Connecting autostart controllers 802A / 803A and 831A

[craigc]

Well now I'm at a halt. I changed the oil in the yanmar, I poured the new oil in through the top in the hole that the plastic yellow cap says "oil" on it. Went to crank it and it freekin hydrolocked. I pulled the fuel injector and cranked it over and sure enough oil misted on the white towel I was holding over the injector port. did the crank until there was no more misting on the towel. I put it back together and tried to rotate the motor with the pull rope to make sure the motor will completely rotate. Then fired it up and it smoked (expectantly) then I noticed oil slightly dripping coming from the top of the cylinder area being blown around the cooling fins on the motor. It continued to smoke until I shut it off, thought it would quit smoking but never did. I put 1 quart of Rotella 15W40 measured and the oil was just at the bottom of the treads on the dipstick hole.

How did new engine oil get into the combustion chamber in the first place?
I always thought the engine was overfueling, the first time I started it after buying the genset it blew out a ton of soot and it only had 50 hours on it.
When I removed the injector it was really carboned up.
Now I think the head and or head gasket maybe damaged or they were all along. It seemed to run great just seemed to run "rich" and no smoke once it was warmed up.

I cant figure out how the oil got into the combustion chamber.

 

[Dwnorton1]

That is terrible. Sorry to hear that

 

[craigc]

I just figured out what happened, DON'T pour oil in the top oil hole. I am sure that was my mistake, there is new oil in the intake manifold and all the way into the pre-heater. If you pour oil in too fast it goes up the little plastic check valve in the valve cover and down the hole straight into the intake manifold !!!!
So I don't think anything is broken I just have to take the pre-heater and intake manifold off and clean all the new oil out of them. I hope

 

[Guyfang]

When the gen set has been long in storage, DO pour several DROPS of oil into the port that is capped over with the yellow plug. Let the set stand a while, to allow the FEW DROPS of oil to lubricate the cylinders and rings, before starting. I will be dam*ed if i can find it in the TM's, but do remember reading in in a civilian YANMAR engine book.

Try and get it clean. I once saw someone do this exact thing, and he ran it to "Clear" it up. The gen set caught fire.

 

[craigc]

I remember reading about that too, but the Yanmar in these genset's has the little port plugged and it's not removable. I will remove the whole intake manifold and pre-heater and clean with brake - clean. Then blow it out with compressed air. I'll run it and see how it goes with a fire extinguisher in my hand

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

 

[Guyfang]

It was the preheater that caught fire. I laughed until I cried! The fire alarm went off, the MP's came. The german fire department on post came, and 82 thousand other people who wanted to see the building burn down! What a circus.

 

[biz]

When I removed the injector it was really carboned up.

Diesel injectors should look like that. if they look clean you would have a real problem.

 

[craigc]

It was the preheater that caught fire. I laughed until I cried! The fire alarm went off, the MP's came. The german fire department on post came, and 82 thousand other people who wanted to see the building burn down! What a circus.

Well I got my screw up all cleared up and no fire , I took the valve cover off so I could make sure both valves were closed prior to the clean up. I couldn't believe the amount of oil that was sitting in the pre-heater. I ran the genset for about a half hour and the smoke disappeared and it runs really well. I have a 240V 5000 Watt heater that I set on 1/2 and loaded the little 831A fairly heavy. I was surprised the Yanmar blows a little black smoke when its loaded.

I now have the auto-start working great, I've programmed it and tested the operation. There's more to do but the most important functions are working. I have a input set for remote start so once thats set the genset waits 5 sec then it sets the S1 to Run, pre-heats, cranks, starts, runs through the safety timer, runs through warm up timer then closes the AC interrupter. The genset will run as long as the the remote start switch is closed. Shutdown is based on timers, remote switch opens, after 5 sec AC interrupter opens and the genset runs until the cool-down timer expires.

I have the RPM, AC volts, Amps per leg, Watts etc displaying on the controller and various safety alarms and shut-downs programmed.
Over / Under Volts
Over / Under AC frequency
Over Current

 

[CT-Mike]

Very cool setup and thanks for all the hard work Craig. I'll be looking for a write up for my -803A once you have it done.

Thanks again,

Mike

 

[Dwnorton1]

That's great Craig. I missed your post last week that you had gotten it cleaned up. Good deal.

 

[craigc]

Here's some poorly made video of where I'm at with the 831A project. Sorry about the popping noise, turns out its my new rugged case in my iPad.
I'm posting a couple more videos shortly showing the remote monitoring and control.
And yes I covered everything especially A8 (inverter) when I was cutting and drilling then thoroughly vacuumed everything. I'll also attach some non conductive material to the foam insulation that sits against the controller. Some aluminum dust stuck to the adhesive on the foam insulation and it is REALLY stuck on there with no way to remove it.

https://youtu.be/GSgMxBII43c

 

[craigc]

I'll be starting the 802A/803A project within the week. Hopefully it will be much easier

Very cool setup and thanks for all the hard work Craig. I'll be looking for a write up for my -803A once you have it done.

Thanks again,

Mike

 

[craigc]

Here's the next video.


https://youtu.be/MxZWd6fWU-A

 

[craigc]

Part 3 with a failure!

After watching this video before I posted it I realized I couldn't hear the fuel pump when the controller switched to the run position and the surging start during filming. I knew something was up because the genset is usually rock solid. The fuel pump was not working which lead to the genset quitting. At least we got to see a alarm condition work. I checked everything, filled it with diesel pressed the reset button and tried it again and still no fuel pump noise. I just let it sit then the fuel pump started working again ! It was bright out but I think the "no fuel" light may have been lit and shut the fuel pump off. I may have trouble with the fuel level switch not the fuel level sender.


https://youtu.be/qskp-NxU-8k

 

[craigc]

So the problem turned out to be the 2 conductor plug at the primary fuel pump, I cut it out and used different crimp connectors. The engine ran till there was no fuel, I had to bleed the fuel system to get it to run again.

 

[Guyfang]

That should not happen. Or do you mean that it ran till dry before you cut the plug out, or after?

 

[Dwnorton1]

Outstanding work Craig. Very impressed with your controllers and programming skill. I like your tough book as well. Lol

 

[craigc]

The genset ran dry because the 2 pin connector for the primary fuel pump was flaky intermittent, so I cut it out (can't rely on it) and put male/female fully insulated spade terminals with the genders reversed on one wire so I don't plug it in backwards

That should not happen. Or do you mean that it ran till dry before you cut the plug out, or after?

 

[craigc]

Thanks , I love learning and figuring stuff out as well as sharing what I've learned. I work on LiDAR equipment that sits out in a field or remote site for up to a year so I needed a tough laptop. Its a Dell E6420 XFR with a 4G internal modem, touch screen, back lit keyboard, a real serial port, pretty much water proof and the best feature I like is the screen goes really bright so you can see it in direct sunlight. you can pick them up pretty cheap now.

 

[craigc]

Hi everyone, it seems this thread has died out I am self employed and work all over the US for a week or two at a time. I have the 831A with auto-start completed but never started on the trailer mounted 803A. I have the extra controller for the 803A but just no time right now. (remainder of post deleted)