MY Grid's Gone Down - now what do I do!?

Thank you for this “tried it” feedback experiences GaryG.

I lucked out and the wifie worked late and I was able to shutdown and hide here Honda birthday present.
I still want to work to remove the plastic toggle linking the engine electric shutdown switch from the fuel shut off valve. Then setting up the factory electric switch directly manipulated or replaced with a toggle snap switch.
Ran out to gasoline fuel empty it takes at least 5-6 hard pulls to fuel pump refill the lines and carb float bowl to starting back up.
I intending at least four units out to adult women family members including my wife. All, tough smart women. M
More than three pulls to starting up and they will start fiddling with controls, then flooding, spark plug wetting and cursing ME - The Failure to Provide Reliability.
Carb and lines left wet and these do start up pretty good one-two pulls. Problem there is I cannot relie on them to keep these ran monthly to keep the gasoline fuels refreshed.
Fuel line to carb pinched off to run until carb dry shut down; these then staring back up easily in just three pulls.
THAT is in their patience/acceptance ranges.
Ashley. Wendy, Barbra, Anna, Kelly, Jody, Rena and my Melinda are all able to handle chokes, fuel shut off valves and a on-off switch. And accept the personal responsibility of not getting things off, or on.

The one-button designers are an insult to these women capabilities. Male; Arrogance-in-design actually.

One of my biggest disappointment in this project has been the resurched out very apparent 30% as-received, then in-service failure rates in the Generac iX2000 units.
Our regional AG store chain WILCO has these iX units for $599. USD.
Twice a year they have an all-store 20% off sale. Late Febuary, and late Sepember. Means I could get this model iX Generac for $482 each. Yep: could get THREE for the price of one Honda EU2000i in Camo.
That would be OK for me, able to repair, fudge a two out of three, one out of three solutions.
For the ladies I need as close to 100% reliability as possible.

Very sorry to say now that I’ve just had too much (over 50%!!) failure rates with too much of Harbor Freight products. That is too high even for make-do, me. 100% failure rate for me on their generator heads and anything with a wooden handle.
I still buy consumables abrasives and cut off wheels there reliably.

Regards
Steve Unruh

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O.K. the Honda tach/hourmeter came in so i did a full panels off tear-down; got it installed, the ignition switch slpit out from the rotary knob fuel shut off.

Here are the results:
Eco-switched on unloaded is solid 3000 rpm.
400 watt load it first sags to ~28-2900 then re-stabilizes back up to 3020 RPM.
Kick the load up to ~1300 watts and the Eco-ON RPM raises to 3300 RPM +/- 30-40 rpm.
Eco -switched off then engine unloaded runs at a solid 4300 RPM.
Light 500 watt load - no change in RPM.
1600 watt load added it sags to 3950-4100 rpm. 1300 watt load it RPM sags down from the 4300 but recovers back.
It is so great to not be Nazi-rpm locked in now for a synchronous AC generator head…

Honda pn for this tach/hour meter is 08181-ENM-036AH
Actual product is a made in USA:
Model PT15 made by ENM Company 5617 Northwest Highway, Chicago, IL 60646
36" wire leads.

Two tries to get a snap toggle switch installed. The factory switch was a plunger/snap type always ON - plastic link pushed and held open/off.
Ended up with the toggle externally protruding at edge of the inset rotary fuel shut off well in the 10:00 o’clock position to that.
Works intuitively slick now.
Knob rotated CCW Up for fuel On - same hand thumb flips up the toggle switch for ig ON/run.
Thumb the switch down for engine ig OFF. Same hand finger tip rotating fuel shut off knob CW Down for Off/closed.

Now I have independent control.
Takes a full minute for the fuel to be used up in the carb bowl and fuel lines and fuel pump.
I will now try rerouting the shut off valve from between the tank to the pulser fuel pump; to between the pump and and the carb to see if I can shorten that time and the pulls to refill down.

