[SEL] Governor for Chevy 350 engine?

[Prepair Ltd]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 08:33:31 -0500, you wrote:

>Rick,
>Share with us the other DC nameplate information such as kw, kva, or HP. 
>That is what is going to determine what speed you need to be running 
>your 350 engine at. 

Let us not confuse AC & DC here, kW is the rating of DC power or AC
power with the power factor taken into account, kVA is an AC rating
without power factor correction. HP is hosses by any other name :-))

>If you are only trying to generate say 30 HP (or 
>roughly 20kw) then your 350 V8 ought to be able to do this just fine at 
>1200 rpms. Direct couple them and enjoy the fuel savings of running the 
>engine at low rpm's. If you are trying to make say 150 HP (or roughly 
>100kw) then you are certainly going to need to be in the power band 
>range for this motor. Then you will be forced to go the route of gear 
>reduction or automotive transmission.

Yes, the larger engines will run quite happily on load at considerably
less than their rated speeds, and will be very quiet as well,
especially if a decent exhaust is fitted.

>If you wind up direct coupling the two, there is no reason the standard 
>starter won't turn over both the engine and the unexcited generator.
>You should also give thought to a torsional flex plate between the 
>engine flywheel and generator input shaft to prevent fatigue failure.
>Curt Holland
>Gastonia, NC

Starting big gennys is pretty standard stuff with conventional starter
motors on big diesels, it's only when you get up to the very large
engines that 48V starters or air starting becomes necessary (air
starting as in an air starter motor, not air injection as used in big
marine engines)

Lister used the generator for a starter in a number of cases, we have
a 110V 7kW DC set which is automatic start using the house battery
that it kept charged to power the generator as a motor.

Note that field reversal is necessary to run the genny as a motor
compared to what it would be as a generator, which is why a lot of
auto-start sets went for a separate starter winding on the rotor and a
separate starter field as well. The Lister Start-O-Matics went this
route, although they were AC output so couldn't be used as a motor
from batteries.

I think that made sense.... :-))


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