Birken Vogt
Charter Member
I agree with all that that you numbers wizards have posted about HP and arrangements and all that. I don't have access to any of that.
I must admit I skimmed over most of the horsepower numbers and that is where my fault lies.
I was suggesting that if the engine did not have a broken crankshaft, and the throttle input could be manipulated to make it lock at 1800 RPM (there are aftermarket devices that do this if the existing throttle input is not "stiff" enough for a generator) that I can't see why an industrial engine could live a long and happy life as a generator prime mover. Running a generator at 1800 RPM cannot be much different than running a sawmill or water pump or rock crusher or what have you.
I agree that if the engine was built for 475 @ 2100 then on a straight line it might only have 407 HP which is a far cry from what it originally came with. But maybe that is all they need?
The generator head does not take any more power to drive than the electrical loads that are placed upon it and he said 50% load near the beginning here so it may have worked out if the engine did not decide to come apart.
I must admit I skimmed over most of the horsepower numbers and that is where my fault lies.
I was suggesting that if the engine did not have a broken crankshaft, and the throttle input could be manipulated to make it lock at 1800 RPM (there are aftermarket devices that do this if the existing throttle input is not "stiff" enough for a generator) that I can't see why an industrial engine could live a long and happy life as a generator prime mover. Running a generator at 1800 RPM cannot be much different than running a sawmill or water pump or rock crusher or what have you.
I agree that if the engine was built for 475 @ 2100 then on a straight line it might only have 407 HP which is a far cry from what it originally came with. But maybe that is all they need?
The generator head does not take any more power to drive than the electrical loads that are placed upon it and he said 50% load near the beginning here so it may have worked out if the engine did not decide to come apart.
1. The original genset appears as though it was built to produce 50Hz power because the engine was dyno tested at 1500 RPM. To confirm that when I put the Serial Number in to the system the title appears as "C15 Generator Set (50Hz) C5L00792"
2. I may be wrong, but I would bet good money that a 60Hz genset producing the same electrical output would be a different Serial Number prefix to the C5L of the existing set. That would make it difficult to find service information regarding the correct flash software file to use in the ECM in order to command the engine to run at a constant 1800 RPM, and that's without even considering how to get factory passwords for the software and Interlock Code changes required. Been there, done that, in a previous life and the hoops to jump through are even more difficult today.
3. The arrangement of the replacement engine procured by the OP to replace the original contains so many major different iron parts (refer post #47 above) I'm afraid I can't see how it could reliably be made to produce 605 BHP @ 1800 RPM when the "donor engine" only produced 475 BHP when built. Added to that, the 475 BHP was at 2100 RPM, so if the engine was required to run at 1800 RPM I imagine the power it developed would surely be even less than 475.