Sigh. Just to cool and 100% falling out of the sky humid here to paint the new plastic case panels.
I settled for over taping the end black panels with two strips of 2" wide yellow and black reflective safety tape.
The red side panels with two stripes of white and red reflective safety tape.
Apart: all of the panels, engine, flywheel/alternator housing, inverter, fuel tank got yellow paint penned with my Washington State divers licence number. Town, city, county cops can all tap into the State Patrol data base.
Idea is instead of camo hiding it you turn it into a coral snake.
All my professional tools are marked this way inside and out. Pawn shops do not want visible stolen merchandise. Hard to garage sell then.
MY stuff gets carbide tip scribe then paint penned over with “Stolen from Steve Unruh” then my WDL. And I use 2" wide 3M yellow vinyl tape as the see-from-a-distance.
Wifie would not like her Tool looking like any of mine.
Actually came out looking good like a factory decal job.

Ha! I refective taped over ALL of the Honda naming, model number and such. “to protect them from scuff wearing”. Proper temp with a heat gun and my tape can be lifed off without factory logo damaging.
And yes BillS I did leave all of the safety labeling uncovered clear. All except the State of California Forestry one declaring the need for a certified spark arrested. I am Not in Kal-i-forn-i-a so does not apply to me.
My tape overs a moot point anyhow since I have now defeated a factory “safety” ig/fuel interconnect.
Will be breaking Calif/US EPA emmision laws once I start fuel lines rerouting.

It’s mine now. And I love this freedom from dictations.

Night. Night. More later.
Steve Unruh

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Thanks for the share on the book. I ordered a copy for myself and Orlando Sanchez. He makes a very powerful turbine. My turbine is in garage right now. On hold until I get gasifier complete : )

This is my current set up. Working on cooling tower for gasifier today…

`

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WE ARE THE OUTBACK BORG, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE YOU WI’LL BE INVERTED. Nice inverter set up there. So Steve, even I know you don’t void the warrantee on someone else’s present!!! :joy::joy: I laugh, I cry because that is totally what I do as well.
David Baillie

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Nice project picture Britt.
There is a new fictionalize book set about a post-event group who by the second year-after, took over a commercial ridge windfarm and converted the 300 footers one by one to electric hydrophobic heat green houses they made up out of abandon houses materials. Setting was real places in upper NW corner of Illinois.
Mike Mullin’s 2011; Ash Fall. 2012; Ashen Winter. 2013; Sunrise.
These are in the young adults section. Pretty serious stuff our youths are reading.
Windmill working forward starts at the tail end of book 2.
Scary reads actually with FEMA holding camps, prison based rover gangs and such.
Surprisingly hopeful with the folks with skills, determination, and pluck clustering up to have new marriages and babies by the third year post-event.

Done-it. Can-do-it-again skills are what is portable, valuable always. As I say now keep Projecting, Real, on-hands, dirty-now while it is easy possible: to practice for when it later it would be very, very difficult.

Yeah DavidB I learned the value of warranty blissing back in early 1987 with my Suzuki Samurai. It would warm cruise surge running too lean. Needed to drill and pop out a anti-tamper cover plug and give just a half turn on the mixture screw.
Next time into the dealership for mandatory warranty maintenance/inspection work they found this. Read me the riot act. Reset the mixture to “cerified” tail pipe out, too lean, reinstalled a new plug and charged me extra for it all.
Like BillS, yes I did have to pay to get the keys back.
Took it back to our shop. Popped and discarded the plug. Re-tweek to where I wanted it and never took it back. SAVED me hundreds $'s in “manditory mantences” for it’s first 36 month period. Drove that vehicle for 14 years.
My wife insisting buying the Hyundai Tucson was the bugger-do. For that first 100,000 miles ( three years with her nursing) had to search out for Shell oil only (engine was factory stickered with “Hyundai Prefers”), and use Hyundai dealership oil filters.
Her new Ford Edge gets actual Motocraft brand oil and filters I buy from Wal-Mart. Another 18 months playing that game. THEN I will play my own. Any BS and I pull out and wave around my old ASE Master certificates.

Small equipment I make my own after the initial break-in hours. By then use scratch worn a bit IS MINE NOW!

We Are All On Roads To Better
Steve Unruh

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Thanks for the feedback.

