VW powered generator

We,d have a wide use for something down here in Aust. Upper half of East Coast (Queeensland) is under flood water and bottom half ( New SouthWales/Victoria) is dry and up to 120DegF!. Air Con in the south and water pumping in the North. John

Take care down under! I have just heard about the fires breaking out due to the record breaking heatwave.

later, One out of many daves

Thanks, We are about 50 miles north of Sydney and 10 miles as the crow flies from nearest fire but down Victoria entire towns/villages have ceased to exist. More than a suspicion that a lot of the fires have been deliberately lit making it worse. Bizarre when you look at Queensland( north) and its up to 3 metres underwater.!

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In fact, setting up a motor-generator is the easy part. The hard part is managing your FUEL SUPPLY. That probably sounds a bit odd but when you become your own power company you're going to find that storing fuel is the biggest headache. This is largely because gasoline doesn't store very well. It is brewed up & sold with the intention of being used within THREE MONTHS OR LESS. If you want to store it for more than three months you'll have to add special stabilizers to it.

If you're serious about an auxiliary power system you'll probably end up using PROPANE. It can be stored for years without any problems. Kits to convert most engines -- including VW's -- are available. In seriously cold climates you generally have two tanks of fuel, a small one that is kept above freezing and your big tank, which may hold 2000 gallons or more. That's because propane has a lot less energy than gasoline; you'll have to burn more of it to get the same amount of electricity. Once the engine is started with the 'warm' tank, the exhaust from the engine is fed to the insulated cover over the big tank, raising the temperature. (Why? Because propane needs quite a bit of heat to change from a liquid to a gas.) Also, you will have a 'vaporizor' on the engine. Most of these are designed for water- cooled engines; water from the head is fed through the vaporizor. With a VW you generally use the ENGINE OIL as your source of vaporization heat.

But yes, using a VW as an auxiliary power plant is a pretty smart idea. Unlike most other systems, it doesn't have anything to FREEZE :-)

-Bob Hoover

That's american fuel. LOL. Fuel in Europe stays good for MUCH longer. You can park a car for a year or two, and come back and fire it up like nothing. Lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc. usually hibernate for over 6 months, and nobody I know ever replaces the fuel in the beginning of the season. They start right up with whatever is in the tank.

American gasoline smells different too. And when it gets old, it gets that varnish smell to it and turns yellow. That doesn't happen in Finland..

Jan

It has been like the Yank fuel in Norway for some time now. That being said, it last a lot longer than the fuel companies 3 month warranty.

J.

A Volkswagon 'beetle' engine generator set was recently bought by Drew Prit chard in the 'Salvage Hunters TV series (on Quest TV in UK) Drew bought it as he thought it was a genuine VW built bit of kit. Not so sure though, I t hink it was something 'made up' using a car engine. It was not running & fr om memory he paid about £300 for it. His wife was not taken with it when he got it back to his antiques emporium.

I remember when these were for sale...not made by Volkswagen, but they were air-cooled of course, so you didn't have to worry about the coolant freezing.