Sorry I didn't get back to this yesterday. My back was killing me and I had to get horizontal. I wound up going to sleep and slept right through till this morning. I need some good drugs but am too hard headed to go to the doc. Anyway, to your questions Buckshot and Ofuzzy1.
For Buckshot:
#1. I don't know how long the injector is rated for. But since it's a mechanical injector I'm assuming that's part of the 20,000 hour claim. The problem is that these engines haven't been coming into the U.S. for that many years yet so that information may not be available yet. I'll have to ask Joel the next time I talk to him to see what he says about it.
#2. Again, I don't know about cleaning the injector. That will come with experience and there's nothing in the booklet about it. Another question for Joel.
#3. Yes, the hooper cooling system is an open system with a floating indicator to tell you when it's getting low. If you leave the engine exposed to the elements, any rain will top it off. However, you have to drain the tank any time the weather gets below freezing or you take the chance of cracking the cooling jacket just like in a vehicle with no antifreeze. They say that the hopper cooling system is very efficient and during my 2 hour trial run the water was definately hot enough to put off steam, although it never reached the boiling point as far as I could tell.
#4. I'm sure this little engine will use some oil during break-in but I'm not sure how much. I believe that's why the booklet calls for a minimum of 50 hours of break-in time with no load. I'll be doing the break-in run as I get time and will check the oil regularly and report my findings about how much it uses and when/if the consumption slows down.
#5. Because I want to keep this little water pump as simple as possible with as few moving parts as possible. The more involved any little project like this is, the more there is to go wrong. Ask me how I know. And it's not hooked up direct drive, as you can see in the pics PW. I had to re-invent the driveshaft/pulley setup and drive the pump with that for a direction change to the input of the pump. Yes, I wanted to drive it directly from the end of the crankshaft/flywheel but it didn't work out that way.
#6. How would using an alternator make it easier? Enquiring minds want to know.
#7. It's not direct drive. It's secondary drive through a belt.
For Ofuzzy1:
#1. The total wound up being $300 for the engine and $100 for the freight charge.
#2. I don't believe this little engine would be very useful at producing a great amount of hot water, but it would really depend on how many hours a day you ran it and where it's located. I'm sure I can make a metal plate to replace that plastic outfit and run two hoses to it and install a radiator for extended run times. But since I'm only going to run this thing when I need to pump water up the hill (about 2 - 3 hours a day) I don't see any need to go to the trouble right now. When I ran that engine for 2 hours, the water didn't go down enough to notice and that told me all I need to know. I'm sure it will put out more heat while it's breaking in so I expect it to run somewhat cooler after the break-in is finished.
#3. It's pretty noisy right now because it's not tied down solidly to the ground. I expect the noise to reduce a great deal when I get it installed in it's final resting place. I still don't know how I'm going to do that but it'll come to me. As to the muffler, it's quite ingenious. When I was looking it over I discovered a wingnut and stud on top of the chrome plated muffler assembly. I think you can see it in one of the pics. Anyway, you loosen that wingnut and the whole top section spins so you can direct the exhaust in any direction of the compass you want to. Cool, huh? And actually, the exhaust noise is really very quiet compared to the diesel knocking. Once that knocking is attenuated into the ground I expect it to operate fairly quietly. I have my fingers crossed anyway. But I plan on building a cinder block pump house for it and will insulate the inside block spaces with that expandable spray in foam if I can afford it. Otherwise I'll fill those spaces with cedar sawdust or vermiculite/pearlite.
#4. I dissagree. The deep well pump I have now is a 220 volt AC model and it pulls 7.5 amps shile it's running. That will work that little 3.5 diesel too hard and consume a great deal more fuel. That's why I want to bypass that big well pump in the first place. I can do the job with much less effort and energy doing it the way I'm planning. Unless I misunderstood what you were trying to say.
#5. Yes, I knew about that trick but I don't know enough to do it without a college edumacation. It seems to me that you can get about 90% output of the rated input when everything is working right. I'll have to look into that because I have a real nice Baldor gearmotor that should work nicely for that. But right now I just want to get the water pump going and don't have time for fun projects like that. Like I said, I'll probabaly buy another of these small diesels (the 6.5 HP model) to use for auxilliary power projects. Or I might just save my pennies and buy a lister with an ST gen head and be done with it. So to speak.
Thanks for all the question and keep them coming! We'll all learn more from my little experiment by seeing and thinking about all these questions. This is a great learning experience for me and I appreciate your help.
Yeeeee haaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!