Kubota engine life span question

[Motorhead]

I am looking at a 6,000 watt Kubota powered generator set. The engine hours are right at 10,000. It runs at 1800 rpm. I heard it run and it sounded good. It had no blow-by or unusual noises. It was origionally in a light tower, the kind that is towable and has a 4 light boom that can be raised.

The enclosure/trailer is gone. The guy made it self contained with a 15-20 gallon fuel tank attached. When I got there, the guy had it running and he told me on the phone that it hadn't been used in three years.

He is asking $900. for it.

I want it as a gen-backup for my house. I wired in a generator transfer switch into my house when I upgraded my electrical panel.



So here is the question,

How many hours are those engines good for??

 

[DogDiesel]

Running when you get there

I have seen generators with 16K hours run just fine. However, I become hesitant when I go to look at a diesel and the owner has it running already.

I want to start them cold.



I have had several long-in-the-tooth, high hour engines that run great once started, but don't try to start them before noon. The compression is down on cold starts.



But with preheater or coolant heaters, they can run on, many times hard to start, but still not consuming oil.



This may not be what you want to hear.



Wayne.

 

[Elite1]

I don't have an answer to your question, but...

I have a 6500, gas powered "Generac" home depot special... starts right up and runs good... I have had it for several years I use it on job sites to run power tools and I also use it as a back up generator at home, have the electric panel wired to plug right in... have used it a few times in power outages, works great. I think I paid about 600 bucks for it.



Here are some good deals on Diesel generators:

http://www.ironplanet.com/jsp/find/searchresults. jsp?type=Generator:+<+8+KW&command=NewSearch&h=400

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I have had several long-in-the-tooth, high hour engines that run great once started, but don't try to start them before noon. The compression is down on cold starts.



But with preheater or coolant heaters, they can run on, many times hard to start, but still not consuming oil.

This reminds me of an ancient diesel genset from the early '50s we had to fire up once for a power outage at my private high school. This was late '80s and I would guess it to be about 1500 cubic inches (cylinder head was about eye level) but it took a lot of batteries and cans and cans of ether to get running. The guys would start with 1/3 can in the intake, then continue to spray while cranking. With billowing clouds of white smoke and 30-45 seconds of cranking it would generate enough fire where it could chug over without the starter. But if the can of ether ran out the engine would readily lose RPM and stall out within 15-20 seconds. Each time they repeated the process and it would run a little longer. Luckily they had a bank of 6 batteries hooked up to it (can you image how hot the starter got?). Finally when they'd eptied the 6th can of ether down the intake it had barely enough heat to sustain itself. I remember them having it WOT smoking out the countryside with white smoke trying to maintain RPM . . . it finally built up enough heat to maintain combustion. When it became clear to everyone it was going to finally run the students let out a cheer.



Within minutes it was burning clean and thundering away. It ran around the clock for the next 2-1/2 days until the main feed could be repaired. The big six really roared, and I'd say it was this old diesel that help start this diesel bug I caught a few years ago



OK sorry for the hijack. . .



Vaughn

 

[Motorhead]

I have a 5K, 2cylinder, gas Military genset that a guy gave me for helping him with his Dodge one Sunday. I saw him leave a signal light and smoke was comming out from under the hood. He pulled over and the starter was stuck on. Of course he was from out of town. I worked for a few hours getting his truck running again (12 valve) so he could get on with his moving. He called me about a month later and asked if I wanted this 5k genset..... for FREE.

I didn't have to think very long on that!!!

It runs good and is actually rated at 7200watts. BUT... It runs at 3600rpm and on gasoline. I hooked it up to my house (I have a generator transfer set switch set-up) and it did fine but it roars!!!

I want a 1800rpm genset.



I looked online at Kubota web site and they had a HP listing on their engines. The D850 was rated at 19hp at 3000rpm. They also had a table for the engines used on gensets and the same engine only puts out 11hp at 1800rpm. This should be easier on the engines and the engine is not seeing the full loads that it would see in a tractor.

 

[cojhl2]

This reminds me of an [U]ancient[/U] diesel genset from the [U]early '50s [/U]

Oh dread,, tell me it isn't so!!!!

 

[Dieselnut59]

I have a 5K, 2cylinder, gas Military genset that a guy gave me for helping him with his Dodge one Sunday. I saw him leave a signal light and smoke was comming out from under the hood. He pulled over and the starter was stuck on. Of course he was from out of town. I worked for a few hours getting his truck running again (12 valve) so he could get on with his moving. He called me about a month later and asked if I wanted this 5k genset..... for FREE.

I didn't have to think very long on that!!!

It runs good and is actually rated at 7200watts. BUT... It runs at 3600rpm and on gasoline. I hooked it up to my house (I have a generator transfer set switch set-up) and it did fine but it roars!!!

I want a 1800rpm genset.



I looked online at Kubota web site and they had a HP listing on their engines. The D850 was rated at 19hp at 3000rpm. They also had a table for the engines used on gensets and the same engine only puts out 11hp at 1800rpm. This should be easier on the engines and the engine is not seeing the full loads that it would see in a tractor.

The 19 horse one uses the same "D722" engine that is in my Kubota mower. It is an EXCELLENT engine and is very quiet at high (around 3000) rpm's. I would not be hesitant about Kubota. If you have any doubts about compression, do a compression test on it. It is easily done on Kubotas through the glow plug hole with the glow plug removed. Would also be a good time to replace the glow plugs if it needs them.

Those light tower generators are never run at a full load. Four 1000 watt metal halide lamps don't even use 5000 watts of power, so the engine is not working hard at all. Another reason they may have a lot of hours is they are run continuously and often run out of fuel. I would say many of the hours are "key on, out of fuel" hours.

Have him start it when it is cold. if it is hard to start, it may just be glow plugs. Do a compression test if you are in doubt and check the glow plugs then. If it checks out ok, I would say you are getting a pretty good deal.

 

[BILLVO]

There are a lot of B7100 fwa tractors that the railroad had here that I worked on with 20k hours and no problems. I also have seen many light plants and water pumps with kubota engines with very high hours. The only death of kubota engines I've seen is in long run applications like light plants that developed exhaust leaks and plugged the radiator and air filter with soot and overheated them.



All Kubota engines MUST be preheated before starting or they will start extremely hard if at all.

 

[PToombs]

I can tell you that a brand new 3 cyl. Kubota engine,( not sure of the model)

costs $4900.

We just put one in a Kubota 420 mini-loader at work. The tech turned the key, it glow plugged for 10 seconds, and started right up!

That one had been rebuilt before, the other one was in for the same problem, bad head gasket. Same company owns both, they use the snot out of them at a landscape supply place. About 8k hours on them.