Break-in loads

[fara macho]

Kelly, et al, I'm getting a bit confused on break in procedure. Kelly are you saying my break in procedure should have been running my 16kw 10 hours straight , with or without load (saw in old post) rather than the step load breakin.

p.s. I also read today on another Generac forum (sorry to cheat on you Kelly) that the initial breakin should be with the regualr oil that comes in the generator and not synthetic oil, ( I did breakin w/ synthetic 5w30); then one post at the other site said Generac generators no longer need a break in cycle.. all very confusing Steve

[Bill Liedtke]

Engines are often broken in on regular oil and then switched to synthetic for the balance as rings and other items tend not to seat or break in properly with synthetic. It's just too slick.

[Gentleman]

The instructions that came with my 15/16Kw 5243 Guardian Quietsource led me to believe that a break in period was unnecessary. However it did run a little over 8 hours for intermittant power outages before I did the first oil change over to synthetic.

[dave]

Concerning the air cooled units, about a couple of years ago and back they required a break in period. Something like 1 hour EACH on 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% load. That's a total of 4 hours! Depending on the company installing they would blow it off or take the extra time to run the break in loads. I have a 15kW load bank that is able to be set at 1kW intervals. So break in and treaking of a generator is easier than turning off and on customer loads. The only really bad part is standing there and making conversation with Mr. Customer all day when they want to watch. haha just kidding. Recently purchased generators do not require a break in. I've installed Briggs & Stratton / Cutler Hammer small home standby and from way back they didn't require break in. I never started carrying them though because I could sell a Guardian to the end user for what the wholesaler wanted for a B&S.

[fara macho]

Well guys, I did get at least 2 hours run time on regular oil between exercise modes and the initial check of the generator running, so that will have to suffice. I don's see anywhere in the instruction manual about breakin periods, so I'll have to go with what Gentleman says and hope for the best. Dave I was curious to what the 15kw load bank was? Steve

[dave]

The load bank is made by Sotcher Measurement in San Jose CA. Here is a link to the spec page. http://www.sotcher.com/627.html It's the model 632, 15kW. I just pulled the owners manual out to get the info and just noticed that the time rating for continuous use is 1 hour. :eek: It must be at full load because I have had it going longer than that!

[Kelly Myers]

According to guardian, they have now switched to (and I quote) "Automotive grade pistons and rings" and they no longer require a load bank break in.

I would still recommend changing the oil after 6-8 hours of run time to get all of that piston shear out of the oil from the new engine.