My 3kw gas has 1400 hours, I've put about 200+ on it. Built more like
a car motor than a lawnmower. Pressure lube, mech fuel pump, etc. The
cylinders are in separate finned jugs, more like a motorcycle engine.
The alum. shroud serves to channel air over the block and cylinders,
pulled by the fan.
At about 1300 hours, I pulled mine sortof apart - it was blowing oil, I
assumed it to be a broken ring pressurizing the case...cylinders were
clean and showed little wear -- of course, I'm sure it was rebuilt
sometime in its life, but it did have 100 hours on it at that time that
I put on it. Turned out the valves were WAY off.
I bought a starter for mine, 24v. Used it for a while, but it starts
easily enough, always within 3 pulls, that I quit using it. I run mine
in about once a month.
The 3kw rating is a very conservative, continuous duty rating. Most of
the commercial sets are identified by their max rating, the continuous
duty rating is in the fine print, usually about 25% less than the named
rating. And of course, the marketing department pushes the limits when
rating them, too. Just look at the amount of copper in the windings of
a 3kw, vs. a commercial 8kw.
BTW, as much as I like it, I am going to replace my 3kw with a
commercial generator. The 3kw is not enough to run my welder and plasma
cutter. The 5kw will, but geez, it weighs 1000#, and 1350# for the
10kw. I'm planning to go with a Miller Bobcat NT welder/generator,
rated 8kw. 600#, vs the 3kw's 300#.
-- DP (O|||||||O)=== To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.