MEP-803A —— Did I Score? I think so……

[peapvp]

I may never eat pizza again........................

Guy ( @Guyfang ), glad to hear you are making healthy decisions. I was starting to worry about your cholesterol levels lately ….

 

[Guyfang]

Its good to know that SOMEONE is worried!

 

[Tinstar]

Installed improved top well nut and the new gasket on low fuel sensor. Old gasket was in great shape and looked almost new. Not hard or brittle.
Pickup tube gasket wasn’t leaking and is a nightmare to get to the rear screws, so I left it alone.
For now.

The inside tank picture seems to show the well nut isn’t flush with tank.
I double checked and it is. With mirrors and feeling the edge with my fingers. All good.

The bottom well nut isn’t leaking…..yet, so I also left it alone for today.
Will tackle it tomorrow morning when it’s cooler outside.

Had to cut off top of well nut and push it through into my waiting hand inside tank.
There was no way it was coming out the top without damaging the tank.

Have the fuel fill components soaking in Evapo-Rust.
They weren’t horrible, except the cap.
Should be done in about 48 hours.
Found a NOS fuel cap gasket and will be replacing it. Old one needed replaced anyway.

Yes, I’m very aware the tank needs cleaned up more but will wait until fuel neck is reinstalled.
Luckily the rubber fill neck boot isn’t damaged and is still very pliable.

One more well nut install and a change of fuel filters to go before load test.

 

[Tinstar]

Bottom well nut installed.
Was a nightmare getting the old one out.
(Replacement fuel drain cap was reattached after photo)

Fuel fill neck and strainer cleaned up nicely and reinstalled.
New fuel cap gasket installed. Used silicone grease on the gasket so it doesn’t stick, but still seals.

Topped off fuel tank with fresh red diesel and some two-cycle oil/Seafoam added.

Waiting for used AUX fuel pump to arrive before installing tank cover.
Bought a new Carter pump as recommended for a spare.

Still waiting on fuel filters, but the ones on unit look new so I think it will be fine for testing.
Will replace after testing.
Then a good pressure washing is due.

Load test time now.

EDIT:
Fuel filters arrived today and will go ahead and replace them before load test.
Also bought 8/4 wire cord for the load test.

Getting close.

 

[Tinstar]

Solder ends or leave alone?

This is for load testing only.

 

[Guyfang]

If I have time, I always solder the ends. Why? Because one time I stuck a wire like that into a relay. ONE strand of the wire did not go in, it went off to the side, and I did not see it. Turned the set on, and had a very small light show.

 

[Tinstar]

Ok
That’s the way I was leaning, but wanted to make sure there wasn’t a down side to doing it.

 

[Tinstar]

Made a gasket from FelPro material to go between the neck flange and the fill housing.

There isn’t supposed to be one there, but there was a lot of grit and sand that had collected underneath and a lot was on top of tank.

So this gasket should prevent that.
It’s diesel fuel rated.

It’s getting a coat of paint today.

 

[Tinstar]

Load test cord is ready.
Storms forecasted for today so test will be tomorrow.
My soldering job is horrible. I ran out of my usual stuff and found some 40 year old solder in the barn.
Oh well, shouldn’t be an issue.




Have some stainless steel screen to cover bottom holes in generator housing.




I’m ready for this thing to be finished and ready to work.

I’m sure most are sick of this thread by now anyway.

 

[2Pbfeet]

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, it has been enjoyable. Thanks for posting.

Good luck with the test.

One (perhaps obvious) thing that I would point out is that if your generator is being grounded via the cable at the main service panel, it won't have any grounding if there is a problem with the cable or the terminations. (Not going to open up that can of worms, but just be mindful of that fact. For me, that includes rubber footwear.)

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[Tinstar]

Good point!

I failed to mention, I will be running a heavy gauge copper wire from the lug to a rod I’ve already driven into the ground.

The stove will be grounded to the lug and the ground wire will run from the lug to grounding rod.

That should keep things safe.

 

[cstumpf750]

Looking forward to the results of your load test.

 

[Tinstar]

My lost shipment of MEP-803A Water Temperature Sensors showed up today.
Small flat package that I almost ran over at the gate.

They shipped directly from the manufacturer.
Did not know that’s what was going to happen.
The original one still works fine but wanted spares

I’m glad they showed up since I bought them at a very good price.

 

[Tinstar]

Load test complete.
Huge success!!
Nothing broke and it stopped smoking anyway.
Do need a new radiator cap. It started slowly leaking again.
Only a 3 hour test since the heat index is brutal outside.

Let generator warm up and did the 25% load for 15 minutes, 50% for 15 and so on.

It did have decent smoke coming out of the exhaust, but wasn’t as heavy as I was expecting.
A lot of carbon chunks were coming out.
So much so I installed a 90 on the exhaust pipe so the carbon wouldn’t go down into the radiator exhaust.

Loads ranged (when unit was hot and ready) from 65% to 105%.
Load would cycle from light to heavy and back again every few minutes for nice dynamic loading. Exhaust got nice and hot, even turned the pipe exhaust threads blue.

She smoked mildly for almost an hour.
Then smoked lightly going from 65% to 105% for a few seconds.
After about another 45 minutes stopped smoking entirely.
I could still feel in the exhaust stream an occasional bit of carbon. Just no visible smoke in the sunlight. Would liked to have ran it a little longer.

No I didn’t load it up to 125% for hours or even a minute, but this generator will do what I need it to do, I have no doubt.
I’m not trying to break it or set a load record.
Just to power what I need and for days at a time.
This generator didn't stumble or hesitate one bit.
I did drop the whole load a few times and it handled it very well.
It also handled the load coming back without flinching.
These generators are quite something!

Extremely happy with the results.
Not too bad for a 3624.0 hour generator.

 

[2Pbfeet]

Wooo-hooo!

love the elbow.

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[Tinstar]

Now I get why you guys love these things!

So.....
Did I score?

Yes........Yes I did....!!!

 

[Guyfang]

Ya did GOOD!!

 

[Tinstar]

I still have a few things to do before I’m “Done”.

Drain and replace coolant
Find a radiator cap that will work.
Install new fan belt.
Install newly purchased used and working AUX fuel pump
Once that’s installed and verified to work, I can put the tank cover back on.

WASH Generator. It’s filthy

Waiting on battery terminal covers to arrive.
Will be doing fuel filters tomorrow morning.
Will also be installing 24v solar panel to keep battery’s topped off.
Will be connecting it to the NATO Slave positive/negative terminals, just behind the side cover.

Devil is in the details but the biggest hurdle was passed successfully today.


Thanks to all of you for the support, help, parts, etc.
I sincerely appreciate it.

 

[FarmingSmallKubota]

Radiator Cap (or in the manual "CAP, FILLER OPENING")

Manual shows Stant R28, which crosses to Stant 10228 which crosses to NAPA BK 7031696

Lev-R-Vent version is Stant 10328 which crosses to NAPA BK 7031460

 

[2Pbfeet]

One comment on solar chargers: you might want to consider two 12V wired individually across one battery as that is better at keeping each battery balanced. (Not perfect, and not a huge deal)

All the best,

2Pbfeet