Interesting concept. Prison based rover thugs. Add that to Government based morons acting like we should continue to follow their lead. “People of Flint Michigan, it’s safe to drink the water, trust us! …”

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I buy my Borgs from Borg-Warner. Thanks for the feedback. It’s all a long process, but worth it. Now I just need a new pole barn to put all this stuff in.

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Wait…To get the Hyundai warranty you have to run shell oil and their filters?

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Well Britt, warranty allowance is started at the lowest level and then you work your way local management up to manufacture’s representative…
Back in the 1970’s Delco battery division of General Motors thought to turn the whole industry on it’s head with their first Freedom batteries. The auto electric company I worked for was a licenced sign on the front of the building: Delco Products Dealer.
Your GM car/pickup battery went bad and you were supposed to take the individual Delco battery card out of the golve box. Go to any Delco dealer for testing and free replacement. We honored this. I’m the smuck had to submit the warranty claims to Delco for reimbursement. They had 54 reasons for claims rejections. Never once 1977 through 1986 ever got reimbursed for ANY of eight Delco Freedom batteries replaced. “Freedom” meant that they had created a paper shuffle system where they were “Free” from ever having to assume responsible.
We took down the Delco sign and replaced it with a Nippon Denso sign and moved on forward.
So, you betcha. I do not give them easy reasons for warranty claims rejections. I even save the flattened oil bottles and filter box flaps.
The Hyundai dealership came to know me well and did do two warranty repairs with no kickings.
S.U.

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Well I get to play with this Honda 2000 for another couple of weeks. Explanation on Winter of 2015.

I wanted to compare this now to pack-around units from the past.
Ha! I did pack it running 300 feet from the woodshed to the back side of out house for washing machine and chicken light powering. Got to get my 8000 hour accumulating now with a (keep me honest) hour meter. Running the gyroscopic effect turning corners is weird.

Dug up this old book for reference"
“The Self-Sufficient House” 1981 by Frank Coffee
Page 171 he shows a 1200 watt Unigen brand unit. Cute little devil. 65 pounds. Had a carry about handle.
Looked to be a single cylinder four stoke B&S, Tecumseh flathead engine. In the small wattage ranges he refers to McCulloch’s 1500 watt (4hp) Mite-E-Lite unit. And a Honda unit.
This Unigen is listed at .28 (US) gallons an hour fully loaded.
.20 (US) gallons and hour at 1/4 (400 watt) loading.

I had been figuring the Honda 2000 in US gallons per kW/h.
1600 watt loaded it’s 0.17 US gallons gasoline per kW/h
Lighter 400 watt loading is 0.224 US gallons gasoline per kW/h.

Beats the old school by about 30% overall. Makes sense. Honda rated their new OHV and OHC engines as 30% better than their earlier sidevalve generator engines.
This suitcase 2000 is 15 pound lighter.
Much quieter.
And the Honda suitcase version had all of the hot spots shieled and can be against the body packed around.
NOT something you would do with old-school of any DIY’s I’ve made up. Too many sharp pokey spots. Too many will burn you spots. Oil stain your clothing, leaks.

FrankC’s is a good book to search out used. Good point of reference that the more we change, the same solutions work the best.
35 years later all of his ideas of passive and PV solar have come true 100%.
His wind power always were 100%. Same with his micro-hydro engineering.
His need for a standby/back-up engine generator for all of these have proven 100% correct.
He’s only fallen down on his 1981 fuel cells promoting.
Never to be. Dependent on Top-Down big $'s for the engineering, manufacturing. And then a dependency on too many little things rare and expensive.
Like the new diesels all forced to needing blue DEF catpiss in addition to dino fuel.

Regards
Steve Unruh

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Hey Nursepracticioner1,
In your post 190 above with the photos, is that a Ben Peterson wood gasifier in the background? I have the plans blower and grate in preparation for starting one.

SteveUnruh,
I really appreciate the work you are doing on the Honda EU2000i!

TimH

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More run data experiences.
Pulling over RPM registers as 260-320 RPM.
Ha! I did find another Eco-On RPM. 3600 RPM powering the 12.2 amp Sear/Kenmore(Panasonic) canister vacuum cleaner.

