Your last generator Maintenance Run

[farmer2009]

1999 5.9L 140hp Cummins I6 turbo. Reversed fan. Tier 0.
Marathon 80kw generator head. 333 amp capacity.
I would say 200 amps is about all the load I can put on it. Rest would be starting capacity.
Rotella T-4 15w-40 oil. Pennzoil antifreeze 50/50. 267 hours on machine. It runs about 30-40 hours a year on normal.

it has the hours of a ten year old machine and a real age of 19. Was it a leftover?
That unstressed Cummins ought to last until the next ice age Farmer.
What a great gen motor.

Drew. I bought this place 9 years ago. Generator had less than 50 hours on it. It had not been maintained at all. Had 10 year old filters on it. They were painted to match the motor. It didn’t have 100 hours yet so why should we spend money to service it. Yeah alright.

They also did not let it exercise.

I would be willing to push the oil change interval to 400 hours with T-4. Which is a 16 day outage. Last time that happened was the ice storm of 2009. Before we bought the farm and while it was sitting empty.

 

[check]

Thanks for the input, Dave. Here is the oil I use in my Kohler:

 

[3930dave]

We had an outage a couple weeks ago that started a 4:30am and ended at 11am.
My battery backup took over so I was unaware until I got up.
Went out & started my 3.7kw Yanmar diesel and plugged it into my inverter to recharge the batteries.
After an hour or so one of the generator breakers started tripping out so I ordered 3 new 20 amp breakers.
I installed them today and ran a test for 45 minutes at 3700 Watts to confirm repair.
Voltage was 118 volts at 3.7kw and it ran flawlessly.
Tomorrow I値l move it back over to the house ready for the next outage.
90cummins

I view battery systems as cash-in-the-bank.... good to have when the regular stream is interrupted. That, and they obviously mix well with Alt NRG generators.... and today's low-cost high-performance inverters.

Yank the old breakers, replace all, and keep 2 old ones for backup..... no point messing about changing just one :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Drew. I bought this place 9 years ago. Generator had less than 50 hours on it. It had not been maintained at all. Had 10 year old filters on it. They were painted to match the motor. It didn稚 have 100 hours yet so why should we spend money to service it. Yeah alright.

They also did not let it exercise.

I would be willing to push the oil change interval to 400 hours with T-4. Which is a 16 day outage. Last time that happened was the ice storm of 2009. Before we bought the farm and while it was sitting empty.

^ some of grs's residential customers, writ large......

Some people think they are "saving" money by deferring maintenance. My kind of people think longer term than that....... although, just thinking period would be an improvement on that history.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Thanks for the input, Dave. Here is the oil I use in my Kohler:
View attachment 574138

Castrol has good oils..... though it would be hard to go wrong with any current major synthetic at the factory viscosity range...... generators often lag the auto market in oil specs, so they usually aren't difficult to keep happy at the recommended maintenance intervals.

The one mistake some people make is putting in synthetic, and thinking it will last forever..... I won't go past the manufacturer hour interval on an air-cooled engine, regardless of what I'm using for oil. The one exception I'd make is short-term critical use (flood management) during an emergency.... there, I might get some sleep, knowing I was running a top synth in the crankcase.....

Rgds, D.

 

[farmer2009]

^ some of grs's residential customers, writ large......

Some people think they are "saving" money by deferring maintenance. My kind of people think longer term than that....... although, just thinking period would be an improvement on that history.....

Rgds, D.

Yeah. Some people are penny-pinchers. But they pinch in the wrong areas is my experience.

The integrator I grow for had several of those farms. During that ice storm. Some of the harder hit areas were without power for 40+ days. Integrator was very good. They brought in generator mechanics to help keep things running. Because even well serviced machines started having problems running weeks straight. Winter time running is harder on these machines as they are sized for summer power demands. Winter demands are less than 100 amps.

One reason I was considering the T-6 was to simplify my oil needs. Kubota tractor is already on a T-6 diet and new truck will be after first oil change.

 

[LouNY]

I have switched over to T6 since that is one of the few approved oils for my truck, everything except my wifes car and the Harley has gone T6 and might even switch the Harley also, her Equinox requires an oil with the Dexos spec.
Oh and the old Dynahoe which gets straight 30 or 40 oil in the 4-53.

 

[daugen]

Lou, you own a Driptroit? marvelous engine, sounds like nothing else, often
a bit undermuffled and loud. I used 40wt Delo in mine years back.
Today's oil sure seems watery in comparison

 

[kevinwak]

Lou, you own a Driptroit? marvelous engine, sounds like nothing else, often
a bit undermuffled and loud. I used 40wt Delo in mine years back.
Today's oil sure seems watery in comparison

I was also going to comment on the Detroit. My dad ran lots on the sawmill and farm when I was growing up. The sawmill had a 6V-71 and a Silver 92. When I was a lumber piler and you heard them grunting you know that a mess of heavy planks were headed your way to pile.

 

[oosik]

Yesterday for 30 minutes.