Chinese diesel engine and gen set

Yesterday I picked up a generator set which was sold by Hardy Diesel (www.hardydiesel,com) It has a Ghangzhou 195 diesel engine on it. The generator is an Italian made 10.8 kw brushless (mecc alte spa) altenator-generator. The machine was equipped with Murphy safety switches.

An old lady has owned it for some 7 years but has never run it. She and her husband bought it and he died. She does not know anything about the operation. They mounted is on 2 6x6 sills and covered it with a trap. No concrete floor so the moisture has sort of made a mess but not bad. I got it in the shop and after cleaning the terminals on the solonoid I rolled it over. When I released the decompression it hit and ran. I checked the volate and it is generating. I have load tested it yet.

I have worked as a rig electrician on the offshore rigs for some 10 years and pretty much understand generation. The thing I haven't experienced is this Chinese engine. I went to China in 1995 and saw a lot of little two wheeled tractors on the streets with what looked like the same engine.

I was wondering if anyone the forum has had any experience with this engine?

I have seen a few of the smaller Chinese built diesel engines. They follow a German design. The smaller Chinese diesel engines are generally pretty bullet proof. A few Volunteer Fire Departments around this way bought Chinese-built diesel gensets for the "Y2K" insanity. These gensets are a bit larger (about 15 Kva), using water cooled 4 cylinder Chinese diesel engines, direct coupled to generators. They appear well made and the guys I know from VFD's who have them have said they worked OK for load tests and storm outages.

The only real downside I heard came from the local "auto electric" shop. This is the local starter/generator/alternator rebuilder. This guy has a shop by his house on a backroad and rebuilds and repairs any sort of automotive electrics- whether off cars, trucks, tractors, dozers, or other industrial engines. I brought an older Bosch motorcycle starting motor to him and he rebuilt it about 4 yrs ago. In passing, the guy remarked that Bosch built great starters, and it was the Chinese and Russian stuff that drove him nuts. He said he had rebuilt a few alternators and starters off Chinese diesels and off Russian Byeloruss tractors. The alternators on these engines had s--t for bearings in them. Some of the diodes and electrics on the charging/cranking system were a little "iffy", according to the rebuilder. He has a lathe, mill, and drill press and welder and is a guy of about 65 yrs of age in a little shop. As such, he tangles with the odd jobs that the regualr rebuild/exchange shops won't touch. He retrofitted Delco alternators to some fo these imported diesels. That is the only downside I have heard.

The Delco one wire retrofit is the easiest way out with the odd-ball stuff.
I am going to put one on my Suzue tractor.
They put out 65A.

Dick
I have heard that these little engines are tough and that they have a unique fuel injection system.
A few years back there was a lot of talk about a generator packaging plant over in the Abbeville La area but it never happened.
Say, when you get tired of working on drilling rigs, come talk to me. I sure need electricians on the production side. Rig electricians have no problem picking up production equipment. It’s the mechanics that have difficulty since the equipment is totally different.
Karl

i believe these engines are called changfa and are germean design. www.utterpoer.com has info on engines and gen set.

The engine I have is called an S195 Changchi but I think it is the same engine. This is a single cylinder diesel which is used on the two wheeled tractors. Yesterday I mounted a battery box and new cables. It now starts without having to hit the compression release.

The generator seems to have an electronic regulator which is not found on many generators this small. I have not load tested it yet. I noticed my junkman friend just brought in load of commercial dryers so I will get some heating coils from him for a load box. I also have a 5 H.P. single phase motor to get some inductive load. If it will handle 75% load for some hours, I may buy it.

i would go to the utter power web site. there is good and bad on electronic regulators. i believe these might be ok engines. there is a post by 608rivett about china and some pictures. he says most of these engines smoke over there and leak oil.

I agree with electronic regulators but this one is a step ahead of many generators found here. This is an Italian generator.

I saw a lot of these types of engines running on two wheeled tractors when I was in China in 1995. As for smoking only God knows what they were burning for fuel. May have been jet fuel or hog lard.

Anyway, I just gave $ 1,400.00 for the whole mess.

The worst thing about a lot of these Oriental industrial engines is the starter motor. Usually they will have a moulded commutator that has the copper bars stuck in some kind of plastic. This type is only suitable for cranking the engine for ten or fifteen seconds. The motor must then be given a minute or two to cool down. If this type of motor is cranked for a long time the commutator segments will come unstuck and the motor will be ruined.

Proper commutators are made from V shaped pieces of copper that have a dovetail at the bottom. Heat resistant Mica is used to insulate the segments from one another and the assembly is held together with two steel cups that are lined with some kind of heat resistant insulator. These cups which are pressed-on grab onto the dovetails and make an invincible commutator. The snag is that it costs more! Caveat emptor!