WHAT THE REASON FOR WATER IN OIL ON AIR COOLED GENERATOR 1

[fgillitzer]

I HAVE A 16KW NATURAL GAS FUELED, AIR COOLED GENERATOR. WHAT COULD CAUSE 2% WATER TO BE IN THE SYN OIL 5W30. THE GENERATOR IS 2YRS OLD.

 

[waross]

Blow-by. One of the major products of combustion of natural gas is water vapor. Part of the exhaust is leaking past the rings and the water vapor is condensing in the oil.
One of the worst case operating patterns is standby duty when the outages and resulting generator use tend to be short. Standby generators tend to be oversized for a number of valid reasons and as a result run much cooler than a loaded engine. The cold oil condenses more vapor than hot oil would and run times are often too short to evaporate the condensed water.
Consider more frequent oil changes. This may be the cheapest solution. Another solution may be to fit a delayed stop timer that runs the generator for a minimum time each time it is started. Possibly one half hour or one hour. Remember that the unloaded generator will be running fairly cool and the evaporation of the water will be slow.
You may force the oil heat up by connecting a load bank, but the cost of fuel may then be greater than the cost of more frequent oil changes.

Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[MikeHalloran]

I suppose you could put a thermostatically controlled heater in the oil sump to prevent condensation. With synthetic lube oil, you could even set it to, say 215F to make sure. You might have to {add an|upsize the} oil cooler.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA