Time for generators

[ajaffa1]

G`Day from down under. As many of you will remember we lost our home to a bush fire in 2019. We purchased a property on the East coast of Tasmania and I moved here in 2021 once the covid travel restrictions allowed. I have spent the last couple of years putting up a new shed, landscaping the property, decorating and fireproofing our new home. The most recent project was to have a 7.5 Kw grid tied solar system installed, cost us A$9,000. Our quarterly electric bill has fallen from A$600 to A$13, should pay for itself pretty quickly. We are also going to change our electricity provider to get a better feed in tariff, we should end up with a credit balance during the summer months, with a small deficit in the winter.
So now it`s time to think about generator backup. I already had a restored Lister CS 6/1 and a modified ST5 generator head with an AVR, this should be adequate to keep the house lights burning and the fridges/freezers cold in an emergency. I also bought this trailer mounted generator 18 months back.

This is a 12.5 KVA three phase generator with a Petter PJ2 diesel motor. The generator head has four slip rings so it is in a Y configuration giving three 240 volt single phase outlets and one 415 volt 3 phase outlet. This unit will be dismounted from the trailer and used to provide backup power to the shed/workshop.
I don`t know how you guys spent your Easter but I spent mine pouring two concrete slabs.

The square slab at the back will have the Lister CS bolted to it. the slab is 200mm of reinforced concrete sat on a 1m deep 600mm reinforced concrete pile. The blockwork shelf will have a cooling tank sat on it.
The narrower slab will have the demounted Petter generator sat on it.
After inspecting the PJ2 engine the only apparent problem is that the push rod tubes have rubber sleeves covering the joins. These sleeves have become brittle and split. The bottom tube is 22mm and the upper tube is 19mm they are spring loaded so they can expand and contract as the engine cylinder heats up and cools down. I have not been able to find replacements for the rubber sleeves, I am wondering if heavy duty electrical heat shrink might work, what do you guys think?

I will be posting details of the Petter rebuild as I go

Bob

[cujet]

Cool setup and thanks for the pics. It's really nice to see what people are doing. Can you run your solar setup off grid?

[ajaffa1]

Hi Cujet, we can`t run the solar off grid at the moment. Paid a bit more for an inverter with the option to run off battery storage at night. Lithium iron batteries are still very expensive and I`m not happy to have them under our house as they have a very bad habit of catching fire and they are almost impossible to extinguish once alight. If I do go with battery storage I will put them in a small brick or concrete building away from the house.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

G`Day from down under, there has been some progress on my generators. The PJ2 generator has been dismounted from the trailer and broken down into its component parts. The generator chassis has been stripped, painted, shimmed level and bolted to it`s concrete base.
The old CS has been brought out of the shipping container, where it has sat for 2 1/2 years. It has been leveled and bolted to It`s new concrete slab and it has been grouted in place with a 1 to 1 fine sand/cement  grout. I will have to wet the grout every day for a week to ensure it hardens properly. I hope this will be the last time I have to move the CS as I am definitely getting too old for this sh1t!
I also managed to remove the flywheel from the PJ2, should make it a lot lighter and easier to handle.
Couple of photos attached.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

G`day everyone. Not a bad days work, the PJ2  has been stripped down as far as I am going to go, no significant problems were found except for a lot of perished rubber/neoprene seals, these will all be replaced. There was a lot of detritus between the cylinder cooling vanes, largely mud wasps nests, mouse sh1t, leaves and dead spiders; degreaser, a wire brush and a pressure washer has got rid of the problem.
I hate working on British machinery of this vintage, late seventies thru early eighties. Britain was going through metrication so this thing has UNC, UNF and Metric nuts and bolts, two sets of spanners and 2 socket sets required. spent half the day trying to find the right tools for the job. A few nuts had to be removed with an adjustable spanner, not 1/2" nor 9/16" , 13mm too small and a 14mm spanner is too big, I`m thinking they may be old Whitworth sizes.
Another worrying issue is that most of the nuts and bolts were little more than finger tight, according to the hour meter this engine has done less than 100 hours from new and the service manual does stipulate checking for tightness at it`s first service at 250 hours. I guess that it has never had that first service and that a lot of the gaskets have shrunk over the last 40 years.
I`ll start ordering the bits needed tomorrow. I`m still looking for advice about replacing the plastic seals on the pushrod tubes.
A couple of pics attached.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

