Lifan storm 3600ier generator

The Overload light was because it was too hot from the truck exhaust

The no start was because you have SUMMER gas in it. Yes in many markets there is a difference between SUMMER and WINTER gas In the summer they add chemicals to reduce to evaporation of the gasoline, and thus when the Mercury heads south for the winter (It gets cold) the gasoline will not evaporate. NOTE: Fuel injected engins do not mind since they vaporise by a different method (Spraying) but carbonated do.

Warm it slightly say a Heat lamp 2 or 3 feet distant aimed at it.. You only need to get it up to "Room" temp (70 degree range even 60 will work).

And run it 30 minutes under load every month.

For now... I'd run it dry and add some WINTER gas to it.
.

I would recommend the use of a product that is specifically designed to address such a scenario as this.

Water
Displacement
40

WD40. Blast the generator board then wipe with a clean cloth and Q-tips. Repeat until the cloth and Q-tips come out clean.

Water PLUS carbon make for a dastardly-duo when it comes to printed circuit board short-circuits. The very first Motorola 8AL model alternators were subject to this fault. Motorola then corrected the design error by applying a conformal coating to the voltage regulator board.

Thanks for the suggestion,am now in the process of removing the inverter board and bring it in as it is above freezing today. Will let you know what happens ,might take a while as it is supposed to get colddd again tonight. Tom

The sun is shining ,it is well above freezing,BUT most of all my generator is working again,thanks to all you fellows especially WA8YXM. I put a heater on it for about 3/4 of an hour,crossed my fingers and toes and whatever i could cross and started it up,after a few seconds green light came on counted to six the red light flashed and went off, restarted it 3 times again the same ,works great. Thanks to all you people and this Forum,i hope i can help some one else someday. Thank you, Tom

Well the sun quit shining today,I went out to the garage to put the panel back on and just for the heck of it started up the generator,back to the same old problem as described before.I did put the heater back on it again for about 10 minutes no difference,only thing i can think of is after shutting it down the other day and being cold in the garage moisture or condensation is still in the board. I undid the bolts 4 infront,2 on each side,and two on top below handle but still can not remove the panel cover to remove inverter board. Does anybody have any idea how to remove it i want to bring the board into the house for two or 3 days to dry it out well. Thanks again for your help. Ps there are more generators out there i believe same case but different name. Tom

wa8yxm wrote:
The Overload light was because it was too hot from the truck exhaust

No.

No real way to determine, doubt the truck exhaust could have ever gotten the gen "too hot", the long pipe cools the engine exhaust considerably.

Better chance that moisture from the exhaust gasses could have caused problems but even that is a questionable "theory".

Overload lights tend to be on the 120V inverter side and should not be affected by hot or cold temps.



The no start was because you have SUMMER gas in it. Yes in many markets there is a difference between SUMMER and WINTER gas In the summer they add chemicals to reduce to evaporation of the gasoline, and thus when the Mercury heads south for the winter (It gets cold) the gasoline will not evaporate.

No, NO, NO what absolute bunch of bs.

While there is "summer" and "winter" blends of gasoline IN SOME areas of the country, it virtually has ZERO EFFECT on "carborated" engines starting in cold or hot weather.

I have PLENTY of different carburated gasoline engines small and large which start perfectly fine in hot AND cold weather.

I do have one gen that was a bear to start even in hot weather, it IS because of the meddling EPA requiring small engine builders to RUN THE ENGINES AS LEAN AS POSSIBLE.

Newer small engine carbs are not rich/lean adjustable so to fix that one must drill out the main jet or change the main jet to a slightly larger jet (high altitude kit)..

Used to have to give the air cleaner a shot of carb cleaner to richen the mix slightly to get it to start on the first pull, otherwise would take several dozen pulls.

Most Chinese knockoff Honda clones use the same carb design as the Honda engines, the main jets easily clog. When clogged, they get very hard to start and often require a partial choke condition to get the engine to run smooth.



NOTE: Fuel injected engins do not mind since they vaporise by a different method (Spraying) but carbonated do.

Warm it slightly say a Heat lamp 2 or 3 feet distant aimed at it.. You only need to get it up to "Room" temp (70 degree range even 60 will work).

No, FIX THE CARB JET and no more need to do hoaky work arounds.

And run it 30 minutes under load every month.

This I do agree with, called "exercising", but in most respects it does not "Guarantee" that the gen WILL start and make power when you really need it..

Things break, thats life.

For now... I'd run it dry and add some WINTER gas to it.

No, fix the carb..

These Chinese engines use the same carb design as Honda small engines, it IS a well known issue that the main jet clogs, EVEN IF YOU USE GAS STABILIZERS!

Google how to clean the main jet for Honda GX engines..

.

My comments in red above..