The Honda service manual did arrive:
ELEVENTH ADDITION Incorporates Y and Z Supplements #61Z0700E11
page 2-10 says to compression check you have to turn over at 700 RPM for 71 psi (0.49MPa)
This is because pages 10-1,-2,-3,-17 definately shows built into the camshaft gear there is an RPM activated “Decompressor Weight” cam lobe changing system. This is how it get’s its easy pulling over starting.

I did finally give this to my wife on sunny-day-here Super Bowl Sunday.
She had no problem one pull starting. She was just setting up to houses vacuum. She’s the one insisted yeah-nay vacuum cleaner testing it. Hense the 3600 Eco-on RPM discovery.
Then a friend of hers arrived they sat and chatted. Both impressed how quiet it was drip coffee pot powering.
Drip coffee warmer AND the microwave DID put it into overload shut down after 3 minutes.
This is good. I wanted a self power limiting use system. A wake-up to the woman having to step down in power expectations.

Does my wifie like her new birthday present?
“Honey. You really shouldn’t have.” No. Really. Hard to write just the right tone of you-really-should-not-have-overspent-done-this.
I expected this.
These surprizes only really be appreciated in actual grid-down power outages.
I gave her later that evening the owners manual to read while i re-read the service manul (four times as BIG). She set it aside and poured over some of the seed catalogs now arriving. New drying beans to try this year.

Woodgasing these.
This would not be impossible as GaryG pointed out.
But these 1600 actual wattage Honda 2000’s would not be optimal to woodgas fuel.
At an expected 1/2 power versus gasoline: 800 watts then would still be better/or the same as the earlier Honda EM30’s, EM40’s, EM50’s, EM60’s or the current Honda EU1000. But these all fall just a little bit short of even revised-down capabilities expectations.
The service manual shows clearly as I already knew that this engine has a one-piece monolithic (Honda unicast) cylinder head/cylinder/crankcase casting.
GOOD for no headgasket leaking and better heats transfering.
Bad becouse you cannot do any compresion ratio changing with just the cylinder head and gaskets. Only piston changes would allow for compression ratio changing. Not going to happen. This engine is 8.5/1 CR.
Other engines have used this type of construction the most prevalent the Offenhouser 4 cylinder racing engine 1930’s and on. Up to 13/1 CR. And they were made to be very high supercharger boosted and NOT lift heads and blow gaskets.
All valve seat and valve lapping work is done from the bottom up through the cylinders in these types.
All described, and layed out in this Honda service manual. This engine in this 2000 is not a throw-a-way type. Fully serviceable.

Intentional woodgasing use a person would be much better with the larger Honda EU3000l-Handi.
These have a GX160 engine that DOES have a removable cylinder head with then many CR and timing changing possibilities.
Read up JeffD, Wallace’s and KVL on these types on the “Hacking the Small Frame Clones” topic.

More later if there is an interest.

Now I am onto fuel pump/lines/shutoff valve relocating to get the cleanest run-out carb fuel emptying with the lowest pulls to re-prime starting up.
Getting really irritated with the needs-a-tool to remove side cover to check the oil panel. Gonna be some changes made there.
Steve unruh

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Just a sidebar correction. The Offy was designed as a normally aspirated engine. For Indy 500 they sold for about $30.000 per engine. Ford’s V8 became the dominant engine.and sold for about $55,000 per engine. The Fords cost Goodyear a lot more money for tire testing as we accepted responsibility for engines and car. We hired Herb Porter to Improve the Offy and after a couple of long years he came up with the turbocharged Offy. That was dominant for a short time and Ford came back with a turbo for their V8 At the time our biggest hope was For Dan Gurney’s stock block Ford. He had more success with his chassis than the engine. TomC

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I skimmed this thread from start to finish.
My thoughts.

Eat the ice cream first.

Have enough stuff on hand to last two weeks.
After that the army is going to show up and take you to a refugee centre.

