It's alive! (MEP-004...)

[PeterD]

Ike, no the MEP-004 has two electric pumps. It does have a Stanadyne/Roosa Master pump, which is why I'm wondering if I do have a leak. I'll recheck the oil level when I get it back in its parking spot (which is flat and level) and see how it looks. We shut down at about 9 PM last night, and restarted at 5 AM today.

Either I'm using much less fuel then expected, or the fuel gauge is not right! We've got almost ten hours on it since I filled it last, and the gauge is still over 3/4 full--though we are running very lightly loaded (I've been turning things on just to load the generator, not that a few lights help that much. Any worries about not enough power were unfounded. As the man, falling past the 23rd floor said: "So far, so good..." but I wish the power would come back on!

 

[PeterD]

I figured I'd post a picture of the MEP and one of its tow vehicles (I usually tow it with my big Dodge, but it was away on a trip when I moved the generator.)

The Hummer is a 95 NA, and it moves the set along reasonably well.

 

[Harleyd315]

I had my 004A running my fathers house during Irene and thought the same thing about fuel consumption ran about 10 hours and still above 3/4. From my best guess the genset ran about 26 hours on a full tank of fuel before it ran out of fuel and shut down. This is the first time we ever ran for an extended period so I'm assuming the gauge was stuck and then dropped while we were away from home for a couple of hours. The load was minimal at the house and wet stacking did occur, what a mess to clean up. Gonna put a big load on it this week and burn it off.

 

[PeterD]

I'm sure I'm somewhat wetstacked too... I may dig out my bigger load and give it a go and see if that loads it enough (an old water heater...)

My fuel usage was decent, and it does appear that the oil level issue I thought I had was just the fact that when running it was on unlevel ground. Once I moved it to a more level location, the oil level dropped to about where I thought it would be (slightly overfilled.)

My oil is also very clear still, which tells me I have minimum blow by, which makes me happy since my engine was frozen up when I got it. I had to scrape crud and rust from the #3 and #4 cylinders and I took the risk that they were trashed. Seems they are OK, which is good.

I did discover a very minor leak at one of the injectors (#3 or #4, not sure which yet) but I now know how to fix those up (remove the line completely and clean and lubricate prior to reassembly...)