Diesel experts step in

[WaterH]

The pin hole won't work, it will just limit the volume of injected fuel.

Since this academic at this point...
The solution for the fuel side is a actuator installed into the side of the block adjacent to cylinder to be cut out. When desired the actuator rotates and a fork lifts the roller off the pump cam removing it from pumping.
This could be controlled with a rotary actuator and triggered as needed based on current load of genset.

The pin hole idea is in the “before” ball valve. If it was small enough, it would take awhile before enough fuel would fill the pump. The result would be that cylinder firing weakly once an awhile, but the pump would get lubrication all the time.

As far as what your saying, your talking about the control pin on the pump that goes in the governor rack? I guess I could shorten the rack and put a separate control for that pin. The problem with that is the governor couldn’t control it when you want it on.

Anyways, forget about this. When I get this generator out of the shop, I’m rolling in the Vulcan. I need you to come down here and work on that.

 

[Gbkeith]

Buy yourself a 8kw diesel light tower. Much better form factor. Has lights and wheels. Mine run 24/7 all summer. Put a couple thousand hours on each of them every summer absolutely bullet proof.

I never realized how handy those are until I had one. They come up at auctions all the time around here because the bulbs are burned out or somebody hit the light tower with a telehandler. Which makes for a good deal on a generator.

 

[Gbkeith]

Call it a tactical light tower and he's in.

Change out the body panels so it looks like an army truck.

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

I never realized how handy those are until I had one. They come up at auctions all the time around here because the bulbs are burned out or somebody hit the light tower with a telehandler. Which makes for a good deal on a generator.

But it isn’t tacticool

 

[CarterKraft]

The pin hole idea is in the “before” ball valve. If it was small enough, it would take awhile before enough fuel would fill the pump. The result would be that cylinder firing weakly once an awhile, but the pump would get lubrication all the time.

As far as what your saying, your talking about the control pin on the pump that goes in the governor rack? I guess I could shorten the rack and put a separate control for that pin. The problem with that is the governor couldn’t control it when you want it on.

Anyways, forget about this. When I get this generator out of the shop, I’m rolling in the Vulcan. I need you to come down here and work on that.

No I mean to physically lift the roller/follower off the camshaft.

Without knowing how the internals look I can't really tell you how to do it but I can "see" it.

 

[DR. SMASHER]

I’ll try to make this short, but it won’t be.

I bought a 5KW military diesel generator probably 10 years ago and love it. I have it hooked in to my shop/house for power failures. It’s called “tactical quiet” and is very quiet. The military under rates them so it can run 5KW+ for month straight. Great machine that I highly recommend.

Fast forward to 2 years ago, I came across a 10kw tactical quiet generator for a good price. I bought it not running. I got it started pretty quick, but it ran weird. It would run fast and hard right away and you couldn’t dial the speed down. If the speed is not right, it will not make 60 HZ. It also made tons of black smoke and run hot quickly. When you shut it off, it would run on for 2-3 minutes. I would work on it a couple days and then get pissed and not look at it for three months. Hence, no worky for two years.

Last week I discovered that the number one cylinder was being over fueled. The other three cylinders would be throttled back by the governor and still would run fast. This diesel is different then all my other diesel engines in that it has a separate fuel pump for each fuel injector. So I plugged the fuel line to that pump and viola! It started right up and ran smooth and quiet. I can dial the speed perfect and it would shut down as it should. I hooked a load up and ran it at 75% load for half an hour and it did fine. It did not get hot and no black smoke.

At this point I think it’s the injector and I have one on order. This thread is not really about fixing it. It’s about some questions that this experience has raised in my mind.

1. What if I never fixed that cylinder? Is there a problem running it like this? I don’t figure it would make 10 kw, but at 7.5 kw, it is still a great generator.

2. The really crazy question- I could put ball valves on each fuel line to these pumps and shut down one or two cylinders at any time. Indeed, I could do the same on my 5KW. (It’s only got three cylinders) I’ve always heard that you should run a diesel hard every once an awhile to stop “stacking”. When I run my 5KW, I’m never at full load. I’m thinking if I shut down a cylinder, it will make the other ones work harder and prevent stacking. Does this sound crazy?

Unrelated question, I need to buy two batteries for this generator. (24 volts) should I buy red top or yellow top Optima’s?

I have been looking into this for some time now and totally like the idea for the same reasons. Quit, overpowered, diesel is readily available, my home heat is oil so can share the fuel, and is less expensive then a standby generator.