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Hi Steve,

In the avocado fields, it’s real popular to replace the old jeep engines with pinto engines when they wear out. I was told that if the timing belt ever broke, the valves and pistons wouldn’t hit and nothing would break. “just replace the rubber-band and reset the timing” was the wording I remember. Do you know of any truth to that?

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Wallace, the U.S. Northern Command has 80,000 troops for domestic control. There are about 330 million people in the U.S. The military is not going to be out looking for problems. They will NOT be out rounding up people. The FEMA camps will be invitation only. People will be banging on the gates to get 3 squares and a bed. Ron Paul said specifically that GOV would not have money. I’ve been writing about the upcoming crash for 8 years. GOV will look out for GOV and you will look out for you.
Should there be a CME or a EMP or an interruption in petroleum distribution, GOV will concentrate on the cities. The rural areas will be largely ignored, until they come to confiscate the crops. The less stuff that you need from the industrialized society, the better off you will be. When in doubt, emulate the noble cockroach, run away.
Dan

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Yes, it’s a Ben Peterson with some of my own mods in the cooler section. It’s a lot of work, but it is fun.

So the city cockroaches have a better chance at getting GOV assistance than the country ones. That’s ok, I don’t like the taste of Spam anyway…

Spam, Spam, Spam… : )

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Yes JasonMc this is absolutely correct. Got that directly from a avocado farms mechanic moved up from SowCal here to Washington State.

We had three different Pinto engines in the family over the course of time.
A 73 German/Ford made 2000. Two different 1980 made 2300’s.
All of them just like the same era Dodge/Chrysler SOHC 2200 four cylinders were timing belt broke - tow it in. Replace belt, resetting timing and drive it away. Chrysler/Dodges/Plymouths easier to do.
To do this the combustion chambers had to be deep, deep inset.
Increasing eco-green natzi emissions carrot on a stick regulations makes this kind of manufacturing impossible now.

Fellows I am going only say this one last time before I have AdminChris lock up this topic.

This ain’t about you preppers.
You’ll lone-wolf make out. And can live the lone wolf.
I or another hunter/killer will be tasked to hunt you down.

This ain’t about idealist “'using every single last BTU” DIY better idea engineering. Go ahead and years spin your wheels on that all you want ON SOME OTHER TOPIC THREAD.

This isn’t even about taking power to some other peoples (far away) to show your dedication to your religions.

This certainly ain’t about rabble rousing for from the Left, or Right, Top-Down a-changing needed.
BOTH these approaches have well proven failure now in the US/Canada for 75 years!

“To our grandchildren: Jake and Dylon, Aidan, Alice and Annabelle, Cole and Grace Anne(e).
Here’s hoping that Opi got it wrong.”
This is the dedication from the front of Ted Koppel’s book.

Anna, Ashley, Barbara, Jody, Joshua, Kelly, Kyle, Renna, Wendy, Melinda.
These are MY sisters and thier some now adult children/grand children and my wife.

This topic is about them.
And what I’m going to out of my own pocket, time and efforts now Do about them.

So . . . just what are you all doing about your famililes today??
If the Grid went down tomorrow . . .
Would you just bug-out and leave them hanging?
Bunker-up, and listen to the pounding on the door saying those pounding are someone else problem?
At best now the used patterns shows that will be a Gov’mint Contractor ran 20,000 person F.E.M.A camp.
For as long as the Gov’Mint pays the Contractors. Can still keep shipping in diminishing pre-packaged supplies.

“Action This Day”, insisted Army Chief of Staff General George Marshal. You know the fellow once the shooting-needs were done; had the compassion to push for, set up, and run the Marshall Relief Plan that saved millions in Europe. He was embarrassed when it was press named after him.

Action This Day is take your fingers off of the keyboards. Go out NOW and buy manual can openers and wind up combo-light-radios for each and every one on your immediate family care-for list.
I DID.
Now I am just stepping up that game a notch with the inverter generators.

No list of immediate care-for’s?
How very sad.
Knock off the shitting. Go out Getting a real life with real people in it.
People you can care for.
Who will care for you when you get sick. When you just get f’'nng old and tired, grouchy and grumpy.

Washington State Steve Unruh

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As requested.