AMMPS 1030 second unit repairs

[FarmingSmallKubota]

So i couldnt help myself and bought another 1030, inoperative. I filled with fluids but did not change filters, hooked up batteries, turned the disconnect on and it fired right up. 53hrs on the dcs and matches the analog meter. several bolts missing from the housing enclosure, but inside does not look to have been messed with. So closed the field and hooked up a space heater about 1400 watts. Ran well for a bit and then started pouring white smoke out exhaust and also will come out the dipstick. finger over the dipstick does not seem to be real pressure. i checked the TM and it says to check for Water in Fuel for white smoke. I came inside for a while to read and thought that made sense because the fuel cap was just hanging on. coming from North Carolina i know they have had a hurricane since this has probably been sitting there. So opened the fuel water seperator drain and very little came out. next decided to just run it for a while and as it ran the oil pressure kept getting lower and it started surging. i finally called it a night and will change out the filters tomorrow. Any other thoughts at this point are welcome. just getting into this thing. usually bolts missing indicate someone has been workikng on it, but i see no tool marks on top of the engine or fuel lines where an injector or anything would have been removed.

 

[Chainbreaker]

If no water in fuel detected & with significant white smoke out exhaust... a stuck injector, stuck piston rings or blown head gasket come to mind. Hope that's not the case... although a stuck injector should be an easier remedy! Wonder if your low oil pressure reading might be due to dilution of oil with diesel?

If possible, a video might help for additional troubleshooting thoughts... but I wouldn't suggest running it much... just briefly.

 

[rickf]

I am not familiar with this engine but, in any engine and especially a diesel, white smoke from exhaust and dipstick usually means blown head gasket or cracked block/head. Loss of compression so fuel does not ignite and goes wherever the gasket blew. In this case it sounds like it blew into an oil return area into the crankcase

 

[Light in the Dark]

I refuse to buy anything out of Butner. I've been burned with bad equipment more times than I wish to admit from that site. Good luck with getting this one going.

 

[rickf]

Hell, I have been burned at every depot I have bought from. We all have, it is part of the deal with buying things at auction most of the time sight unseen. Even when you can see it you really don't know. And I go all the way back to the DRMO sale days.

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

Worked on the 1030 some more. changed fuel filters and i do believe i have water in the fuel, but i am still not convinced that is the only issue. unit does not over heat or get hot real fast so i am thinking head gasket is good, oil pressure starts out at 62psi and after about 10-15 minutes of run time slowly goes down to about 35

 

[kloppk]

I attached some display pics for comparison to yours. Just happened to run it today for testing a DCS.
(Ignore the 114 V AC in the first pic. I hadn't adjusted the voltage regulator yet)

My 1030 with ~ 50% load on it after running a minute or two.
Coolant temp 123F with 60 PSI Oil Pressure


After loading it up to near 100% and getting it up to temperature
Coolant temp was 203F with 56 PSI Oil Pressure

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

I attached some display pics for comparison to yours. Just happened to run it today for testing a DCS.
(Ignore the 114 V AC in the first pic. I hadn't adjusted the voltage regulator yet)

My 1030 with ~ 50% load on it after running a minute or two.
Coolant temp 123F with 60 PSI Oil Pressure
View attachment 931619

After loading it up to near 100% and getting it up to temperature
Coolant temp was 203F with 56 PSI Oil Pressure
View attachment 931620

Thats on par for what my other 1030 does, still thinking this through

 

[2Pbfeet]

If it were me, since this is a unit with an unknown history, I would change the oil and oil filter. I would then drain the diesel, start with clean fuel, add a hefty dose of SeaFoam to the fuel, bleed the fuel lines to the injectors, and try again.

White smoke can mean a blown head gasket, bad fuel (e.g. water, poor cetane), air in the fuel line, or a blown/contaminated injector, or a bad valve. With electronic constant speed control, I think that it is sometimes harder to disentangle the underlying cause sometimes.

