Air cooled engines for pump jacks

[AllenR]

Does anybody have any experience using small air-cooled engines (i.e. b&s or kohler) in the 11-20 HP range for pump jacks. I have heard that very frequent oil changes are a concern as well as short life-spans.

thank-you
Allen Richardson

 

[proddata]

We have been working on a small horsepower natural gas driven power source (designed for the oil industry). Let me know if you want more information.

 

[CBlundell]

One could use a light duty (koller, briggs etc) engine for running a pump jack but the normal rules apply - can't get something for nothing. These engines are designed primarily for consumer use in low hour applications. It is difficult to get over 1000 hour befor significant rebuild costs are incured (1.5 months). The costws of interuption of service on a piece of production equipment are significant which is why low speed engines like Arrow and Ajax which may look like Dinasoars but act like pump jacks (never break) are used.
Kubota is making a small one cyl in the 20 HP range which is probaly les expensive than the other alternatives which could be a real alternative

 

[snafu]

We have used an 11hp Honda to dewater stripper gas wells with low bottom hole pressure. They work well and can be setup to run on gasoline or casinghead gas. The engines are very reliable and portable. Have also used them in locations where fireants have disabled the electricity or where the cost of running electricity is prohibitive. Excellent for testing a well also.

 

[zdas04]

We had some very bad experiences 10 years ago with Kohler engines (like CBlundell said, 1.5 months run time). Various folks in my company have had very good luck with them in the last 2 years. Seems like they may have done a complete turn-around in their fit-for-service envelope.

Honda tells me that their 11 Hp engine cannot leagally be adapted to run on natural gas. Something about the total emmissions. I've tried running them in auto-start on gasoline but all I ever get is a dead battery.

I talked to Arrow last week and they would not admit to any plans to develop anything smaller than a 220 which is still a bunch of Hp for a shallow pump jack.

proddata, could you point us to a web page where you talk about the engine you are developing?

David