The Lister Generator Project Page 3

It RUNS!

Finally this project is coming to an end. Whew!

He the beast is running and generating quite a bit of electricity. The exhaust system was made from parts obtained at the local Midas muffler shop. They were quite helpful. The muffler cost $29 and the 2 into 1 adapter was $17. The rest of the pipes were bent by them and cut to fit when I got home. The entire exhaust system cost less than $100. It's very quiet. click here for a video of the thing running...

Today I hooked it up to my house and loaded it up. It performed much better than I expected. The governor linkage was not quite right so I modified it a bit to allow the fuel rack to open farther and give the engine more fuel. After that, I adjusted the linkages to balance the cylinders so They made the same amount of heat at the exhaust pipe and water jackets. This was done with a non-contact infrared thermometer.

In a nutshell here is the performance figures. The maximum load limit was determine by the exhaust. When it smoked black I quit adding loads even though it would make more. At maximum power the exhaust was clear, and the engine seemed to be loafing along with little more strain than any other loads.

NO LOAD     61.7 Hz    135 VOLTS                                                            

MAX LOAD   57.2 Hz 110 VOLTS AND A BLISTERING 9620 WATTS!

I verified these figures using a KILL-A-WATT for volts and frequency. I used an FLUKE clip-on ammeter to measure the AMPS. Of note, the engine effortlessly started the air conditioning compressors. This was the reason I put such a large generator head on. The huge rotating inertia of the flywheels give that needed surge to start this big motors. I was able to start the single five ton A/C in my shop. The generator and belts sang for a second but it carried the load with no problem.

The ST-12KW generator head also put out it's rated 50- amps without a hitch. After 50 amps, the voltage would quickly drop off with sixty amps producing only 100 volts. Below the  50 amp level, it's output voltage was very stable , especially considering it has no electronic regulation. An impressive device this thing is!

On to page 4...the first hurricane!!!