Bob B's 6/1 and ST5 Project

[sailawayrb]

Another photo

[sailawayrb]

Another photo

[sailawayrb]

Another photo

[sailawayrb]

Another photo

[sailawayrb]

Another photo

[veggie]

Bob, you did a really nice job on that project.
A lot of design, engineering, and construction time.
Well done!
Have you found time to connect it at the new residence?

[sailawayrb]

Thanks and it was a fun project that kept us in power when we had outages that lasted several days.  No, other projects have prevented me from getting it online at our new place.  I have a portable 12kV propane generator that I can use in the mean time, but I hope to get 6/1 humming again before this Winter is over.

[sailawayrb]

Has anyone installed an O2 sensor in the 6/1 exhaust and used it to adjust air/fuel mixture from maximum efficiency to maximum power and carefully documented the results? 

Many years ago I was easily able to get my 6/1 to generate 4.5 kW (or 6 HP) by injecting propane into air inlet.  Doing this essentially moved the engine operating point along the lambda curve, i.e., from a leaner (maximum efficiency regime) to a richer (maximum power regime) air/fuel mixture relative to the diesel Stoichiometric 14.5/1 air/fuel ratio.

If what I wrote is Greek to you, here's a lambda 101 article that may help with understanding:

https://x-engineer.org/automotive-engineering/internal-combustion-engines/performance/air-fuel-ratio-lambda-engine-performance/#:~:text=For%20a%20gasoline%20(petrol)%20engine,AFR%20is%20different%20than%20stoichiometric.

[mike90045]

Could you tell how just adding propane fumigation worked before adding the O2 sensor, and just letting the internal governor manage the diesel ?

[sailawayrb]

No Mike, I have never attached an O2 sensor to my 6/1...but I have couple laying around and that is what prompted my question...  My 6/1 could only power two 1.5 kW electric heaters when only operated with diesel, but could easily power three 1.5 kW electric heaters when propane was used.  So the 6/1 internal governor was indeed governing.  Analytically it is clear that there is significantly more power that could be obtained from the standard 6/1 configuration, and I was just wondering if anyone has actually explored this to any extent.