military genset hurcules engine info?

[mikeyny]

I am looking to pick up an mepo18a gererator used. 4cly hurcules gas engine 10k generator head. Does anybody know anything about them.?

 

[Jags]

I am looking to pick up an mepo18a gererator used. 4cly hurcules gas engine 10k generator head. Does anybody know anything about them.?

I'm not sure about your mepo18a, but make sure you do your homework. I have a 1942 genset with 4 cyl hurcules that was originally a 3 phase unit at 115V. You HAD to equally load the 3 phases, which means that you couldn't just pick off a phase and run lights, a phase and run your refer, etc. If you did not equally load it, it would choke that engine quite easily. Oh, an just for info, the hurcules on mine is rated at 11hp (old school, low rpm).

What I DID do was rip the old gen head off and replace it with a new 10,000 watt 110/220 belt driven head. Figured out the pulley arrangement and a little increase in rpm and bingo. Electric start genset designed for 100% duty cycle.

What year is the one in question?

Here is a pic of mine for reference:

 

[ironpony]

I am looking to pick up an mepo18a gererator used. 4cly hurcules gas engine 10k generator head. Does anybody know anything about them.?

I'm not sure about your mepo18a, but make sure you do your homework. I have a 1942 genset with 4 cyl hurcules that was originally a 3 phase unit at 115V. You HAD to equally load the 3 phases, which means that you couldn't just pick off a phase and run lights, a phase and run your refer, etc. If you did not equally load it, it would choke that engine quite easily. Oh, an just for info, the hurcules on mine is rated at 11hp (old school, low rpm).

What I DID do was rip the old gen head off and replace it with a new 10,000 watt 110/220 belt driven head. Figured out the pulley arrangement and a little increase in rpm and bingo. Electric start genset designed for 100% duty cycle.

What year is the one in question?

Here is a pic of mine for reference:

i have an m5 genset looks just like yours, hercules engine 15 hp i think
3kw genset i sucessfully split the phases on mine, possibly a bad genset on yours
really not even worth splitting at 3 kw
wont run much
want to do what you did replace with a larger genset
but i hate to tear it apart kind of a peice of history but not worth much

 

[Jags]

i have an m5 genset looks just like yours, hercules engine 15 hp i think
3kw genset i sucessfully split the phases on mine, possibly a bad genset on yours
really not even worth splitting at 3 kw
wont run much
want to do what you did replace with a larger genset
but i hate to tear it apart kind of a peice of history but not worth much

M5 genset has a hercules ZXB engine that produces 11 hp at 1200 RPM. Thats why I used a pulley config that would allow me to bring up the rpms of the engine. I am currently turning at ~2300 RPM (by ear). It still won't pull a "true" 10,000 watts but its fairly close. If you were looking at something around the 5000 watts, you could probably get all the power you need at 1500 rpm or so. Quite, and fuel efficient at that rate.

These engines had such a low HP rating because of the intended low RPM. It really isn't even into its torque curve at 1200 rpm.

 

[Dune]

Pretty sure I had a Herc air cooled military gensett at one time. That thing burned so much petrol I left it somewhere.

 

[Jags]

Pretty sure I had a Herc air cooled military gensett at one time. That thing burned so much petrol I left it somewhere.

Mine burns a touch over 1 gal. per hour at about 60% load (around 4500-5000 watts). Other than honda - I don't know any other box store gensets that do much better. Maybe a little, but lets see how they run after a week long outage. I would trust mine to run 1000 hours without giving it a break.

Its kinda the old story of: If you had to ride in a plane and the only two choices were one built by Honda and one built by Harley - which would you choose.

(not HD bashing here)

 

[kenny chaos]

Unless you can afford the gamble, I have to agree with Jiggs about
getting the new genset.
Generators are notoriously abused and they are prone to moisture
problems rotting out the generators.
Find a nice old detroit 2-71 to chugg along at about 800
rpm on your local pizza parlors used vegetable oil and
hook it to a 10kva generator.
Fire it up when the old ladies doing laundry and sell the extra to the
power company which will then give it back to you when you're not
running yours.

 

[mikeyny]

not sure yet about the yr made. It is an air cooled 4 cyl 85 cubic inches. 20 hp I think. $300. bux. I have to look into how many hours it has on it. I runs but needs work. Someone put diesel in the gas tank. It now runs but needs more cleaning. Thanks for the info. I may get a chance to see it this weekend.

 

[webie]

Pretty sure I had a Herc air cooled military gensett at one time. That thing burned so much petrol I left it somewhere.

Mine burns a touch over 1 gal. per hour at about 60% load (around 4500-5000 watts). Other than honda - I don't know any other box store gensets that do much better. Maybe a little, but lets see how they run after a week long outage. I would trust mine to run 1000 hours without giving it a break.

Its kinda the old story of: If you had to ride in a plane and the only two choices were one built by Honda and one built by Harley - which would you choose.

(not HD bashing here)

http://hondajet.honda.com/default.aspx?bhcp=1

 

[kenny chaos]

Pretty sure I had a Herc air cooled military gensett at one time. That thing burned so much petrol I left it somewhere.

Mine burns a touch over 1 gal. per hour at about 60% load (around 4500-5000 watts). Other than honda - I don't know any other box store gensets that do much better. Maybe a little, but lets see how they run after a week long outage. I would trust mine to run 1000 hours without giving it a break.

Its kinda the old story of: If you had to ride in a plane and the only two choices were one built by Honda and one built by Harley - which would you choose.

(not HD bashing here)

http://hondajet.honda.com/default.aspx?bhcp=1

Harley please.

 

[Jags]

Harley please.

Wanna bet that, that motor is an S&S and Not a HD?

 

[kenny chaos]

Harley please.

Wanna bet that, that motor is an S&S and Not a HD?

Nope.