Oil & Fuel Kohler 30KW standby generator

[JB4310]

Well at least you never have to change the oil, you're putting so much new oil in :confused2:

But if it's within spec, just keep enough oil on hand and thank god for that low oil shut down sensor. 60 horses running 36 hours flat out at 3600 rpm's that's alot of friction to cushion. Cost wise it's not a big deal.

JB

 

[boomer1025]

If it was mine I'd try a 10W30 and if it still sucked oil a 20W50.

 

[5030]

Well at least you never have to change the oil, you're putting so much new oil in :confused2:

But if it's within spec, just keep enough oil on hand and thank god for that low oil shut down sensor. 60 horses running 36 hours flat out at 3600 rpm's that's alot of friction to cushion. Cost wise it's not a big deal.

JB

Cost wise, oil is the cheapest thing you put in an engine.

Not flat out, but a rated RPM and with a varying load. It's essential that the armature turns 3600 (2 pole) or 1800 (4 pole) to maintain 60hz.

Nothing eats insert bearings faster than loss of oil pressure and film thickness.

 

[wrede]

There are no leaks. The oil is being burned, presumably.

 

[5030]

If it was mine I'd try a 10W30 and if it still sucked oil a 20W50.

You have to be cautious with an on demand gneset because if the viscosity of the oil is too high, you run the risk of very premature engine wear, or worse because with a standby, a cold engine will have to assume the load imposed on the generator head with very short notice, typically 15 seconds or less and that can be in some cases, full rated load.

The is basically no fluid warm up and higher viscosity oil can't flow to lubricate vital surfaces.

20-50 could very well spin a bearing or worse.

In larger standby units, there are pre-oilers that have auxillary pumps that immediately bring the oil to maximum pressure and circulation prior to start, as soon as the transfer switches sense urility dropout. Smaller units don't have that luxury.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The sounds like normal oil usage without a question.

Was he pulling a 300 watt load or was it closer 30K?

Years ago we had an 800 Ford tractor that dad bought new and always ran 10w/30 Chevon oil. It would go the 100 hours between oil changes without requiring the adding of engine oil.

However when he got a AC-72 pull type combine it could burn a quart every full day of combining. Next spring it would break ground for 100 hours and never get more than a quart low.

Hook a full load to the crank shaft where there is NO slippage and most any engine can be forced to use oil.

Small generators are to be shut down and oil checked every 24 hours as noted.

 

[JB4310]

Cost wise, oil is the cheapest thing you put in an engine.

Not flat out, but a rated RPM and with a varying load. It's essential that the armature turns 3600 (2 pole) or 1800 (4 pole) to maintain 60hz.

Nothing eats insert bearings faster than loss of oil pressure and film thickness.

With that much consumption I'm assuming it's 2 pole 3600 rpm. Although most of the 20+ KW generators I've seen the specs for are 4 pole.
An engine consuming that much oil at 1800 rpms does not seem likely ?

JB

 

[JakeBrake]

I don't know that I can really add anything to the discussion, but in my working career I worked with stationary diesel generators from 50KW to 1500KW.

The newer Kohlers from 50KW to about 150KW (I forget the exact break point) were equipped with John Deere diesels made in Mexico. The larger gensets up to 1500KW were equipped with Detroit/MTU engines made in Germany. Kohler was a little slow to convert from 2 stroke diesel engines to 4 stroke diesel engines. The EPA has made 2 stroke diesels obsolete and illegal in some places.

Onan diesel gensets from 50KW to 1500KW were equipped with Cummins diesels. I think most, if not all, were made in the USA. Cummins diesels have always been 4 stroke, as far as I know.

I once attended a seminar at the Onan factory in Minneapolis. They showed us a large ware room full of engines by other manufacturers that could be used in Onan generators if a large customer requested such a thing.

 

[Bird]

Way back in 1973, I bought a little Winnebago motorhome that had a 2.5 KW Onan (single cylinder) generator. When the motorhome was about 4 months old and I changed oil & filter in the engine, the oil in the generator looked dark and thick, so I changed it, too. I used the same 10W-30 oil in the generator as in the motorhome engine. And in the heat of the Texas summer, the generator exhaust was smoky and it was burning oil. I took it to an Onan dealer and left it. When I went to get it, it had been running 24 hours in July heat without using any oil. He said the only problem was that I used the wrong kind of oil; that I needed to stay with a straight 30W or 40W motor oil rated for diesel engines (even though it was a gasoline generator). I never had another problem with it.

 

[JimP]

2 quarts down in 140 hours - yikes!. I am not familiar with the generator, although I thought most of the bigger units were 1800 rpm. Is it a water cooled 1800 rpm unit or an or an air cooled 3600 rpm unit?

We were on generator 5 days last week and 5 days during Irene (same oil fill) and oil level never changed. Onan 7.5 kw generator turned by Kubota 3 cylinder diesel running 1800 rpm. Most of our load was pretty low (lights) unless the well pump or oven was on. I was using Mobil 1 10w30. Just switched to Mobil 1 5w40 but haven't run enough to see if there is any difference in use.