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First real use of Mep-803 | Praises and problems (albeit little)

spotrep

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Gentleman! Had some bad storms roll into east of Dallas, Texas where we live and took out many powerlines . Infact, many are still without power after over I think 36 hours.

My setup is an Mep-803, a generac ATS, and @kloppk 's 802/803 remote start controller with the 2 wire/generac controller board.

I want to first say that the 803 handled everything wonderfully and makes me so thankful for the expense and work I've put into to get to where I am with the system.

A few notes before I get into the meat of it:
1. My sister in law came over and was grateful to be in a home that was running as if on grid power (with some minor load shedding). My father-in-law (she still lives with her parents) had gone and bought a big box store generator, and had extension cords running throughout the home to keep the essentials running. She was amazed at the quiet reassuring hum of an MEP compared to the absolute racket caused by my FIL's generator.
2. My wife was so happy! I've mentioned before on SS that while in college at UT, she experienced the terrible ice storm that Texas went through a few years ago. She was living alone in a small apartment at the time and I was living in the North Texas area. She was without power for 6 or 7 days and many pipes burst, causing the apartment complex to shut water off completely. All of this on her birthday no less! We now are married and have 2 small children(2 years old and 1 month old). She was so thankful that we had power. Infact, her hierarchy of needs was so elevated due to the reliable power that the new complaint was lack of internet! so maybe a new slogan for mep's "Power generation so reliable that makes even outage scarred wives complain about lack of internet!" But on a more serious note, she was extremely happy to know that we were GOOD in these situations, all thanks to MEP's and gentleman like you who carry on the support of them.

Okay back to the meat of it!

There are a few things to discuss here and im not sure how to best organize it. I could see the thread going in multiple places, but I think if others have a similar problem it will serve them well, although I might have a bit of a niche set up (803/ATS).

Here's what happened:

1. Lost power.
2. generator started automatically (Thanks Kurt!)
3. ATS flipped to standby, running on gen power
4. 5 minutes pass, generator shuts off (hmm strange)
5. attempt to connect wirelessly to start remotely (The rain and wind was absolutely torrential)
6.brave the weather and manual start, power is back and never quit.

Ive determined that the controller is shutting down the generator due to low oil pressure. it sits around 20 psi when warmed up.
Ive read on other threads that this may be less than ideal but "Ive seen MEP's run for year making 20 psi oil pressure". I should say that ive gone through and completed the calibration, and that the controller is reporting psi in accordance with the MEP's oil pressure gauge (which from what ive read is questionably accurate). I think though that the resolution of the controller is in 5 psi increments (at least that's all that's reported)

So whats the solution here? I could recalibrate to make the controller see 25 psi, when the mep reports 20, but i feel like thats sort of a recipe for disaster, as its my understanding that im relying only on the controller to monitor the health of the generator.
But while operating manually, the 803 seems to be perfectly happy with the reported oil pressure.

Another solution is fix the low oil pressure, which based on my reading the forum isn't actually dangerously low yet.

And the nuclear option, is get another lower hour unit cause 2 meps is better than 1!

Let me know what yall think!
 

kloppk

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A suggestion would be to plumb in an accurate mechanical OP gauge and see what the oil pressure really is.

Yes, the Remote Starts OP reading is in 5 PSI increments.

It should be OK to tweek the calibration of the Remote to report 25 PSI if the actual PSI is 20.
The Remote is watching the OP to determine if the set is running or if it has stalled. If it "thinks" the set has stalled it then opens it's relays as if S1 was in the OFF position. This is to remove power from the primary fuel pump and other circuits so that they do not run down the batteries.
The remote start will still know if the generator has stalled regardless if it's calibrated to 20 or 25 PSI.
The generators low OP switch will shut the set down should the OP actually drop below 15 PSI so the set will still be protected.

20 PSI is close to the MEP's 15 PSI low oil pressure Fault level. Might want to look into the cause of the low OP if the mechanical gauge indicates 20 PSI.
 

spotrep

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@kloppk

Thank you for that clarification! Its very comforting to know you've designed it in that way!

Yes I intend to install a mechanical gauge. Ill do so and report back.

Thanks Kurt for your awesome product btw. Any readers of this should certainly not interpret this as a knock on the controller, to be clear.
 

2Pbfeet

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I also would be interested what the mechanical gauge reads.
What kind of oil do you have in your 803? How did the oil look when you got it?
1400 to 1500 hours would low hours for wear on an original engine, but as a reset, there are other possibilities if the oil pressure is that low.

All the best,

2Pbfeet
 

spotrep

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This is a reset unit with 1600 hours. I’m currently running the same oil I bought it with. I should note though that this set came from another forum member. He tells me he used shell t4 15w-40 and the oil is still very clean. I am normally pretty militant about changing oil after a purchase but the member I purchased it from at least seems trustworthy! I’m planning on doing a change in the next week or two, but I’m going to wait to test OP with mechanical gauge before I change it. This will also give me the opportunity to fill crankcase with various concoctions that y’all recommend in an effort to gain pressure.
 

