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Dang Genny......
rasbury
Member Posts: 8,254 ✭✭✭✭✭
Recently changed my plugs, impeller on my Kohler for my 270 and ran it on land (with water attached) and seemed to run fine...let it run probably a half hour. This weekend ran it on the river just to use it some and test it as we have not stayed on the hook with it yet. It ran maybe 45 mins or so and then cut out. Back at the dock I thought I'd try it again and it fired right up. I think my coolant might be a little low, looked ok to low when I did all the other stuff but thought I was ok. Will open back up tonight and check again and also read in the manual not to depend on the tank and to open up the cap and make sure the system is full. Are there any on board diagnostics to pull any codes as to what might be the issue? It was really hot this weekend (100), boat motor was not running but everything is closed up so I'm thinking either low coolant or just to darn hot, maybe I should run the blower while running it during the daytime in the heat....suggestions?
Post edited by Dream_Inn on
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I had my genny stop once this past weekend on me for no apparent reason. Mine is digital and will give out a code, but nothing there. I let is sit for about 10 minutes then fired it up and ran with no problems. That's the kind of stuff that makes me curious!
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express
All I've wanted was to just have fun.
2. Yes: try running less the sound shield service cover. For whatever reason (I stopped looking) this totally solved my problems of the unit always shutting down on me.
3. air lock: there is no visible way to check. The system does not bleed out the air, even with the bleed screw on the heat exchanger. I posted a 'how to' on this, search for it. This will cause the problem you described.
4. Did you backflush the heat exchanger to get out any impeller pieces? You should probably replace the anode too. Look in the generator section, I posted up all the manuals for the 5/7.3
5. You'll get a somewhat surging type of water flow out the exhaust, reference #4 above, this too WILL cause shutdowns. As a note, these gens run hot, the thermostat is 180F. So expect it to be a warm critter.
PC BYC, Holland, MI
Thanks
PC BYC, Holland, MI
Ditto BD's comment: RUN THE GENERATOR! Run it every weekend. I've always noticed that correlation: people who don't run the genny tend to have problems, and people who run it every weekend tend to be problem-free.
Having the cover on or off should not affect the cooling of the engine. I will tell you if I leave the service panel off, mine runs like a champ; install door and it will shut down in 10-30 minutes. You can read my whole saga on this if you search for it. 10 years of basically a useless generator for me until I wandered across this solution, after many, many hours and $$ chasing potential problems.
I've narrowed it down to: coil on the cover side overheating from being mushed into the insulation, vapor locking for the fuel line sandwiched between the insulation and the cylinder, or lack of air flow with the cover on. Regardless, I just leave the panel off, and it just makes it easier to check oil, coolant level, etc. anyways.
PC BYC, Holland, MI