ChangFa generator set is ALIVE!

Most outstanding. Beautiful pictures. Looks like you enjoyed the process. Now is the time to give this set a good load test. Not hard at all, with $8.00 240V water heater elements from Home Depot. The load test is, in fact, what I am most interested in.

i

How do I do a load test, other than just hooking up a heating element? I'm sure I would need to place the heating element in a small tank of water? to prevent it from burning up???

Once I do this load test, what am I to monitor? voltage drop? hook up a meter???

Explain what I should be looking to accomplish with this load test?

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Here's how I did a load test. I bought a 4,500 watt, 240v heating element from home depot. Attached wires to the 220V outlet that I added to my genset, and submerged the element (but not the wires) into a steel bucket with water.

Started the genset and powered the outlet. The water started boiling rather soon.

You will need two such heater elements. Be careful.

i

I've planned a water heater element load bank, but never built it. I sure wouldn't try it using that "dunk the end of the element in a bucket" method - they get hot up to about an inch from the threads, so you can wreck the elements too easily. And loose exposed power wires and a grounded galvanized bucket can cause some major excitement...

Take the screw-in water heater elements, they have what looks like a

1" NPT thread on their end. Get a NPT Tee one size bigger (1-1/2"), and several 1-1/2" x 12" nipples long enough to enclose the heater elements, a few 2" close nipples and regular ells. Some reducing bushings to drop the 1-1/2" tee threads to the 1" heater element threads. A small swimming pool or spa pump if you want to recirculate from a tank or radiator, hoses for water in and out.

Basically, you screw the heater element into the bushing and then one end of the tee, put the long nipple over the element to provide a water chamber, and flow water in through the side of the tee and out through the nipple and over the element. For multiple elements, circle back with pipe ells and nipples for another pass - but not too many in a row, or your output will be boiling. More than two or three elements, and I'd plumb it series-parallel.

Bad part is, when I was working Heating and Air I saved a 20KW staged resistance furnace (with fan section) to build a much simpler air-cooled load bank - and SWMBO (Mom division) said "You'll never use it, throw it out."

Call your local heating contractors - to most people old resistance furnaces are power-hungry inefficient junk, to people with a generator set they're gold. You just have to ask them not to destroy the next one they take out during the removal. Then you have to rip out the controls and substitute a bunch of toggle switches so you can vary the loads.

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Well, I submerged the heating part, the water was almost up to the cap (?).

You know, I was around and it lasted 5 minutes.I will make it nicer if I want to run the test repeatedly. At that time, I wanted to make sure that my genset was operational. My "redneck" solution was perfect for what I wanted.

I like that idea...

i

Must be a small world :)

I just purchased one of the ChangFa engines and 15KW generator heads off Ebay, it is on its way to Tampa, FL as I type..

Couple Questions.

#1 Where abouts in Florida Are you? I'm in the Tampa bay area

#2 Where did you get the direct drive engine coupling? Mine only has the pulley attachment, so I was thinking on machining a shaft onto the pulley to direct drive the generator with a Lovejoy coupling, as well as add a belt driven air compressor (the whole thing will end up on a trailer)

#3 When you started the diesel, exactly how noisey was the beast? Did it vibrate badly?

Take Care, James Lerch

(My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge

Give me the shaft diameters. Ive got a shitload of lovejoy couplers in a pile in the back yard. Rusty..but all new.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

To answer your questions, I am in the Spring Hill area, north of Tampa, close to the Veterans Expressway, if you know where that is. South of 50 and North of 52.

I bought the Direct drive coupler ($269) from a man named George at utterpower.com and the genset combo package from someone named Joel, it was from EBAY.

The coupler came with the LoveJoy-150 and what looks like a machined, brake rotor off a small car, 4 lug. that mates up to the flywheel mounting lugs. It works.

