Chinese diesel generator?

[TMTS]

Will it run on diesel with melamine in it? Might help with the ULSD cetane #'s...

 

[Skyco]

heh heh...I know one thing I'm not gonna lick the red paint, I'm positive it has lead in it

 

[John White]

Yes the two I have are electric start. I can't vouch for all chinese diesel gensets but mine have been good so far, no oil leaks, no problems. Of course they could quit tomorrow, but I'm sort of a generator junky and I have several gasoline ones to fall back on if it is an urgent situation. Lets see a roughly 20 year old Coleman 5kW with a Tecumseh 11 horse, a 10+ year old 4kW Generac with a Nagano (Honda copy) 8 horse engine, and my most expensive is several year old Honda EU3000is, now that is a nice generator Oh and a 4kW Onan Microlite installed in the toy hauler camper.

My chinese gensets look pretty much like this except they are red-

Skyco: What make is it. I cant make it out. On E-Bay there is one co. in Fla. that states they have parts in stock (what parts, ha. probly a fuel and oil filter) and they advertise a 2 year warranty or 1000 hrs. I wonder if it is worth the paper it is written on. One gen. listed offers no warranty at all. Most are 30 day. How much more fuel efficent is your diesel over the gas?

 

[Eagleview]

I bought a couple of the enclosed ones , 1x6kw and a 12kw . The 12 has a 3 cyl Daihatsu Diesel and is great except it runs @ 3000 rpm . With the power of the engine it should only run at 1500 rpm but the 2 pole generator is cheap for the Chinese to buy . The oil leaks on the single cylinder ones you guys are speaking of are easily fixed . It is the cheap 'O' ring that is fitted to the removable screen at the bottom of the crank case (black elongated plastic cap held in with 1 bolt) Fit a good quality one and the problem is gone . Also the ehaust manifold bolts come loose and the escaping hot gases burn the two wires going to the regulator which shorts the reg out . You need to remove the soundproof cover to tighten them . Ive had a good run from them , they are KDE brand , also the Honda clone pumps by Sinopower are exelent as well .

 

[Skyco]

John White- mine are Wenpower, but the brand is relatively unimportant, since they are all very similar, the warranty offered can differ greatly though.

The small one on the right of the pic above looks like mine....there are a multitude of brands. Different importers apparently order almost the same one in their color and slap their name on it.

The oil screen or ring hasn't leaked yet on either of mine, but I think I will look for the exhaust leaks mentioned to head off any future problems. I also read somewhere the head bolts need to be torqued after a few hundred hours, haven't found any torque specs so I'll guess on that and just give em a little twist. One thing I did was replace the wheels with larger ones, the genset weighs 350lbs or so and the small wheels just didn't cut it unless on a very hard surface.

 

[John White]

How much more fuel efficent are they than gas? For same size of gen.

 

[RobJ]

I bought a couple of the enclosed ones , 1x6kw and a 12kw . The 12 has a 3 cyl Daihatsu Diesel and is great except it runs @ 3000 rpm . With the power of the engine it should only run at 1500 rpm but the 2 pole generator is cheap for the Chinese to buy .

Sounds like the big difference in the Limas that we matched up with our diesels. 60hz and the engine ran 1800rpm(about 1850 with no load). The ones we shipped overseas needed 50hz, those turned 1500rpm. I don't recall the specifics on wiring them (it's been a while), but there was a mess of wires coming out of the generator, but I believe we ended up with 3.

Rob

 

[Eagleview]

How much more fuel efficent are they than gas? For same size of gen.

I bought 3 of the small ones pictured at an auction to resell . One guy that bought one from me said that it goes exactly 3 times longer than the gas Honda he has on the same amount of fuel . Diesels are fed metered amounts of fuel , unlike a Petrol which just sucks fuel in and can be over fed because the carb needle is being constantly vibrated off it's seat . Being enclosed they are very quite , from a distance of about 50 yards in a shed you have to listen hard at the house to hear if it is still running . They can also be wired for remote or automatic stop start .

 

[John White]

Today I run on to a Onan 2 cylinder, about 6kw, 60 hours on it. Was a standby gen at a nursing home. (had to get a larger one) . I can get it for $750. The only thing is that it runs on propane. I am not too fimular with it. Some say it is cheaper and better than gas. I would have to get a couple of jugs for propane. I suppose the one you use for a barbcue grill would work? This would be mostly a stand a lone gen. to power my home but would be nice if it was one like the diesels, that could be loaded in my pickup bed and taken out to my jobsite in a emergency to work on my dozer or back hoe. Although I have a smaller one that I probably could use for that. Give me your thoughts on the Onan and propane.

 

[Eagleview]

I tried to get my Petrol genny to run on LPG but it would just stop after about an hour , i never found out why . I think it would be fine for what you are doing but keep in mind that Diesel and Petrol is easy to find when your out on a job with it but Propane may not be . If anyone is going to be using a genset in emergencies like storm cleanup and twister aftermath i would suggest Diesel for two reasons :-1 It wont konk out in the rain like a Petrol one will when the plug lead gets wet . 2 Diesel is less likely to be a risk while running floodlights and implements around spilt fuels etc .