you might be thinking of building an PTO (power take off) generator
that gives a lot more power then the dynamo

 

I too have access to several old diesel trucks that are wrecked and I thought about
Converting one to a generator. However the fuel that a v8 uses and the cost of the generator head or pto setup and all the extras had me to where as I could buy a good used diesel gen that is around 25000 watts for about $6000 or $7000 and be a lot better off.
It's a tricky thing to try and keep the engine at the right rpm for the load its at unless you just keep it running wide open all the time and then you can watch the fuel gauge drop big time by the hour.
True a geared pto unit will be the hot ticket and make the engine work less. But
That's a whole nother story.

 

A friend of mine built a 20kw diesel gen using a 4 cylder Mercedes desiel from an old 240d. He governed it at 1800 rpm and ran a 4 pole generator. It works great, runs quiet, and it's very efficient. I wouldn't build one using a truck engine unless you need 50+ kw continually. Otherwise you're burning extra fuel to spin extra engine that you will never actually utilize.

He heats his home with a wood boiler, so he made a crossover to the engine's cooling system using the return water from the boiler. That way he never has to worry about having to start a cold diesel in thw dead of winter, and when the genny is running, he can damper down the wood boiler and let the genny heat the house. The engine still has a thermostat controlled radiator to prevent overheating.

 

I like the idea, but I have been wanting to do a whole house utility plant in similar form. Don't think it would need to be that much HP, but I haven't broken it down.

But for a smallish house/shelter unit, by utilizing aftermarket parts, the engine can run HD/OS (Heavy Duty/Over Size) A/C compressors, 12v alternators, 110v/220v alternators, a hydraulic pump, an air compressor, a welder, etc. Pipe the coolant to a blower for space heating, pipe the coolant to a heat exchanger for hot water, duct the airflow for space heating, put a heat exchanger in the exhaust to heat water.

Depending on the actual installation and what all is on the property and the way it is set up, might even have a fresh water pump to pump from a well or other source to a water tank up a hill or on a tower, or just have it keep a very large pressure tank filled, with a by-pass release system to avoid over pressure in the tank or damage to the pump.

I think much of the pumps/alternators and such on a belt system on the front of the motor as currently done. But a back plate could be made to do the same thing on the rear of the engine, either to replace that on the front or supplement it. Alternatively, or in conjunction, a Jack shaft could be run from the engine or through the transmission, and run things off it. This would work especially well at a shop to power tools as well as the generators and the heating aspects.

Just an idea.

 

Forget the tranny, get a 4 pole genny and run it direct. Running the engine at just over idle at 1800 RPM will maximize engine and bearing life and keep fuel comsumption to a minumum.

 

As I stated above, having to look into the idle speed as it idles around 850-900 rpm, or half the recommended generator spped for optimal output. Looking into the rpm pf each transmission gear to engine speed to determine this and the power given up at each gear. Need an automotive wizard for this, I still have a lot of questions.

 

Problem is that when you set things up so EVERYTHING works off one engine, then that engine pretty much has to run 24/7, and when it inevitably goes down, you have nothing.

 

How are you going to regulate the speed of the engine to compensate for varying loads?

 

You can buy governor kits for this type of thing. Or you could potentially modify a cruiser control unit if it was simple enough and you are clever.

 

Jerry, I like the idea of the encompassed utilities/power plant & seeing what uses could be applied. The diesel is very dependable, takes heat well, generates quite a bit of heat, can be adapted to mixed & even homemade fuels and has a surplus of power for the most part. You have me thinking about hydraulic fluid powering capabilities also, as well as heat scavenging, the capability of diverting and/or rerouting exhaust heat, coolant streams, as well as auxiliary 12 volt power for radiator heating systems w/ automotive type electric fans.

anickode, is could serve as the primary source of power & utilities but could be cycled in operation. And it could serve as the main recharging source for an auxiliary battery power system. This is moving fast, lots of ideas and brainstorming, what I was looking for. One thing regarding the idle speed, it is almost half of what many generators suggest for optimal output. What I've got to do is determine the transmission gear selection for the Ford E4OD (I think that's what the '97 has) and what the output shaft rpm is for each gear vs the engine speed. Thanks, looking forward to seeing where this can go.

I particularly like the automotive engine set up because the system is an established, mounted, solid workable package to build upon and made for revamp & altering/adding to. The possibilities seem almost limitless at this point as far as ideas.

 

If you decide the Ford diesel isn't going to work the way you want, consider a pair of smaller diesels. You'll use less fuel running just one at moderate speed, and the second can be brought on line for additional power other utility. And it gives you a back up, and a reserve, for when you take one down for service. I'm a big believer in staged power supply, backups, and redundancy.

Just a thought.

 

How about also setting up some sort of heat exchanger where the engine coolant could be used to heat water for bathing, washing dishes or laundry, etc.

 

I would say if you want a truly self sufficient home and generator you should look at building a Magnet generator or two. For a large scale build it may cost more but will pay for itself in the first year.

 

I would say if you want a truly self sufficient home and generator you should look at building a Magnet generator or two. For a large scale build it may cost more but will pay for itself in the first year.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwted5rOQyw

Don't waste your money. If you really must know how to build this, it's on scribd http://www.scribd.com/doc/90733843/Johnson-Motor

 

Way Way back in Popular Mech IRC they ran a segment on an Italian Co. that built a home power set
for remote installations.
From memory:
A 3 cyl. auto motor was used.
It powered the gen set, also a batt. I believe.
The radiator and exhaust supplied heat and domestic hot water.
The A/C supplied cooling for the refrigerator (freezer ?).