Good luck,

2Pbfeet

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

oil was drained when i got the unit so the oil is brand new, i will spin off the filter and i plan on draining the fuel and starting over.

 

[rickf]

Is it still blowing smoke out of the dipstick? Does that smoke smell like unburned fuel? A blown head gasket will only cause overheating if it blows into a coolant passage and even then it will over pressurize the coolant system very quickly and I have seen radiator caps literally blown off the radiator from the combustion pressure blowing into the coolant. Also have seen blown hoses and radiators.

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

I had some time tonight to work on the unit. Drained fluids last night. So tonight i changed filters and filled fluids. ran unit with 1400 watt load for 30 minutes oil went down to 48psi started at 62, but temperatures were more normal range, burped system several time, engine stayed steady, never hunted hertz meter never left 60 and no steam out exhaust or dip stick. I will be putting more load on the unit tomorrow and running it longer, but i have a theory that maybe i had a plug in the coolant system and temp gauge was reading steam. i am much more hopefull now but still guarded. Also when i turned the valve on the fuel water seperator i got absolutely nothing tonight so might have had water in the fuel but i sure did not see any seperation after draining the fuel. BTW draining fuel and oil in these machines if painfully slow. if i have to do it again, i will definitely pump the fuel out of the fill opening

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

Another update. Did not have time tonight to hook up more load, but i checked all the fluids and no oil or fuel or coolant intrusion. Fired the unit up applied the 1.4kw load again for another 30 minutes. starting psi was 62 after 20 minutes of slowly going down it went as low as 36psi which is still in the green, unit did not sputter or hunt then it quickly went up to 48 psi and stayed there like it did last night. No steam or smoke or anything. So i am more and more confident this thing had some water in it. maybe in the fuel or even went through the exhaust and through the valves. If you are familiar with this series of units the exhaust flapper likes to stay up after being shut down. So i will keep loading it and report any changes, but seems to be ok.

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

New information for comparison. my other 1030 i ran unloaded for about 20 minutes and its Oil dropped down to about 42psi everything seems reasonable on the current unit at this point. I know older kubotas would even run on 7-10 psi so we are well in the green at this point

 

[DieselAddict]

I just picked one up that seems to be doing something similar in regards to oil pressure. Its a 2012 model with around 35 hours on it according to both the on screen and mechanical meters. All of the storage compartments are still sealed so this is one was never issued out before it was liquidated.

Anyway, the oil pressure starts out around 60 as most do and then gets erratic once it warms up. The pressure on the display jumps around between 35 and 45. The oil is new as all fluids were drained on the unit when I got it (I slightly overfilled the oil it but that I don't think is the issue). I have a mechanical gauge to double check but need to get some fittings to TEE it into the oil pressure sensor. I'm running it with around 3.5kw load, charging batteries at my off grid place.

My current thought is that its the internal bypass relief is not seating fully. Maybe there is some trash or corrosion on the check ball. Since the oil pressure isn't in the danger zone, I plan to run it for a bit longer and see if it straightens out. Once I have some fittings to plumb in the mechanical oil pressure gauge I'll use that as a double check.

Just thought I'd share to let you know this isn't a one-off thing. I hope yours keeps going and going!

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

The other thing that comes to mind is most of us are so use to mechanical gauges that are not as precise or rather have such fine adjustment as the computer generated screens that its a bit of a technology trust/learning lesson.

 

[DieselAddict]

Noticed something interesting today. After running the unit with the fluctuating oil pressure, when I shut it down, the oil pressure was -4 PSI. Hm.. maybe I’m dealing with a bad sensor.

 

[kloppk]

Was the -4 reading on the DCS after the engine stopped?

 

[DieselAddict]

It was.

 

[kloppk]

The OP sensor is a 3 wire sensor. The DCS provides it 5 VDC and ground to power it.
It's ratio metric output varies from 0.5 VDC at 0 PSI to 4.5 VDC at 100 PSI.
Maybe put a meter on its output terminal C and monitor its output voltage to see if it's incorrect?