3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

professor95 wrote:

W8NONU wrote:
What kind of modifications would the 46538 need to convert to LP? Would the existing electric and remote start system work with the LP conversion?

The 46538 has an electric choke that works with the remote. If the gas carburetor is "drilled" so the choke is in front of the LPG feed tube and a vacuum demand regulator added modifications would be minimal. If the feed plate adapter I designed to fit on the front of the carb is used the electric choke would not help and you would need to rig up a primer.

My DuroPower 3500ES LP conversion was really straightforward - I opted to drill the carb and replace the jet with a copper tube orifice per the Prof's instructions a few hundred pages back in this thread! My rationale was that if I really goofed, a replacement carb really isn't that expensive. Your biggest problem will be hesitating just before you stick that drill into the carb! A little voice will say "Why in the world do I want to destroy a perfectly good carb???":h All I can tell you is, try it! After the conversion, my gennie fired up on the second crank!

Rather than use the choke at all, I elected to use an automatic primer with the "drilled" carb. I experimented with the (Prof's design) solenoid plunger pushing the manual primer button on the regulator and also with a fuel solenoid-controlled bypass primer. In both cases, for simplicity, I was energizing the solenoids with the +12v that energizes the starter, thus making them operate "automatically", whether the starter was engaged with a manual button or the remote. I never could get reliable priming and starting with the by-pass arrangement - it continually enrichens the vapor line while cranking and quickly "floods" the engine with LPG - i.e., it gets too rich to start or causes enriched, unignited mixture to explode in the exhaust system (is this the opposite of a "backfire"???:@).

The Prof's design primer uses a trunk solenoid to pull a lever to manually depress the primer button on the regulator. In my case, the GM trunk solenoids I obtained had (unbeknownst to me!) a "cut-out" in that they would release after about 3 seconds (despite a constant +12v source), rest a couple of seconds, then re-engage for 3 seconds and so on. This worked out great for automatic operation! What typically happens on my gennie is that the primer kicks in for the 3 seconds, releases, and after one or two cycles of this, the engine ALWAYS starts - no matter if cold, hot, whatever!:B (And all I had to do was push my remote start button once, and that's it!:C) In the case of starting with the manual button, you simply hold it down until it starts! What could be easier?

Regards,
John