# NorthStar 15KW gen, want to remove teh gas tank to install nat gas, any guides on how to remove?



## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

It looks like I might have to remove petcocks off the gas tank, I don't know, just would like some instructions to follow if y/all know of some or a youtube video I haven't found yet

Thanks for any help!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

snap a few pix of why you need to remove the fuel shut off.
what is the exact model of the generator?


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

is this your gen set?
*Item# 165607 NorthStar Portable Generator with Honda GX690 Engine — 15,000 Surge Watts, 13,500 Rated Watts, Electric Start, CARB Compliant*


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

i would call up us carb on this conversion
they might have a good solution off the shelf

Phone: 1-800-553-5608

or Email support at: [email protected]
the basic site for them
*https://motorsnorkel.com/*
i like the eu7000is kit they make for off the shelf.
and they make lots of other solutions as well.


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

iowagold said:


> is this your gen set?
> *Item# 165607 NorthStar Portable Generator with Honda GX690 Engine — 15,000 Surge Watts, 13,500 Rated Watts, Electric Start, CARB Compliant*


Yep, that's the one


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

iowagold said:


> i would call up us carb on this conversion
> they might have a good solution off the shelf
> 
> Phone: 1-800-553-5608
> ...


I have a conversion kit, the kit requires I take off the gas tank. Really what I'm looking for is some instructions on how to take off the gas tank.


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

iowagold said:


> snap a few pix of why you need to remove the fuel shut off.
> what is the exact model of the generator?


I'll take some pics in teh daylight but just look at the pic of the gen, it's in a cage, and it's not clear how to get it out. Maybe disassemble teh whole cage?


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

at the factory yea the tank is the first thing on the cage....a real twist and turn to get it in.
soooo...
a total pita at home to get it off.
does the gen head side top end plates unbolt off?
last i knew you had to unbolt the engine gen head battery and disconnect the harness to remove the tank as the tank has to go down to miss the frame.


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

Yeah, It’s a nightmare to get the tank out. A buddy of mine cut off The long bars on the top and left them off. LoL


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

I bet it's easier than getting a mark II back together


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

hummm
you could make flanges or slip tube setup for future removals etc.
a wheel grinder away on that one.
and you should only have to do one end of the generator on the 2 top hoops
i would do it on the end where the tank is deeper for that lift up the tank and slide out.


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## FlyFisher (Jun 30, 2018)

Looking at the generator in the product listing - if I were to guess the tank "slid in" to the area where it is mounted from below - where the engine and alternator are mounted before the engine and alternator were mounted. To remove without cutting you would need to remove the engine and alternator then drop the tank and slide it back out. You can do it - take pictures of what you remove and how wires are routed as you go then you will have a reference for how to put things back together.

The hoop frame and the sheet metal brackets the tank is mounted to appear to be welded in. Even if the sheet metal brackets were bolted on, the way the hoop frame is designed the tank would still have to slide in to position from the bottom before everything else went in.

On a side note - I have the exact engine and alternator. It is a great set up. I did my own NG conversion with a home made manifold. What specific kit did you get for yours? 

On NG the engine has a bit more of a sag with heavy loads like the whole house AC starting, however I am amazed with how subtle it still is. On gasoline the engine is a beast - you can't tell when the whole house AC cranks up at all - the only way to tell its actually running when it kicks on is to go around back to the AC to see its running.

The bad part is it is a LOUD unit. Ours hooks up on the far side of the house away from bedrooms, though, so its not bad. I've thought about getting a box of some kind to put it in to quiet it down and weatherproof it. We'll see. I do have it "portable" to throw in the truck also, but it really is way too big so I am looking at coming up with another smaller idea to handle those purposes.


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

super LOUD unit. !!
these larger V twin units need a concrete bunker with a quiet stack muffler going up.


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

OK here's the pics, the first one is of


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

if you disconnect the hose then the sediment assy should spin off then.
make sure to use a backer wrench on the tank bung!

drain the tank first.


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## Bulldogger (Feb 19, 2021)

Hankiii said:


> I have a conversion kit, the kit requires I take off the gas tank. Really what I'm looking for is some instructions on how to take off the gas tank.


 Will the tank slide out? You have to unbolt it and disconnect hoses. Maybe drop drown and slide out? Is there enough clearance? Is there any wiggle room to angle tank so you can get it out of those bars surrounding it and slide it down and out?


