Aircooled VW Motor to Power Gen Set?

Has anyone used an early VW aircooled motor to power a standby generator set? I am thinking about building a 13 - 15KW standby gen set and was thinking of rebuilding a 36HP VW aircooled motor as the power.

Any thought on this?

Tim

Reply to
The Guy
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Yeah. A Honda utility engine is cheaper in the long run. FWIW, on the farm we had a John Deere tractor engine hooked to the generator. A monster generator.

Reply to
jjs

This has been delivered by VW since the early days, most refered to as industrial motors, powered anything from boats! to fire dep. water pumps, generators and hydraulics...(also water pumps).

Most of them came with an Magneto igniton, as to be able to start without a battery.

J.

Reply to
BergRace

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Does NATO count? VW's industrial engine division supplied thousands of MG sets for the NATO, farmers, firemen, etc.

Pretty easy to mate a 2-belt vee-belt pulley to the flywheel, size selected to provide whatever rpm the generator requires at the torque peak for the engine (typically around 2200 rpm).

But figure out how you're going to start it. If you want electrical start you'll need the kit that allows mounting the starter without the tranny housing. Although most of the MG sets used a crank... and a magneto, for ignition. (Least weight; no battery nor on-board dynamo, just a hollow generator casing to support the shaft to the blower.)

But a 36hp isn't the best idea. Parts are too hard to find, reliablility of those tiny valves isn't all that good. 1300cc is about as low as you want to go and if you want it to last, add an oil filter AND a deep sump... because the whole idea is for the thing to be able to run for days at a time without having to worry about it.

Properly built, you're looking at close to half a ton, if you include a drum of gas.

The Full-Trick units are mounted on a little 2-wheeled trailer, about the size of those Harbor Freight things but with real tires & wheels (ie, same as for a bug or bus). Engine only runs on TWO cylinders, the other two provide compressed air, kinda like the Volks-Air conversion. Or you can get it to pump water. Or hydraulic fluid. Plus about 10kw of electrical output. Boxy little body over the thing, BIG muffler -- doesn't make a lot of noise.

Want something permanent? Then rig it to run on natural gas. Or for an emergency back-up, on propane. (Gasoline doesn't store all that well and in a real disaster, such as an earthquake or tornado, you can't be sure of natural gas.)

But unless you're up to your armpits in old VW engines (ie, zero-cost for the powerplant) the least-cost option is to buy one of those new 24hp V-twin industrial engines. Honda, Briggs & Stratton, Tecumseh (?) sellz 'em, often cheaper than you can assemble the thing yourself. They also offer various fuel options (ie, gasoline, LPG, natural gas)

-R.S.Hoover

Reply to
Veeduber

Our local FD had a fireboat with the fire-pump powered by VW. The thing could throw out some water.

BTW. As far as I'm concerned, an industrial application is about the only thing a .009 dizzy is good for. (that and drags)

Reply to
Alan Nelson

You pretty much covered what I was wondering about. The new V-Twins and multi-fuel options seems like they may have a lower TCO, smaller footprint and more versatility long term.

Thanks to all for the input.

Tim

Reply to
The Guy

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