Portable and standby generators

[Auto Doc's]

Hello R.,

Has luck would have, my power went out due to a tripped main breaker in the outside main power box this evening and I figured I was good to start up the 15KW Generac and power the house.

After running for a couple of minutes to warm it up. it started weeping oil out of the fuel pulse pump brass vent on the top.

That was weird and I have never dealt with that before.

Being at 40 degrees and rainy, I was in no hurry to figure it out this evening and I was able to reset my outside main breaker without issue.

I will make a separate posting about this as this unexpected discovery unwinds and the weather get a little warmer in a few days.

 

[rhkraft]

That is odd! I had a big oil spill myself. I have a 10kvw Briggs standby generator with automatic start when the power failure occurs. It automatically runs for 20 minutes once a week. The generator came with a wiring harness for two crankcase heaters and a battery heating pad. I used the battery heater for several years until Briggs sent out a notice not to use it. I disconnected it, but at the first really cold event the engine started but immediately shut down to overspeed. I looked and the throttle was frozen wide open with ice. Apparently, the battery heating pad had created enough heat in the cabinet to prevent this. I hooked it back up. Now for the good part. I decided to install a crankcase heater. I called the dealer to buy the heater, but they said it was a kit and came with the battery heater I was told not to use and doubling the cost of the kit, $300. I was able, after much wrangling with the Briggs parts department, to buy the heater element from Briggs for this application. There are two crankcase drain plugs, and I chose the one on the back because it was easier to access. It tightened up really soon without going in very far, but it was tight. Everything was fine for about a year. Then one day all my oil was on the ground. Upon investigation, the heater was hanging on its wire, and the crankcase had drained. I looked at it and saw a washer. I didn't remember a washer on there. The washer was threaded onto the heater plug. It was part of the crankcase. Upon investigation I saw the hole was not deep enough to screw in the heater. When I tightened it apparently it bottomed out and put outward pressure on the crankcase threads and crankcase casting failed snapping off the outside 3 threads. Luckily there were enough threads to securely hold the original crankcase drain plug that I reinstalled. I moved the heater to the other drain plug hole and it was deep enough, but horrible for installation of the heater plug- no room to turn a wrench. I had to resort to a crow's foot and make multiple 1/8 turns to tighten it. I my issue is that Briggs should have known that the heater could not be installed in the back crankcase drain hole and should have designed the other hole with more room for installation. Everything is good now, but the take-away is to check the hole depth before trying to install the block heaters.