MEP 003A Oli cooler

[American Patriot 1960]

So I have a 003 and it is going to be placed in a storm proof reinforced shipping container as a "Generator house". It will have both an intake and exhaust fan to move the hot air from the inside of the container so hopefully the internal temp will be only slightly more than the ambient external temperature.

I was thinking though that it might be nice/bennificial to install some sort of oil cooler. I could put a second fresh air intake fan and put the "radiator" of the oil cooler there.

My reasoning for this is that since the unit is air cooled the only way to suppliment any sort of cooling is by removing some of the heat from the oil.

So my questions are:
1) Would this be beneficial or a waste of time/$?
2) How would you go about doing it? I mean as far as where to tap into the oil system and where to return the oil? I was thinking I could get one of those adapters to use a spin on filter and then put one of the sandwich type adapters on that for the cooler?

I would also install a thermostat bypass so in the winter the cooler would by bypassed or I could just use a couple manual valves to direct the oil to bypass or cooler depending on the season of the year.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

 

[1800 Diesel]

I assume you already know this but the MEP-003A has an oil cooler mounted inside the fan housing. As long as your generator house has good ventilation, you shouldn't need to install an additional cooler. Set up the exhaust fan high and air supply louvers down low and at opposite ends of the container. CFM calcs may be needed to ensure proper air volume displacement.

 

[American Patriot 1960]

I assume you already know this but the MEP-003A has an oil cooler mounted inside the fan housing. As long as your generator house has good ventilation, you shouldn't need to install an additional cooler. Set up the exhaust fan high and air supply louvers down low and at opposite ends of the container. CFM calcs may be needed to ensure proper air volume displacement.

Actually I did NOT know there was already an oil cooler in place, good to know! (I just bought it a week ago and am still learning about it).

CFM calculation is an excellent idea and the kind of thing I normally would have already thought of but had not gotten there...yet?! I'll absolutely do that. I'm thinking that if I get 100% CFM match to the cubic feet of air in the container then I'm changing 100% of the air every minute and that should be sufficient?? I might need 2 intake, 2 exhaust and maybe a third for back-up/safety/overkill.

 

[Guyfang]

Perhaps the old saying, "If it works, don't fool with it" comes to mind.

And maybe a perusal of the TM's?

 

[1800 Diesel]

Actually I did NOT know there was already an oil cooler in place, good to know! (I just bought it a week ago and am still learning about it).

CFM calculation is an excellent idea and the kind of thing I normally would have already thought of but had not gotten there...yet?! I'll absolutely do that. I'm thinking that if I get 100% CFM match to the cubic feet of air in the container then I'm changing 100% of the air every minute and that should be sufficient?? I might need 2 intake, 2 exhaust and maybe a third for back-up/safety/overkill.

If you connect the exhaust lines to atmosphere (weather), then you just need combustion air volume plus an additional air flow amount for radiated heat removal. Just don't hang a bunch of hard piping to the exhaust manifold pipe street elbows or you'll end up cracking/breaking the muffler. Use independent supports for any added piping to go through the walls to weather and use flex connections at the pipe street elbows. In other words any new piping should be supported off the engine, not to the engine. Also you need to allow for thermal expansion and vibration so things don't get either jammed up or loosened and start breaking. If you really want to spend time & money you can also do cold air ducting directly to the intake side, then all you need is enough CFM to handle radiated heat removal. CFM needs will go down quite a bit when you're removing exhaust heat directly.

 

[American Patriot 1960]

Perhaps the old saying, "If it works, don't fool with it" comes to mind.

And maybe a perusal of the TM's?

"If it works" is usually one of my general policies. However, since I was unaware of the already in place cooler and mindful that the ambient temp in the box may likely be at least a bit more than true outside ambient temp I was looking for a way to possibly compensate, I mean the cooler (to a point obviously) the generator, the longer it will (should!??).last...

As for reading the TMs.... yes sir, it is on the list of things to get done... asap but in all fairness, even having read the TMs there is nothing like the hands on experience someone like yourself has to use as a suppliment!

 

[American Patriot 1960]

If you connect the exhaust lines to atmosphere (weather), then you just need combustion air volume plus an additional air flow amount for radiated heat removal. Just don't hang a bunch of hard piping to the exhaust manifold pipe street elbows or you'll end up cracking/breaking the muffler. Use independent supports for any added piping to go through the walls to weather and use flex connections at the pipe street elbows. In other words any new piping should be supported off the engine, not to the engine. Also you need to allow for thermal expansion and vibration so things don't get either jammed up or loosened and start breaking. If you really want to spend time & money you can also do cold air ducting directly to the intake side, then all you need is enough CFM to handle radiated heat removal. CFM needs will go down quite a bit when you're removing exhaust heat directly.

I guess I should have specified that the exhaust will be pumped outside and I was seriously considering an outside air intake port as well.

That said, thanks for the advice about supporting the weight of the piping. Could someone possibly provide.me a pic of what the factory exhaust looks like so I will know exactly what I'm dealing with? Mine has on each exhaust port a single Ford 8N tractor muffler on a 90° adapter.

The conex is going to be a high cube, so 8w, 9.5 tall, 40' long give me a cubic volume of 3040³ft if I did the math correctly.

I'm thinking 3 fans rated at 1,100cfm for intake and and another 3 for exhaust should be plenty. Opinions? Add a 4th fan to each set just in case 1 craps out and or the true cfm isn't quite up to the ratings provided??

 

[Light in the Dark]

The factory exhaust is black iron NPT threaded material... so you have many options. The best thing you can do is to have a flexible exhaust joint section leaving the machine, then tying to your rigidly mounted (but not mounted on the machine) exhaust travel path. The flex section takes up the NVH that can wreak havoc on equipment.

 

[American Patriot 1960]

The factory exhaust is black iron NPT threaded material... so you have many options. The best thing you can do is to have a flexible exhaust joint section leaving the machine, then tying to your rigidly mounted (but not mounted on the machine) exhaust travel path. The flex section takes up the NVH that can wreak havoc on equipment.

I was fairly sure this was not factory exhaust but it looked pretty decent. Is this ok or do i need to put flex right at the first 90? Or? (I want to make sure whatever I end up with does not in anyway cause damage to the machine. I much prefer to get it right in the first place than to have to go back and replace what was a perfectly good manifold because it was done badly/wrong in the first place. So don't worry about me being the least bit offended or whatever, tell me the safest way to do it since in the long run that is also going to be the least expensive)

 

[Ray70]

You can rig up the exhaust however you want, but my feeling is always to put the flex joint as close to the motor as possible, thereby minimizing the amount of "rigid" weight you add onto the original mufflers and manifold.
The one thing you do not want to do is add pipe, mufflers or anything else and have it solidly attached to anything other than the engine, not the skid frame, not a building, nothing other than the engine.
Turn off your generator and watch how much movement there is between the motor and frame when you start or stop the machine. now picture a rigid pipe trying to deal with that much movement and not cause damage!
If you search around there are flex pipes available that are 1 1/4 NPT thread, but they are a bit pricey. You can get a universal automotive flex pipe for about $25 at any local parts store and either clamp it or weld it to a 1 1/4" pipe nipple or other fitting.