Micro CoGen.

I hope to try and build something using a scrounged old 1.6 liter ford engine running at 1200 rpm.  Used small car engines can be had cheap, I've had few low mileage Nissan Sentra engines delivered to my door for $125 and they ran great.  That was some years back but I could buy a new Brigges and Stratton 5hp for the same price.  However the Nissan motors came with starters, alternators, AC compressors and power steering pumps included.

The Honda or Yamaha inverter generators are hard to beat if you want to pay the admission fee.  You do seem to get what you pay for.  I read that there is a yamaha inverter gen of about 3000 watts with electric start that will dip into the starting battery for an extra surge of power when needed.  If I was in need of a generator for an RV I would consider that one and just grit my teeth when I pull out my wallet    !

I've got a question for all you folks here!  I've been pouring about a quart of Wal-Mart 2-stroke oil into the tank of my 240-D Benz when I fill up to try to lube the injection pump as I read that the new low sulpher fuel doesn't do as good a job of it as the fuel that the engine was built for.  I'm intending on cleaning some WMO real good and maybe adding 1 to 3 gallons to my tank at each fill up.  I'm wondering if the WMO will mix with the fuel in the tank or will just sit there and my engine will be running on stright WMO that the lift pump sucks off the bottom of the tank?  I assume that the 2 stroke oil mixes in as I fill the tank and then drive around but WMO is much thicker and maybe wont mix without some outside help  ?  Anybody got some thoughts?  Maybe I should blend with dino or gasoline before I pour either type of oil into the car?  If I blended the WMO with gasoline and then pour into the car will the blend be destroyed by sitting in the diesel in the tank?  I was hoping that in the summer I could save $20 on a fill up and maybe dump in 5 gallons of WMO  .  Maybe not so simple though?  Thanks for any ideas.        Leland

Hi everybody, geez, never know what you'll find when surfen the web  !  I started a thread on the 'roid forum a week or so back on making a centrifuge!  Somehow I'd missed this thread or I wouldn't have started one over there.  Now I'm pissed off because this thread got more replies than the one I started  !  I can't justify spending over $1100 for a pre-made unit because I don't have a big need or supply of used oil.   But I've got a lathe and milling machine so I was thinking of starting with an old pressure cooker and a brake drum and I'll see what I can put together.  At the moment I think I'll make a belt drive spindle so I can spin the drum up well over the speed I'll run it at to see if it will hold together.  I think a brake drum will work well.  I wish I had 2 the same so if I explode one I'll have one to use  .  In the area where I live there are no old cream seperators or used machinery dealers or even scrap metal places to pilfer.  I did score an old jucier that I might try to solder a strip of stainless sheet metal into the bowl of to make a quick and cheesy 1000g trial unit.  I'll let you guys know what I come up with if I get something working!               Leland

Hi #21!  I think that the main issiue in the long run would be that there are a lot of expensive parts that wear out in a diesel generator compared to a boiler set up.  To me it would seem eaisier to set up heat lamps or space heaters run by a generator to heat remote rooms than it would be to plumb up baseboards or radiatiors to a boiler.  Though not knowing the exact details of your shop layout the generator idea sounds good to me.  But, it might come down to rebuild costs a few years down the road?  Or what you can take with you when you move out?  And simple is usually better.  Just my 3.2 cents worth!             Leland

I would bet that that Leroy Sommer was built to a price point and they were just thinking of it running resistive loads.  It just might not work for inductive loads.  I have seen that a lot of small generators wont run transformer type battery chargers hardly at all.  I don't know exactly what is lacking in the generators that have these limitations, maybe not enough windings or the regulation system might be to blame.                           Leland

Hi Glort.  I think a properly tweaked 6-1 Listeroid might be the least noisy diesel you can get.  Maybe a small 3 cylinder Kubota would be a good one also.  It seems that even though you go to a lot of work to hide as much noise as possible you can somehow sense that a diesel is nearby (maybe the vibrations are felt?  )  My 2 cents, and I've tried!  If I ever get the time I'll try and convert a Changfa 175A to spark ignition and see how quiet I can get it.  I also hope to try an old Ford Fiesta motor running on propane for a CHP project.  For me quiet is the most important quality and #2 is low fuel cost.                         Leland