 

I tend to agree that smaller might be better. That big Ford diesel should be able to run a half dozen houses at one time. Kinda like using a pair of pliers where what you really needed was a pair of tweezers.

One of the smaller diesel engines that I'm familiar with is the 4 cyl VW diesel, which is about 1/4 of displacement of your Ford. And they're good on fuel, too. They can be a little quirky to work on but once you get familiar with them, they're not bad at all.

As far as regulating speed, what about just using the cruise control? Both my 7.3 Ford and my old 1.8 TDI both had cruise control.

Just some thoughts. Enjoying the thread!

 

Modern cruise control systems monitor the wheel speed sensors to know when traction is lost. With out the signals from those sensors the system will not engage.

 

So relocate the sensors to the flywheel or to a "wheel" that's set up specifically to monitor the rotational speed.

I wouldn't dismiss the cruise control idea so quickly.

Just saying...

 

As mentioned already, this is a bit more power than needed for typical usage, however, you could utilize that. I'd suggest using several alternators wired up to several batter banks. You could easily centrally locate a shed to house the engine setup and battery banks. Then feed the banks off to several homes for energy usage. You could run the engine once or twice a day to replenish the battery banks.

I'm considering a similar setup utilizing a steam engine. It doesn't hurt to have backups... :thumb:

 

Sell the auto diesel and look into a Lister diesel genset. The Lister will give you years of service with VERY low fuel consumption of about .296 gal per hour at full load.

http://www.generatorsales.com/order/09912.asp?page=L09912

 

This looks ideal for a homestead. Very quiet and low fuel usage!

It's just a matter of choosing what to power and when keeping the load in line with the power that is produced. Very nice!

It's too small to power a whole house air conditioner, but I probably could not afford to provide the amount of fuel needed to do that anyway. It might power a window unit.

I'd wondered if the small 4 cylinder from my Hyundai might work. It's a pretty fuel efficient engine and there is no need to be over powered at the expense of fuel costs. The PTO governing problem is real. I'd figure that if it could be solved someone would make kits to use auto engines by now.

Being that it is a home stead it might be practical to assume that generator provided electricity is a luxury item and to be rigged with oil lamps and tools of the olden life styles. Solar can provide for lights, but the costs are pretty high compared to grid living.

 

I say build a 100kW generator from this, and sell the power in a time of need, you will need to plan on burning 1/2-1 gal/hr at a low load up to 2 gal/hr at high load.

The Cummins 4BT is a very popular engine for hospital generators, so you could easily run 10.. 20 houses off of one big Powerstroke generator

 

http://www.realacpower.com/

i'll just leave this here.........i watched 2 idling powerstroke 7.3's run the entire midways at a indy truck race some years ago

 

How about a bank of say, six Chevy alternators powering a bank of batteries powering a few inverters? Parts are easy to come by, easy to switch out if one fails, doesn't leave you relying on one part, and doesn't waste gas/fuel. Any reasons why it wouldn't work?

 

I'm in a quandary. I will do a back up system. I have considered the pros and cons of solar, wind, and back up generator. The back up generator is the easiest but fuel does run out, wind and solar do not.

My place already has propane so a propane generator would be easy, but which would be better, propane or diesel?

The first con to diesel is that it would be a second type of fuel, further complicating the overall plan. Having only one type of fuel to worry about is better than two types of fuel..

But diesel is more efficient.

 

You can make Diesel in a Bucket in your back Yard. Renewable Resource.

 

if you need to regulate the rpm's you could use a throttle lock out of an old dump truck, simple and mechanical, and fully adjustable

 

That doesn't compensate for load. If you set it to 1800 rpm when you start up, and then dump a 10kw load on it, you're gonna bog down the engine, resulting in frequency loss and voltage drop, or even stalling. None of those things are good for the generator or the attached equipment. That's what governors are for. They VARY the throttle based on engine RPM. Load it down, rpm starts to drop, governor applies more throttle.

Back in the days of steam and low rpm combustion engines, the flyweight governor was king.... But there are many better options out there nowdays.

 

http://carbondale.craigslist.org/grd/3976110303.html

Wished I had the $3,000.00 in hand or I'd own one of these 45kw. They're off a towboat. Which means low hours on the engine. :

 

I was depot level maint on those 8v92 Detroit diesels that 45kw Genset looks nice and is a steal @ 3K.
Anyways I learned a valuable lesson when I had a emergency here a few weeks ago. I think your solution is Powering a bank of batteries powering a few inverters. This way you can idle that Ford diesel down. No load ups and downs. hell you just run it to charge the bank. You can do maint, ECT. You can cross up with wind, solar ect. Pick the times you want to run for noise black out. You can run dirty diesel IE, drop oil, vegie oil(must be pre-heated) or Bio. You can't do that with the new VW 1.9PD I own one I know. The new Pumper diesels are kinda finicky they do not even like high doses of Bio for long haul. Even in the VW owners manual they will not warranty your car with more than a 5% bio blend.
I ran my Ford Ranger with a Optima gel battery at idle to a inverter ran two fridge freezer combos and a freezer, all at the same time. Now I am sure they were not continuous together. But kicking in and out. But my point is it did keep a float and ran like that for 2 days. So with that I think the same can be done on a larger scale. And if done right one could seriously plug right into your breaker box and power your house. Granted once again "done properly" I think this is possible. And blend in enough wind solar and gen power, you could pay your own power bills.

 

8v92 coupled to a 45kwatt generator? something ain't right with that!

those engine's had a base hp of about 360hp up to well over 400hp, so i would expect 200kwatts minimum genhead for that engine... otherwise it ain't even going to get warmed up properly.
bob g