You do know that there is some kind of formula on what size engine you need to turn the head? It's something like, 2hp for every 1Kw. If you use a direct drive, you cant run the engine at full output of 2200 rpm, which means you wont develop the the full rated 22 hp. You need to spin the engine at 1800 rpm to match the genhead requirements of 1800 rpm.

The engine was ran without the genhead attached, I built my frame with isolation bumpers built-in ($9.00 transmission mounts) so the vibration will be reduced to the concrete piers. When I had the engine up to speed, it did vibrate some, it's an engine, but was not jumping around like a rabbit. I put my foot on the frame and could feel the vibration and with my foot on the pier, it was greatly reduced. I am happy with the way the frame came out. I modified a frame I've seen on the internet.

As far as how noisy it was, well, let me try and explain it. Standing next to it, at speed (1800 rpm), you would need to raise your normal talking voice to a level that you would need to do in a crowded bar with heavy metal music playing, while you are about a foot from someone you are talking too. This is with the stock muffler installed.

As I walked away from the running engine, it did get quieter. It wasn't really that bad. I live on a 1-1/4 acre, where my neighbors are quite a distance from my genset with sound dampening barriers, fences, garage and blocking some sounds. If you neighbors with close by, plan on offering them free power during outages.

I am planning on changing the muffler with something else in the near future, as well as some other modifications.

Once I am satisfied with the genhead alignment I plan on making a small video to post on the web of it running, with sound.

Somehow that doesn't surprise me Gunner :)

Unfortunately I already ordered the couplers from McMaster Carr. 42mm ID for the Generator head, and 1.625" for the yet to be fabricated engine side. $85 plus shipping

However, In the very near future I'm going to need a mill, smallish, something I can get thru a 32" x 72" door opening. Anything in you inventory?

I've been looking at some of the Grizzly "Job Fox" Mills. but.....

Take Care, James Lerch

(My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge

Damn, were almost neaighbors! I work with a weld / machine shop just south of you called H&R Metal Fab, down the Veterans at Hillsbourough ave.

I live in Ellenton, just south of the SkyWay bridge off I-75.

The utterpower.com guys have a really nice web-site! One of the reasones I decided to attempt this adventure. To be honest, I'm still a little leary of jumpying into the made in Chine assembled by me game, but it honestly looks like a fun project!

Ahhhh That explains the 4 extra (un-used) bolt holes I saw in their adapter! Also, I would imagine that the extra mass on the engine side definetly can't hurt.

Indeed, while the generator head I got is rated at 15KW, if I did the math right @ 22HP / 2200RPM the max available is only 14.7 KW. Now factor in the direct drive which will reduce the available HP @ 1800 RPM, and it's probably closer to 12 - 13KW max.

The question is, if we stuck with the belt drive arrangment, running the diesel at 2200 rpm, how much power would be lost to the belts?

The truth is, even if I can get 10 or 12KW out of the direct drive arrangment, I really don't "Need" more than that. Plus it's got to be easier on the engine and generator head not having those high side loads the belt would provide (not even mentioning the possible improvement in longevity of running the diesel at 1800 rpm..

That's good to know, I was a little worried about that huge one cylinder idea :)

OK, that sounds a little loud :)

The owner of the weld shop just recently purchased a new Miller Big 40 Diesel (AC/DC, with 12KW of single or three phase 220vac power). It has got to be the quietest diesel I've ever heard! With the Miller Big 40 running outside a closed window of the shop office, you can bearly hear it running. While standing next to it is about as noisy as a LARGE shop fan, which is exactly what I believe is making all the noise, the fan for the radiator.. (but for 10K, I guess you get what you pay for!)

I was the reciever of free power last year, so this year I hope to be able to return the favor :)

Same here, specifially getting rid of the hopper cooling system, and going with a radiator and a fan, so I can mount this thing in a enclosure on a trailer.

Cool!

BTW, if you ever need / want something machined or powder coated, shoot me an email. Maybe we can start up our own little chapter of the ChangFa Generators Anonymous :)

Take Care, James Lerch

(My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge