Generator Question
 

Hi to every one. I would like some opinions to help confirm what I think is going on. I am an electrician and I deal with installs of generators. I have turned my share of wrenches on gas engines but have not had in depth experience with diesel. I was called to look at one of our generators that had shut down on axu. fault which was low water. This gen. is a 125kw with a JD 6 cyl. When I got there this morning I was looking it over and found a puddle of emulsified oil/water on the pan under the draft tube from the valve cover. I removed the oil fill cap and it was covered in the same. There was water also dripping from the tube. I told the boss I felt it was ether a crack in the head or a blowen head gasket. He is saying it just condensation:humm: The gen. has a block heater on it that keeps the engine around 85-95 deg. I am in NC and the temp. has been in the 90's I see no way it could be condensation not on that scale. After more conversation he did admit they had to put about 2 gals of water in it. Then where do you think the water is going:humm: He had no answer. My thoughts are leaning toward a crack in the head since I am not getting any water in the oil. Any other thoughts?

Welcome, definitely sounds like your on the right track (to me anyway). 2 Gallons is a lot of water to add - whats the total capacity ??

Not knowing what engine it is, If it has wet sleeves, it could have a sleeve leaking or rusted through, you could take a stab at it and change the HG , but to diagnose it right you should pull the oil pan , then pressurize the cooling system and look to see where it is leaking from. most of the time a HG will leak into the cylinder and hydrolock the engine. It could also be a faulty engine oil heat exchanger ( if the engine has one), although that will usually tend to put oil into the antifreeze, not the other way around.

Not sure what the capacity is. I was TOLD they added about 2 gal. I did not mention that we ran the engine and there was a lot of steam coming from the draft tube. Thinking more about it I now am leaning more to a crack in the head between the water jacket and a valve since the only place I can find water is in the valve cover.

Sounds like it needs tear down.

Pull the plug on the oil drain oil will be on top see if there is water in the oil, water will come out first if there is alot then yes, you got a cracked linner or head :pca1:

What model deere is it? Sounds like a very uncommon failure (at least I havent heard of it happening much) but I can do some askin around and see if anyone at the shop has heard of it on that particular engine

sounds like the boss is in denial-----depending on what series of john deere it is it can be the water pump as well-----the 4760 tractor had a hoky setup in which the coolant would dump in the oil when the pump went out-I cant remebr the series of engine that it was but they were used in gen sets as well