 rpm heads kicking around. One is on a 9000 watt jap scrap gen. The motor just put the rod out of the side of the block..and an other on a 6500 watt genset, this one is an older(1980ish) Briggs 11 hp, both have good working gen heads, just NFG motors.
If your not too far to ship..then the price would be right!!I'm near Kingston Ontario Canada.
I was using both (one at a time) in my shop, until they went bang!!I have another Lister SR2 with a 10KW head, that I'm just finishing off for full time work in the shop...should have built the second Lister.. years ago for the shop!! Instead i spent $1000.00  junk, Jap scrap....
Cheers
B

[Tom]

A tank of G/D mix was run through the Wisconsin S7D in my Bolens garden tractor. It ran well smoked a bit at idle, made more power and heat.

[mikenash]

If your just looking for a gen head...well I have a couple 3500 rpm heads kicking around. One is on a 9000 watt jap scrap gen. The motor just put the rod out of the side of the block..and an other on a 6500 watt genset, this one is an older(1980ish) Briggs 11 hp, both have good working gen heads, just NFG motors.
If your not too far to ship..then the price would be right!!I'm near Kingston Ontario Canada.
I was using both (one at a time) in my shop, until they went bang!!I have another Lister SR2 with a 10KW head, that I'm just finishing off for full time work in the shop...should have built the second Lister.. years ago for the shop!! Instead i spent $1000.00  junk, Jap scrap....
Cheers
B

Hey there (Brian?)  Just looking at your comments there re gen heads & wondering if you have had any experience of trying to put an extended shaft and/or second bearing on a single-bearing gen head off of a Jap-type genset?

I have seen a couple of posts from years ago from George the Utterpower man; but I formed the opinion that particular opinion stream may have been longer on theory than on practice.

I'd be interested in any thoughts on this

Cheers, Mike

[guest23837]

If your just looking for a gen head...well I have a couple 3500 rpm heads kicking around. One is on a 9000 watt jap scrap gen. The motor just put the rod out of the side of the block..and an other on a 6500 watt genset, this one is an older(1980ish) Briggs 11 hp, both have good working gen heads, just NFG motors.
If your not too far to ship..then the price would be right!!I'm near Kingston Ontario Canada.
I was using both (one at a time) in my shop, until they went bang!!I have another Lister SR2 with a 10KW head, that I'm just finishing off for full time work in the shop...should have built the second Lister.. years ago for the shop!! Instead i spent $1000.00  junk, Jap scrap....
Cheers
B

Thank you for the offer mate but I live In Ireland so postage would be prohibitive. I know of a Briggs generator for sale supposed to be working but I'm not sure if it would fit on as Briggs & Stratton use Imperial measurements and the Chinese use metric. Can anyone tell me if the heads are interchangeable?

[guest23837]

If your just looking for a gen head...well I have a couple 3500 rpm heads kicking around. One is on a 9000 watt jap scrap gen. The motor just put the rod out of the side of the block..and an other on a 6500 watt genset, this one is an older(1980ish) Briggs 11 hp, both have good working gen heads, just NFG motors.
If your not too far to ship..then the price would be right!!I'm near Kingston Ontario Canada.
I was using both (one at a time) in my shop, until they went bang!!I have another Lister SR2 with a 10KW head, that I'm just finishing off for full time work in the shop...should have built the second Lister.. years ago for the shop!! Instead i spent $1000.00  junk, Jap scrap....
Cheers
B

Hey there (Brian?)  Just looking at your comments there re gen heads & wondering if you have had any experience of trying to put an extended shaft and/or second bearing on a single-bearing gen head off of a Jap-type genset?

I have seen a couple of posts from years ago from George the Utterpower man; but I formed the opinion that particular opinion stream may have been longer on theory than on practice.

I'd be interested in any thoughts on this

Cheers, Mike

Hi Mike

Have a look at this video. There's a couple of things I'd do differently eg 4 bolt pillow block bearing instead of cutting the engine but it looks doable to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6ceGegUYQ

Paul

[EdDee]

Hi Mike,

I did a similar just for S&G... I took the crankcase, cut off the bulk of the dangly bits, left the "near alternator side" feet on and installed the engine seal into a nylon ring which I then bolted to the "inside" of the old crankcase - this retains the original bearing in place, allows for a greasing point too... The crank I cut down to around 35mm to put a taper lock pulley on... Its still lying on my bench, havent had a chance to finish it up yet, but the twirly bits are all mounted and working well... If you want a few pics of the thing, just drop me a line.....

Cheers
Ed

[mikenash]

Hey thanks Ed and John for those replies & that video.

I think both your comments & the video reinforce my thinking that the end result is "backup" not prime mover . . .

I'm especially sceptical of the longevity of anything with three bearings on a shaft unless mounted/aligned with great care - that may just be me being old-fashioned.

I have the 6/1 and an ST-type alternator for it, plus a pair of 190A Leece-Neville truck alternators, so pretty sorted for AC & DC potentially.  Next up is to pour some concrete lol

And I still can't get past how much I like the slow-speed 650 RPM "thumpers" as opposed to the newer 1500 RPM Listers/Petters etc

Thanks, Guys