803a hours

[rhurey]

any thoughts on the sludge under the muffler, looking forward to doing the MOV!

Move everything you like away from the generator before you run it. It's gonna rain carbon for a few minutes. It'll be fine. Start with medium load and work your way up as the exhaust clears.

 

[NATCAD]

Howdy,
The unit looks good. Clean straight panels, taken care of, and maintained unit

NOTE; you will need to replace the fuel return lines. They shows signs they are at the weeping-leaking time

A good 4 hours at 100% load will help with the wet-stack goo

MEP-8xx wet stack info

Thanks daybreak for the confirmation, I had read that thread and thought this goop was the wet stack fallout. Looking forward to putting it into the atmosphere.

 

[NATCAD]

Looks like I can get 8500 watts out of the scrap stove from local appliance, and I can run another 1000 thru convenience outlet with 700/1000/1500 heater.

 

[NATCAD]

Howdy,

NOTE; you will need to replace the fuel return lines. They shows signs they are at the weeping-leaking time

Local napa (who had all filters in stock (total cost with rotella t4 and heavy diesel truck coolant was $73 with tax. Port Huron Michigan on 24th ave.)) will sell by the foot - its about $2 per foot for the good stuff, is that a fair price, or should I order some bulk ?

 

[Guyfang]

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The Warranty is nice to have if you want to collect everything for posterity, but not very helpful on a day to day usefulness. Would I keep it? Yep, I would. Because I am that way.

The -10 manual is out of date. Still useful if you have nothing else, and I think the schematics are probably better and easier to read. BUT everything in it is suspect. It could be wrong. Go to the TM download section and download the current book.

If you want to know what has been changed, the dosnt mean what's added, just changed, look for the little pointy finger on schematics. It points to ANYTHING changed. OR, pay attention now, A BLACK LINE ALL THE WAY OVER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE!! It will be a VERTICAL line. For a good example, go to TM 9-2815-253-24, (the engine manual) Dated 1993, page, (PDF reader page number) 30. You will see a perfect example of what I mean. When you see that black line, or pointy finger, it means the the information listed to the left was changed. It was changed from the LAST change, or basic manual, if no changes were made in the meantime. The next time a change comes out, that pointy finger and black line will disappear.

 

[Guyfang]

Howdy,
The unit looks good. Clean straight panels, taken care of, and maintained unit

NOTE; you will need to replace the fuel return lines. They shows signs they are at the weeping-leaking time

A good 4 hours at 100% load will help with the wet-stack goo

MEP-8xx wet stack info

OK partner. Before you go hog wild on burning up the forest, with burning carbon debris flying out the exhaust, Heed Mike's advice. Change the fuel return lines. AND, as it's easiest to do without the top cover, remove it and the rear top cover. Eyeball EVERYTHING. If it looks squirly, and you're not sure, take a picture and post it here. Someone will tell you if it good or not. Look for holes. Why? Holes mean something is missing, or could be. Look for crappy repairs. Look for leaks. Look for burn and arc marks. Look for wire damage. LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!!

Then clean things up a bit. Blow the dust out. Wipe it down. Use a cleaner, to get fuel and oil off the set. WHY? So you can see later, when you are burning down the neighbor's garden, what's leaking, and what's not. As long as you are going to run the set anyway, multitask!!

 

[NATCAD]

The Warranty is nice to have if you want to collect everything for posterity, but not very helpful on a day to day usefulness. Would I keep it? Yep, I would. Because I am that way.

Hi guyfang, I have all the manuals downloaded and saved, have kept the hard copy ones and will probably dry out the manual and ziplock it and put it back in the box in generator. I have also saved the pdf's on an older ipad with a large screen which I plan to make my garage device (once others in the house give up on it)
I have access to a spiral binding machine and hope to print everything on some nice heavy paper (maybe even glossy!!) for future reference too.

Back to the basics :

Generator is oiled, fueled, filtered, wiped down, primed and turns over ..... but in my garage on blocks and the weekend is over.
I have to be out west this week, and hope to get two large garden carts to move this around and load test next weekend with a spare range and a heater on convenience outlet.