2Pbfeet

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This is a reset unit with 1600 hours. I’m currently running the same oil I bought it with. I should note though that this set came from another forum member. He tells me he used shell t4 15w-40 and the oil is still very clean. I am normally pretty militant about changing oil after a purchase but the member I purchased it from at least seems trustworthy! I’m planning on doing a change in the next week or two, but I’m going to wait to test OP with mechanical gauge before I change it. This will also give me the opportunity to fill crankcase with various concoctions that y’all recommend in an effort to gain pressure.
Sounds like a plan. How does the oil smell?

All the best,
2Pbfeet
 

spotrep

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@2Pbfeet oil smells like I would expect. Kinda has that slightly used smell. But, I’m probably not the best to ask. It doesn’t have a diesel smell if that’s what you’re getting at. Or are you concerned its water maybe?
 

2Pbfeet

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@2Pbfeet oil smells like I would expect. Kinda has that slightly used smell. But, I’m probably not the best to ask. It doesn’t have a diesel smell if that’s what you’re getting at. Or are you concerned its water maybe?
Yes, I was wondering about the possibility of diesel in the oil. Low oil pressure, plus clean looking oil in a diesel engine always makes me wonder about possible fuel dilution.

Water in oil tends neither to look clean nor be low viscosity (aka low pressure). With a lot of water in the oil, you would see the steam venting from the oil fill port once the engine got warm. Besides, since you have been using the 803 to keep the lights on, you would only be finding water in the oil if you had an active coolant leak, which I hope that you don't have.

All the best,

2Pbfeet
 

spotrep

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Yes, I was wondering about the possibility of diesel in the oil. Low oil pressure, plus clean looking oil in a diesel engine always makes me wonder about possible fuel dilution.

Water in oil tends neither to look clean nor be low viscosity (aka low pressure). With a lot of water in the oil, you would see the steam venting from the oil fill port once the engine got warm. Besides, since you have been using the 803 to keep the lights on, you would only be finding water in the oil if you had an active coolant leak, which I hope that you don't have.

All the best,

2Pbfeet
This is good info. I’ll give it a good sniff tomorrow and report back.

I partially would feel relieved if it was diesel in oil causing the issue, because I think worst case scenario would be bearings, right? What would cause diesel to be in the oil?

Mechanical gauge won’t be in until Sunday. I’ll report back then
 

2Pbfeet

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This is good info. I’ll give it a good sniff tomorrow and report back.

I partially would feel relieved if it was diesel in oil causing the issue, because I think worst case scenario would be bearings, right? What would cause diesel to be in the oil?

Mechanical gauge won’t be in until Sunday. I’ll report back then
Worst case to me is whatever I find the most painful... there are more than a few minor ways to have low oil pressure. Such as someone grabbing a gallon of 10W30 instead of the 15W40 that they meant to grab...or the sensor being off.

All the best,

2Pbfeet
 
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spotrep

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Mmkay back with a sniff test report. Results: inconclusive. I don’t think it has a diesel smell to it, but it’s probably not the best method. Especially for someone that has never worked on Diesel engines. I do have UV leak detector dye somewhere around here. I need to read h the bottle to ensure it could be used in the situation. But I’m wondering if the dye experiences combustion (or partial combustion, maybe?) if it would even have its UV dyed properties. I’ve attached a photo of the oil appearance on the dip stick.
 

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Jayhawk#44

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Since we’re talking about it. Any one ever use oil analysis to formally diagnose the oil in these units?

I’ve been using oil analysis on every used vehicle buy for 20+ years. Has saved me from buying several lemons.

It’s not expensive either. $35 ish last time I checked locally.

Later,

Matt
 

spotrep

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Since we’re talking about it. Any one ever use oil analysis to formally diagnose the oil in these units?

I’ve been using oil analysis on every used vehicle buy for 20+ years. Has saved me from buying several lemons.

It’s not expensive either. $35 ish last time I checked locally.

Later,

Matt
I was considering this for the next change!
 

Jayhawk#44

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I bet they Have wear Metal analysis predictive failure charts somewhere For these engines. If they see an abnormally high-level of just about anything, they can probably tell you where it’s coming from. Saved my butt more than once!
 

Jayhawk#44

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You might want to consider it for the existing oil, or is that what you meant?

All the best,

2Pbfeet
Old oil is best, you definitely want some time on the oil so they have something to look at. Wear metals, soot, fuel content, H2O, ethylene glycol (coolant), it all needs a bit of time to see some build up. Send in the old oil.

There are lots of oil Labs out there. I always used a local one but there are mail in ones as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Guyfang

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I bet they Have wear Metal analysis predictive failure charts somewhere For these engines. If they see an abnormally high-level of just about anything, they can probably tell you where it’s coming from. Saved my butt more than once!

The Army has more info then the Star Ship Enterprise could carry. But its not available to us. The manufacturer has the same. And things like that info are not going to be released to us. Same thing with MTBF, Meantime Between Failure. THATS intresting data.

AOAP saved tons of money. Thats why we tested oil every 100 hours. That way you can see a raise in metal contents, and WHAT metal content raised. That tells you exactly whats going bad.
 
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