Hi Westcvliffe01, welcome to the forum!  What about buying a 25' to 53' reefer trailer?  Or maybe 2 as a start on the structure?  Load your stuff inside and tow them to your new place.  Maybe buy a tractor to tow them yourself and then sell the truck after you have the trailers parked where you want them?  Just a thought.  If I wanted a new house I would seriously think about using a reefer trailer because they are already insulated and of sturdy construction.  If you are sure you will stay in one location you could lower the floor height down close to ground level by backing the wheels into a hole or even take the axels and landing gear off.                  Leland

We had a bunch of propane fueled tankless water heaters in assorted buildings at the resort where I work and ended up going back to standard tank type water heaters due to too many problems.  We tried every brand but all had problems of one sort or another.  If you think about it, having to run a control every time someone turns on a tap is a lot of wear and tear on a precision device, and your just out of luck if you just need a trickel for something like shaving.  We have a lot fewer service calls now that we went back to the old fasioned tanks! Also did not notice any savings in fuel with the on demand heaters.  I think your heat exchanger is just condensing water vapor onto a cold surface on start up and maybe does not have a leak?  I noticed the green flakey stuff on all of the heaters we had.  I would never buy a tankless after my experience with a dozen of them over about a ten year period.                  Leland

I think you made a wise choice Bob, good luck with the moveing in!  I've thought of moving to an area where I could buy something just like your new place.  I live in Northern California and even though property prices in the town where I live have dropped over 50% in the last few years a place like the one you just bought would cost about $150,000!  If I wanted to build a house like yours, or even just a 1 car garage, I would have to pay about $20,000 in fees for permits!  What you've done would make sense for me and probably several other board members also!    Leland

I lost the octogon and maybe a few other features at least 6 months ago!  Several people were talking like it was still here but I could not find it?  I was disappointed to think that it would be removed on purpose, but that would fit the USA attitude today.  I'm sure that someday historians will look back and wonder how the USA collasped and why no one seemed to care!                         Leland

Yes vdubnut62, you are correct.  But the chassis was even bigger like maybe the size of a F450 or at most an F600.  If I see a you tube of it I'll post it but I hope you guys will keep posting whatever vidios of cool little trucks like these you come across!    Thanks.... Leland

Sorry guys I don't know what the name of that show was.  It was a documentary show on something to do with China that I stumbled on.  This won't be on U-tube.  The truck looked like a regular full size 5 ton dump truck, 2 axels 1 up front, 1 at the back with dual wheels in the rear and drum brakes all around, 2 wheel drive from rear axel.  In the USA this truck would have anything from a 235 cid 6 to a 454 V-8 for a motor.  There was no hood or cowel around the motor and I couldn't tell if it was made that way or not but it did have fenders for the front wheels.  If I had to guess I'd say it probably had some sheet metal covering the motor when it was new.  It looked like there was room for at least a small V-8 in the engine compartment, no idea if the Changfa came in the truck when new but it probably did?  Way cool truck that did the job if you weren't in a hurry!                Leland

I was watching a TV show about roads in China and there was a segment where they showed a dump truck hauling rocks to a building site.  The camera crew rode along with the truck driver and they showed the engine a few times and it was a hopper cooled large Changfa type with a belt drive to the transmission!  The truck looked like it could haul maybe 3 to 5 tons and it seemed to move right along!  The driver was worried about the motor overheating on a long uphill grade so he opened a valve that let water into the hopper from a tank on the roof of the cab, it wasn't clear if he was just refilling the hopper or overflowing it on purpose to cool the motor.  They did say that the tired old motor struggled to maintain 9 MPH up the steep grade!  I thought the truck did very well to haul what looked like 2 yards of rock up that hill  !  It was a good size truck with dual wheels on the rear; I've no idea how many speeds the transmission had or what the top speed was.  The truck did the job for sure though  !                         Leland

I'd say we can't trust the goverment with oil either  !  It looks like the gulf will be a wasteland for the next several lifetimes of the children there.  I don't know why they arent spraying oil eating bacteria all over the coast down there, at least then maybe the bacteria would get buried in with all the oil and maybe speed up the recovery.  There seems to be a lot of secrecy around what is going on and that makes me wonder whose interests are being served  !                   Leland