Gdetrailer,thanks for your reply,not having any issues with starting,the first time i used the exhaust help was the generator is sitting in a unheated garage and we had some minus zero weather and it was hard for me to use pull cord .(senior 74 years old) and the battery was down. As my above post said it started okay but the overload light comes on when there is no load attached to the generator output,green light comes on,have power,after 5 seconds rpm increases slightly then overload comes on and no power after that of course,shut down generator hit reset same thing happens.Now last week it did the same,suggestion was moisture in inverter board,blew warm air on it for about 3/4 Hr. started up , green light came on ,the red overload light flashed twice went off and everything ran great.But today as my above explained it acted up the same way as my original post. Am considering to remove the inverter board to take a look at it,but having trouble getting the inverter panel off. I know what you are saying about the gas.This is my second generator, the first was a Yamaha a 3000 inverter and the board went on it Thank for your help.

crewcabfor2 wrote:
Gdetrailer,thanks for your reply,not having any issues with starting,the first time i used the exhaust help was the generator is sitting in a unheated garage and we had some minus zero weather and it was hard for me to use pull cord .(senior 74 years old) and the battery was down. As my above post said it started okay but the overload light comes on when there is no load attached to the generator output,green light comes on,have power,after 5 seconds rpm increases slightly then overload comes on and no power after that of course,shut down generator hit reset same thing happens.Now last week it did the same,suggestion was moisture in inverter board,blew warm air on it for about 3/4 Hr. started up , green light came on ,the red overload light flashed twice went off and everything ran great.But today as my above explained it acted up the same way as my original post. Am considering to remove the inverter board to take a look at it,but having trouble getting the inverter panel off. I know what you are saying about the gas.This is my second generator, the first was a Yamaha a 3000 inverter and the board went on it Thank for your help.

Check your oil level.

Red light on this unit is dual purpose..

Per manual..

HERE

OUTPUT AND OVERLOAD INDICATOR:

The GREEN Output Indicator Light will illuminate at normal operating conditions.

The RED Output Indicator Light will illuminate when the generator is overloaded, if there is a short circuit in a connected appliance
, or if Low Oil Alarm System has been tripped.

If the RED Output Indicator Light illuminates, STOP the engine and determine the cause of overload by:

• Checking the appliance(s) for proper operation, electrical shorts, and malfunctions. Also ensure the generator has the ability to provide the required starting and running watts of the connected appliance(s).

•Ensuring all appliances are in the “OFF” position upon starting the generator.
Only start the connected appliance(s) when the GREEN Output Indicator Light is illuminated and the generator is providing the necessary power to run the connected appliance(s).

LOW OIL ALARM SYSTEM:

This model is equipped with a Low Oil Alert System designed to avoid engine damage from insufficient oil in the crankcase. The Low Oil Alarm System will stop the engine automatically before the oil level in the crankcase drops below safe operating levels.

This will cause the RED Output Indicator Light to illuminate. Though the engine will stop running, the ignition switch will remain in the “START” position. Turn to the “STOP” position.

Low oil sensors sometimes are a bit over the top sensitive and if tripped will prevent your engine from starting.

Generally, gen should be sitting on a level spot, sitting on a sloped driveway or hill can trip the sensor.

The cure for this is to add a little bit more oil, don't over add, just enough to go slightly above the full mark on the dipstick.

Cold temperatures can cause the oil level to drop slightly tripping the sensor when cold.

Something else to think about, perhaps to make starting in extreme cold weather easier is to use a lighter weight oil for winter use..

According to the manual, you can use 5W-30 for temps at 32F or below which would making pull starting much easier when battery is to low to use electric start.

After your last post and looking at the manual I am thinking that the problem has nothing to do with gas or the inverter but the oil level sensor.

Thanks Gdetrailer ,first thing i did ,oil is up to the top,keep the suggestion coming ,somebody will hit the nail on the head.I downloaded from youtube a Full Boar generator,Aust.web,it is basically the same as my Lifan just a different colour,downloaded it and will check out where all the bolts are so i can remove the inverter. Thanks for the help.Will unhook oil sensor and try. Tom.

crewcabfor2 wrote:
Thanks Gdetrailer ,first thing i did ,oil is up to the top,keep the suggestion coming ,somebody will hit the nail on the head.I downloaded from youtube a Full Boar generator,Aust.web,it is basically the same as my Lifan just a different colour,downloaded it and will check out where all the bolts are so i can remove the inverter. Thanks for the help.Will unhook oil sensor and try. Tom.

There are two different type of oil sensors that you might encounter, one grounds when oil level is correct and the other grounds when the oil level is low.

Not sure which you gen may have so you might have to ground the sensor wire to bypass or unhook sensor to bypass..

As far as oil level goes, you need to determine the proper oil level using the dip stick, see the diagrams in the manual I linked to make sure you are not reading it incorrectly.

Overfilling CAN cause issues, while not as bad as not having enough, it can cause more drag making starting harder and not to mention excess oil in the cylinder fouling the plug and burning excessive amounts of oil.

Something else you should look into, change the plug, the plugs that come in most Chinese knock off engines are of not good quality and tend to foul out and not look bad. They simply stop firing under pressure (they WILL jump a spark when out of the cylinder however) and will cause hard starts or even no start conditions.

Additionally, if you have flooded the engine and gotten the plug wet with raw fuel, replace the plug. The additives in the gas for whatever reason seems to short out the plugs even if they look clean.. Cleaning the plugs does not seem to fix the plugs once they have been soaked in raw fuel. The only fix is to replace the plug.

If you ever run into the no start condition in extreme cold again, try giving the air cleaner filter a quick shot of carb cleaner. The carb cleaner is flammable and it vaporizes almost instantly at extreme cold temps and helps richen the fuel mixture. I like that approach better than Ether.

Also helps you to determine if the problem is fuel or spark (ignition) related.

If it doesn't start with a shot of carb cleaner then the issue is most likely ignition related and you move to troubleshooting the ignition system.

If it does start then the issue is most likely fuel related then you troubleshoot the fuel system.

I also do believe that your gen has an automatic choke system, make sure the choke closes for starting, sometimes automatic chokes don't always close fully making cold starts in extreme cold temps very difficult.