scored a sweet deal on a generator

[mobilaltima]

Was at my cousins house helping him clean out his shed, as hes preparing to sell his house. He's getting rid of pretty much everything. He had a Pro8000 Briggs generator in the corner, looked brand new. He asked if I wanted it, he said the oil is full of gas and the carb needs work. It's a twin cylinder 16hp Briggs/Vanguard, electric start, spin on oil filter, with the hour meter showing 87.3 hours. I couldnt pass up that deal.

It says to use Opti 4 oil, should I use sae 30, 15W40, or 15W50? Its definitely built to a much higher quality than some of the Briggs engines made today.

 

[JimPghPA]

LA has mild ambient temperatures with not too cold winters, and not too hot summers. What is the actual minimum and maximum ambient temperatures you ever see there.

The 15W - 40 should be a good choice for your location. But with more specific minimum and maximum ambient temperatures, others could probably make some recommendations.

 

[daves87rs]

Nice score!

 

[dave123]

That will suck some gas 15w40 will be fine.

 

[skyactiv]

Briggs and Stratton recommends 15W50 in the Vanguard engine series. https://www.briggsandstratton.com/n...mower-oil-type-and-capacity.html#oiltype

 

[joekingcorvette]

Nice cousin to have for sure!

 

[CT8]

You can use 30 or 15W-40 0r 5W-40, 15W-50 or if it is not too cold at starting temps 20W-50. 10W-30 0r 5W-30 could be used but there is a chance of excessive oil consumption.

 

[ragtoplvr]

That can burn 15 to 20 gallons a day.

rod

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted by ragtoplvr
That can burn 15 to 20 gallons a day.

rod


Yep. Every bit of that.

That is a monster of a portable generator though!

 

[mobilaltima]

I'll most likely be putting a natural gas kit on it

 

[locomaster1969]

15w40 if you want dino oil
10w40 Mobil 1 for synthetic
Vanguard engines are my favorite. They are reliable work horses. I prefer to run synthetic oil in them. Yours should hold 1.5 quarts. Repair the carburetor and install a fuel shutoff valve if it doesn't have one.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted by mobilaltima
I'll most likely be putting a natural gas kit on it



It will still cost a lot to run for long. Get a smaller one, and use the 8k one for high load use. I have 2, my 8k/10 unit burns a gallon an hour of gas. I use it if i need to run the clothes dryer/ or a lot of stuff at once during an extended outage. For most of the outage, i run an HF 4375 it will run about 3 1/2 to 4 hrs per gallon.

 

[jhellwig]

Originally Posted by spasm3
Originally Posted by mobilaltima
I'll most likely be putting a natural gas kit on it



It will still cost a lot to run for long. Get a smaller one, and use the 8k one for high load use. I have 2, my 8k/10 unit burns a gallon an hour of gas. I use it if i need to run the clothes dryer/ or a lot of stuff at once during an extended outage. For most of the outage, i run an HF 4375 it will run about 3 1/2 to 4 hrs per gallon.


Why are you running a dryer on a generator? Clothes lines don't use gas.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted by jhellwig

Why are you running a dryer on a generator? Clothes lines don't use gas.


Because i can. Plus, clothes lines dont work well when its 10-30 degrees f outside.

 

[meep]

I'd probably run a HDEO, rotella or somesuch in that big boy, but really as cool as a beast as it is, for home backup I'd use something much smaller so I could enjoy extended running without worrying about (and paying for) consumption. That suckers a Hoss.

M

 

[JimPghPA]

Originally Posted by mobilaltima
I'll most likely be putting a natural gas kit on it


You should check with some companies that install generators such as Generac to see what the limits are on natural gas pipe size and length of run. There are limits on how fast natural gas lines can supply gas and if the generator is too big, and or the length of the line is too long then the line must be upsized unless you use a smaller generator.

I have heard of some people having to have larger size pipe lines installed to run a stand-by automatic generator.

So check into it before you spend the money for the conversion kit and piping the line to the generator. It would be more expensive to do the job twice if the size of pipe you have now is actually too small. I do not know what the limits are but I am sure there are limits to consider.

 

[mobilaltima]

We have a rubber hose from under the house that we connect to the natural gas connection on the generator, with a valve to turn the flow on and off. That way we can move the generator and pick it up as needed.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted by mobilaltima
We have a rubber hose from under the house that we connect to the natural gas connection on the generator, with a valve to turn the flow on and off. That way we can move the generator and pick it up as needed.


Thats great! Dont have to worry about stale fuel, or how much to store.