O.T.- Anybody familliar with Onan 12.5 deisel gensets?

Is it Onan DJC? If so, I have an Onan DJE, a very similar unit, only 2 cylinders instead of 4.

white smoke is unburned, atomized diesel fuel.

A lot, but... Why would you need a rebuild? They will outlast you.

If it starts, and runs, it is in a good shape.

Good, like new Onan DJC's (yours is not like new) sell for $3,500 often.

I would pay $2k for one like yours. If you can get away with paying less, great for you. I got my DJE for about $600+, but I had to do some repairs.

Check out

,they have a great forum for onan gensets, with onan techs partcipating.

i

To get rid of the white smoke.

Except that it is obviously running on 3 cylinders (or less). If you can crank it over by hand (with the injection pump set to shutoff), you can see if there is an obvious lack of compression on one cylinder. (I think it is pretty clear, even from this distance, there will be.) You might be able to determine which valve (if any) is the cause. If intake, it might just be a sticky valve, and an oil change and a warmup to full temperature might clear it up. If exhaust, that could be a burned valve, which will take a little more work and money to fix. Some Diesels have emergency shutdown mechanisms that lock the exhaust valves open in case the governor or fuel pump malfuctions. If this engine is so equipped, it could be that the emerg. shutdown mechanism has gotten out of adjustment and is holding one valve open. Most of these schemes have a system of levers that come through the valve cover, so it should be quite obvious.

Jon

It's not necessesarily a loss of compression. The same white smoke symptom can come from a damaged or dirty injector tip that isn't properly atomizing the fuel.

LLoyd