Anybody ran their SC Yanmar enough to see how the fuel consumption is?

[tinkerer]

Hello,
     Just curious if anyone has ran their Yanmar engine from surplus center enought to see what the fuel consumption is like. Just curious...

Ben

[mr.fixit]

Just recently I had the yanmar running a 5K belt drive gen head connected to my XW6048 inverter charger.
The inverter accepted it fine so some rough initial testing showed about 48 0z. of fuel for a 1 hour run time at approx. 3000 watts.
The engine ran at 2460 rpm with the pulleys I had on hand so next I will change pulleys to get the rpm down.
Hopefully this will lower fuel use. I will post some pictures in the future when I get everything finnished and cleaned up.

[evanjohnson]

What did you do in the way of engine management/ control?

[mr.fixit]

No controls on it yet other than a bungee strap holding the throttle open.
I do plan on a simple key start switch with a basic high water temp low oil pressure shut down system.

[WStayton]

Hi guys!

  Your fuel consumption works out to about 272 g/kw-hr, assuming that you are quoting fluid ozs.

  I think that's pretty good for a small indirect injection diesel.  My Mercedes is supposed to do 299 g/kw-hr, so your beating the Mercedes by something like 9%.  Now I'm going to have to go throw stones at the OM616! <grin>

  Good job!

Regardz,

Wayne Stayton

[mr.fixit]

Yes,fluid ounces.
I use a glass gallon jug for the fuel container and just mark the beginning level and run it for an hour then refill using a measuring cup-probably not the most accurate way to do it but close enough for my needs.
My new pulley should be here today so we'll see how it does at a lower rpm.

[WStayton]

mr.fixit

  If it does significantly better, I don't want to know about it!!  My arm is a little sore to throw to many rocks! <grin>

Regardz,

Wayne Stayton

[evanjohnson]

...   My new pulley should be here today so we'll see how it does at a lower rpm.

What pulley set-up will you be using and where did you source?

[Henry W]

The sweet spot for these engines is 2400 - 2600 rpm. 272 g/kw-hr is not out of line at all. The engine will be more efficent once loaded properly. At 3000 watts the engine will not get higher numbers running at 2460 rpm's. Before you change the pulley ratio. put a 4000 watt load on it. If it does not blow black smoke go up to 4500 watts. If it still does not smoke than try 5000 watts. Get the readings. I think you will see an increase in efficency. And than you will have good benchmark numbers at 2460 rpm's.

It would be good to load it up anyways. It will help seat the rings.

2-24-2013 Update on the sweet spot for these engines is 2600 - 3000 rpm

Henry

[mr.fixit]

This is the pulley that I bolted to the flywheel- https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=1-1054&catname=powerTrans 
I see the are out stock now.I had to drill new holes in it and machine a short alignment shaft to align it with the flywheel ID.
Anyways I did try a smaller pulley on the gen head. Engine rpm down to approx 2000. For some reason even though the voltage and HZ. are within the allowable range of the inverter input the inverter won't sync up and accept it  at that engine rpm. 
So I put  the larger pulley back on and the inverter accepted it fine.I don't know-maybe someone with more knowledge on that could shed some light.
Also I did try it with a smaller pulley yet at 1800 engine rpm with same result and it runs a little rougher at that slower speed.
So like Henry says 2400- 2500 rpm is about right on.

[evanjohnson]

Anyone actually using their engine yet?  I keep looking at mine and getting distracted by other projects. 

I need some inspiration- hopefully some else's project PIX!

[mr.fixit]

I use mine to recharge the solar batteries through the inverter-charger.Here it is running at about 3800 watts.http://youtu.be/IkIuExMlfXs My cooling system consists of 200 ft of pex pushed inside of my 500 gallon hot water storage tank for the wood boiler.That in turn heats my DHW so that heat gets used.

[diesel]

Hey Mr Fixit,
Out of interest do you get much usable heat out of the SC Yanmar?

[mr.fixit]

Well,hard to say with 500gallons,but I have an external temp sensor on the storage tank top.A 1 hour run with the generator raises the top temp 10-12 F. Now there is stratification in the tank so it's hard to calculate exact BTU's but initially I was using a open plastic barrel to recirculate the coolant-approx 16 gallons and I ROUGHLY calculated 12,000 to 14,000 BTU,s per hour.
Now in works is an exhaust HX so that will help also. I will also install a automotive radiator with an electric fan in the coolant loop for times when the tank can't take anymore heat(boiler in operation)
If you had a smaller storage tank-say 50 or 80 gallons like a hot water heater tank you could utilize the BTU,s from the generator better.
I mainly did it this way to keep it simple,the water pump on the engine does all the circulating. Although I havent yet figured out how to parallel the exhaust HX in yet with out another pump,so more research needed.

[bschwartz]

Please check your youtube link as it appears to be to a malicious website, and not youtube.