Hello There:
First time poster.... Long time reader here....
I a have a Kohler electric plant I want return to service that was manufactured in the 1960s without any oil filtration system. Its got a lot of hours on it and from the looks of things its been neglected. Slowly I have cleaned as much sludge out and done as much remedial service to it as I can to make it reliable again. I am sure its got many more years of reliable standby use life in it or I would not have bothered.
SO my question, on a small single cylinder machine with about an half gallon of oil capacity and no factory provisions for filtering what would you guys suggest I do? Cranking cold and once at running speed I get about 30 to 40 PSI of oil pressure, and the set runs pretty well. I have an old filter housing for a Detroit coolant filter that fits a small screw on automotive spin on filter I matched up. I considered putting a restriction in the line tapped off from near a port where there is an oil pressure gauge to reduce the through flow so I don't lower my oil pressure too much and dump the oil back to the sump.
It would be quick and simple and should provide some decent filtering. The problem I am trying to address is this old plant has an automatic start function and load sense controller. Its starts and runs only as long as it sees a load greater that 60watts. Years of service like this has left it dirty, so I do not want to aggressively clean it but I also don't want to let what ever dirt does loosen up with use float around and potentially cause more trouble.
For oil I use Rotella T 15W-40 in everything and I know this has excellent cleaning properties and its worked well for me over the years in all my small engines. I never leave the oil in to long because I have always believed once oil starts to look dirty in a small engine with no filtration system then it is dirty and shoudl be changed ( this is in the 25 to 75 hour range depending on conditions )
So what do you fellows think?
Thanks in advance
First time poster.... Long time reader here....
I a have a Kohler electric plant I want return to service that was manufactured in the 1960s without any oil filtration system. Its got a lot of hours on it and from the looks of things its been neglected. Slowly I have cleaned as much sludge out and done as much remedial service to it as I can to make it reliable again. I am sure its got many more years of reliable standby use life in it or I would not have bothered.
SO my question, on a small single cylinder machine with about an half gallon of oil capacity and no factory provisions for filtering what would you guys suggest I do? Cranking cold and once at running speed I get about 30 to 40 PSI of oil pressure, and the set runs pretty well. I have an old filter housing for a Detroit coolant filter that fits a small screw on automotive spin on filter I matched up. I considered putting a restriction in the line tapped off from near a port where there is an oil pressure gauge to reduce the through flow so I don't lower my oil pressure too much and dump the oil back to the sump.
It would be quick and simple and should provide some decent filtering. The problem I am trying to address is this old plant has an automatic start function and load sense controller. Its starts and runs only as long as it sees a load greater that 60watts. Years of service like this has left it dirty, so I do not want to aggressively clean it but I also don't want to let what ever dirt does loosen up with use float around and potentially cause more trouble.
For oil I use Rotella T 15W-40 in everything and I know this has excellent cleaning properties and its worked well for me over the years in all my small engines. I never leave the oil in to long because I have always believed once oil starts to look dirty in a small engine with no filtration system then it is dirty and shoudl be changed ( this is in the 25 to 75 hour range depending on conditions )
So what do you fellows think?
Thanks in advance
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