Diesel Generators – Avoiding Potential Problems

We have had two instances recently of diesel generators smoking badly. Both of these issues were related to excessive carbon build up in the combustion chamber and piston ring grooves.

In the first machine, this was caused by the use of home made ‘bio-diesel’ being used. This had different combustion properties and viscosities than conventional fuel and did not burn as cleanly. The resultant carbon build up eventually led to the piston rings becoming stuck in the piston ring grooves and a subsequent loss of compression. The remedy was a complete rebuild of the engine.

The second machine was suffering from excessive smoke and a wet exhaust. This was caused by running a 16kw generator at an average load of around 2kw for 2-3 months. Luckily we got to the machine just in time before serious damage had been done. The remedy on this occasion was to run the generator for a few hours under 75% load. This had the effect of increasing combustion chamber pressures and temperatures, enabling a cleaner burn in the combustion chamber and burning off the build up of excessive carbon and removing any bore glazing that may have started. After a couple of hours, the exhaust was completely clear and running as normal. If this machine had been left to continue to be run at too light a load, the bores would have glazed over, piston rings would have got stuck in the piston ring grooves and the engine would have required a complete rebuild to put it right.

To the uninformed, either of the above potentially serious problems could have been caused without knowing it. Please note that when selling a diesel generator to your customer that you make clear the potential pitfalls, as mentioned above.

If you have any queries on the above, please get in touch, or call our sales team if you need any more information on the range of power equipment from Hyundai.