 

[NATCAD]

Howdy,
I would suggest you remove each battery and fully charge them separately with a AGM battery charger. The optima batteries do come back to life.

Hi Mike - now that I have individually charged each cell and reinstalled back into the genset - how do you feel about me trickle charging through the slave with the noco7200?

 

[Guyfang]

Can your noco 7200 charge 24-26 volts? If not, you cant use the slave recpt.

You sound like you have the gen set under control! Now when you have time, burn the neighbors garden down!! Good luck!!

 

[eatont9999]

The 803a I am installing is a 1994 Libby model with just over 6000 hours on it. The engine was rebuilt in 2011. It's beat up but it everything critical seems to work. I'll know more about how it performs under load once it gets wired in.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,

If you have charged each battery individually, there is no need to put the charger back on it.

The optima redtops can sit there for months without issue.

To ensure they are fully back to life. Leave them alone until you come back. Take a meter to each and see what the resting voltage is of each battery. Heck, check the resting voltage now, and then a week later when you come back. A redtop should be hanging around 13.15volts +- some

 

[NATCAD]

Howdy,
If you have charged each battery individually, there is no need to put the charger back on it.
The optima redtops can sit there for months without issue.

To ensure they are fully back to life. Leave them alone until you come back. Take a meter to each and see what the resting voltage is of each battery. Heck, check the resting voltage now, and then a week later when you come back. A redtop should be hanging around 13.15volts +- some

When I got the units they were at 12.25 each,
after charging they were 13.05 ish

After two days sitting they were 12.75

 

[boatman69]

13.2v is float

 

[NATCAD]

13.2v is float

So I might need to desulfate them a bit to bring back capacity?

 

[boatman69]

If they are red or blue no. 12.75v, depending on temperature is perfect. Optima says float up to 13.8v. Little too high for me as far as battery longevity goes.
If you have the yellow tops add .2 volts.
Never try to equalize a sealed battery. You are well above the voltage were sulfation starts I would leave well enough alone. On the other side of things if your overcharging you're corroding the plates away and possibly reaching gassing voltage which is a No-No. Two of those bad boys @12.75 will start that anywhere in the world, if they passed a load test. You are not technically bringing up the CCA just because the voltage is up. That is more of a function of age and how the batteries were previously taken care of. Those are very tough batteries I'm sure you'll be fine. If your at or above 19v while cranking you are fine. Now that they're fully charged, unless they're yellow tops, you could run them up to the auto parts store and have them throw a load on it. If you're going to use a battery maintainer make sure you check the float voltage while in use. unfortunately I usually find them all over the place and most are not adjustable $$. On float of 13.2-13.3, of any color, they will stay good for a crazy amount of years.

 

[NATCAD]

Perfect, they are red top!

 

[NATCAD]

If they are red or blue no. 12.75v, depending on temperature is perfect. Optima says float up to 13.8v. Little too high for me as far as battery longevity goes.

Hi Boatman, I am going to try and get my parts 803a running now as well.
I was thinking about using two lower cost battery options to do this - the napa 4035/75 group 75/86 585/475 CCA
Will two of these have enough amps to start the 803a?

 

[eatont9999]

Hi Boatman, I am going to try and get my parts 803a running now as well.
I was thinking about using two lower cost battery options to do this - the napa 4035/75 group 75/86 585/475 CCA
Will two of these have enough amps to start the 803a?

That should be plenty. It's just a little 4 cylinder Diesel engine. It would probably start just fine with a pair of lawn mower batteries. I use Wal-Mart brand Group 26R batteries for $50 a pop. They have 540 or so CCA each. More than enough.

 

[boatman69]

Mine starts with the $20 230cc! Although I wouldn't recommend them ther are pieces of junk

 

[DieselAddict]

Mine starts with the $20 230cc! Although I wouldn't recommend them ther are pieces of junk

I use cheap lawnmower batteries for testing purposes. Totally agree that I wouldn't rely on them for starting in service. They don't last long even when treated with care.