[SEL] Governor for Chevy 350 engine?

[Prepair Ltd]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 08:08:13 EST, you wrote:

>Before I scrapped my Chevy pickup I pulled the 350 engine out of it.  I've 
>been thinking of coupling it up to a 20 hp DC motor that I have laying around 
>here and creating a generator.  The one problem that I can't figure out is how 
>to regulate the speed of the engine to a constant RPM.  Anyone have any 
>experience or knowlege of how to govern a car engine? Are there any companies that 
>make a governor mechanism, or am I going to have to cobble something together? 
>
>Any insights?
>
>Rick Rowlands

Hi Rick:

You have a number of options:

1) Fit a mechanical governor to the engine
2) Fit an electronic governor to the engine.

Mechanical governors are quite widespread and can often be found on
ebay. They will need adapting to the engine, but for most applications
they work quite well, and were probably the standard fit on all petrol
stationary engines that were used for generating purposes.

Electronic governors are much easier to adapt, but you have to have an
electronic pickup on bellhousing that senses the ring gear teeth
passing its nose, so you have speed feedback. Most are 12V or 24V so
no problem there, and you'll need a bracket to site it near to the
carb so you can do a mechanical link-up to the throttle.

I've used both, VW have a neat little governor on the industrial VW
flat four which might be worth a look. Of the electronic units,
Woodward, American Bosch and Barber-Colman are the most popular.
All-electric types are best generally, but Woodward used to have a
4301 model that used oil pressure in the engine as an actuating medium
and the electronics did the controlling part.

Peter
--
Peter A Forbes
Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK
prepair at easynet.co.uk
http://www.prepair.co.uk