G`day everyone, today I degrased the PJ2 and rubbed down all the loose flaking paint and it now has a new coat of red oxide primer. No photos as my camera had a flat battery. will take some shots in the morning.
I also had the time to check out the generator head. This has seen very little use judging by the wear on the slip rings( no ridges). This is a transformer fed generator with 6 power diodes feeding the field windings. All of the windings and diodes show continuity with a multimeter and the transformers also tested ok. So this unit will be stripped, cleaned, bearings will be greased or replaced, bearing seals will be replaced. The armature will be cleaned and have two coats of polyurethane varnish to the windings and the slip rings will get a clean.
I will remove the four field winding coils and they will also be cleaned and have two coats of polyurethane varnish.
I will need to replace all of the radio frequency suppression capacitors as they are all blown to pieces.
Photos attached

Bob

[ajaffa1]

Sorry, third photo not related to generator head, part of the dynamo wiring loom.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

G`Day, as promised attached photo of engine with red oxide primer.
Managed to clean up and prime the flywheel and some other parts. I was wondering about the date of this Petter, I found a date stamped into the starter gear ring stating that it was shrunk on 11 76 so I`m guessing this refers to November 1976, so this motor was probably assembled in late 76 or early 77.
Nice set of timing marks at 23 & 26 degrees before and after TDC for each cylinder, don`t know if these refer to valve timing or spill timing or both, time to check the instruction manual.

Bob

[keith71]

Nice work. That will be a great generator to have.. 
I have a question on this comment you made to cujet. As I am trying to get into solar as well. And have my 12/2 clone as a battery charger in addition to pv panels...

 ''Lithium iron batteries are still very expensive and I`m not happy to have them under our house as they have a very bad habit of catching fire and they are almost impossible to extinguish once alight''.

Did you mistake Lithium ion batteries for Lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4) batteries ?

Lithium ion batteries are the ones that can run away and cause a fire.. And are the type that are in alot of everyday tools, phones etc etc.. Not nearly as stable.

Lithium iron phosphate Aka Lifepo4 is the newer technology that is being used in EV vehicles and is now about the best choice for solar home storage. Much safer than lithium ion.

[keith71]

Deleted link.

[dax021]

Did you mistake Lithium ion batteries for Lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4) batteries ?

Lithium ion batteries are the ones that can run away and cause a fire.. And are the type that are in a lot of everyday tools, phones etc etc.. Not nearly as stable.

Lithium iron phosphate Aka Lifepo4 is the newer technology that is being used in EV vehicles and is now about the best choice for solar home storage. Much safer than lithium ion.
[/quote]

I agree 100%

[ajaffa1]

Hi Guys, i based my post about the fire dangers associated with lithium iron batteries on a conversation I had recently with a friend who works for the State Emergency Service and also as a volunteer fire fighter. He was recently sent on a fire fighting course in which they highlighted the dangers of these batteries and how hard they are to extinguish once alight. When I told him I was considering backup batteries for my new solar system ha asked my to ensure that they were not in the house, under the house or mounted on the outside of the house. I am sure that some batteries are a lot safer than others but if the fire fighters don`t like them nor do I. Apparently when they do burn they also give off very toxic fumes that are bad for the environment and people.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

G`Day, sorry I didn`t post yesterday but a bit of a long day.  Mounted the engine on its chassis without breaking my back and manage to get the inlet and exhaust manifold stripped and painted with a high temperature paint, promises to be good to 1200 degrees. I`ll believe it when I see it! Photos attached.
Today was spent stripping and cleaning fuel injectors, aluminium injector coolers and a bucket full of rusty nuts and bolts, pics tomorrow.

Bob

[cujet]

OK, I'm totally impressed!

The lithium iron batteries generally are no more risky than lead-acid. I don't want to say they can't overheat, as any battery can overheat. But the electrolyte is not flammable in the same way as Lithium Ion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8xNjz73p80

[ajaffa1]

Hi cujet, it would appear from the video that these are reasonably safe if you drill holes in them, I wonder what would happen if you put them in a house fire at maybe 1200 centigrade or more, when my previous home burned down, it reduced ceramic tiles to dust and melted the enamel on a cast iron bath! I will be taking the advice of a firefighter and building a small brick/concrete enclosure a few meters from my new home, it will probably cost a lot less than the batteries. Once bitten twice shy.

Back to my PJ project, I doubt that the enviromentalists will agree that this diesel engine is now 'Green' but it does look that way. fuel injectors and aluminium cooling shrouds are all done and fitted but not torqued yet. Push rod tubes are all done and awaiting new neoprene seals before fitting.
Does anyone understand why large industrial manufacturers like Lister/Petter did not use an etch primer on aluminium bits? I am sick and tired of seeing perfectly good aluminium castings with peeling paint! Some parts of this engine have been very well primed while others have not, I guess a lot of components were outsourced and some suppliers where better than others. Some of you will be wondering why I am so interested in corrosion protection: I now live 300 yards from sea and we get regular salty sea fog which will turn steel into dust very swiftly.
A few pics for the viewers:

Bob