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

Bulldogger said:


> Will the tank slide out? You have to unbolt it and disconnect hoses. Maybe drop drown and slide out? Is there enough clearance? Is there any wiggle room to angle tank so you can get it out of those bars surrounding it and slide it down and out?


Yeah just got the tank off last night. Facing the generator from the motor end, I took off the upper crosspiece/bracket whatever from the left hand side, took off the tank fasteners, disconnected and drained the fuel hose, and took out the plate under the tank along with the tank and left one hose connected, took the brass fitting off the top, I bet it's a vent. Slid out easy as pie, not so much as a scratch on anything.

Pics incoming but it's probably sort of boring


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)




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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

FlyFisher said:


> Looking at the generator in the product listing - if I were to guess the tank "slid in" to the area where it is mounted from below - where the engine and alternator are mounted before the engine and alternator were mounted. To remove without cutting you would need to remove the engine and alternator then drop the tank and slide it back out. You can do it - take pictures of what you remove and how wires are routed as you go then you will have a reference for how to put things back together.
> 
> The hoop frame and the sheet metal brackets the tank is mounted to appear to be welded in. Even if the sheet metal brackets were bolted on, the way the hoop frame is designed the tank would still have to slide in to position from the bottom before everything else went in.
> 
> ...


That was pretty much why I wanted this one, it seemed to be the one in this category that could stay on for extended periods. One of my buddies advised me to get a different speed motor, something like a 1600 vs a 3200, the slower speed is preferable for longer term durability, he said. Well, those started at $12K so I figured what if I get the absolute best meaning biggest and loudest and most fuel hoggy one I can find that would probably go a long way. 

Part of my power is now natural gas and we put in a big ol Princess wood stove in the basement in case the electricity and natural gas go out and I don't have any propane or gasoline.

I like the box idea a lot and I'm thinking about it, probably overthinking it like usual. I see some guys just park it in a shed


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## Bulldogger (Feb 19, 2021)

Hankiii said:


> I like the box idea a lot and I'm thinking about it, probably overthinking it like usual. I see some guys just park it in a shed


 Facebook market place has a lot of guys that build dog houses. Anyone that builds dog houses is capable of building you a shed for your generator. I had a guy build a shed for me. I'll attach a pic of a similar one. I was able to get a custom-built enclosure exactly the size I wanted. I have to mount a vent on top and a fan on side to bring air in and exhaust out of top vent. I have stainless steel exhaust tubing to pipe exhaust out. Will try to finish in about a week and show what I did.


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

line that inside with cement board.
fire resistant that way.


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## Bulldogger (Feb 19, 2021)

iowagold said:


> line that inside with cement board.
> fire resistant that way.


 Right. Mass loaded vinyl first covering all surfaces. Then two layers of cement board with Green Glue in between. No straight paths for sound to travel out of box. If you can shine a flash light and the beam goes straight out, that would not work. Sound degrades when it has to make turns. Vent on top of box that is attic roof vent. Fan on side in intake vent over hole that is also designed for a roof with no straight paths out.


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## Hankiii (Nov 5, 2021)

What do you do about venting heat? I'm sure you want to have a certain amount of air flow, how do you move the air without letting the sound spill?


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## Bulldogger (Feb 19, 2021)

Hankiii said:


> What do you do about venting heat? I'm sure you want to have a certain amount of air flow, how do you move the air without letting the sound spill?


 It's going to require some experimentation. To reduce sound, you have to make the sound "turn." I'm going to try a static vent like this. Master Flow 144 sq. in. NFA Galvanized Steel Static Dome Roof Vent in Brown-HCD144BR - The Home Depot . Zombie box uses this type of fan, mine will not be a fan just vent, to reduce sound. Zombie box suffers from lack of mass in the enclosure,, to make it portable, which is why I don't like it. Only about 17db of sound reduction for a $2K price. I am going to mount this fan






backwards to make it an intake fan. but then build an angled vent outside of the enclosure to force air/sound to turn. Like this shed design. That shed is a better design for sound reduction, but plastic of this thickness has way too low of an STC value.








I"m not sure I'll be able to discuss it on this forum. At lot of members have small inverter generators with shed designs that work for generators like that. But the enclosures don't have enough mass to stop enough sound from larger generators. There are just plastic shells with fiberglass. One look and if you know anything about sound reduction, you'd know the STC, sound transmission class, how well a building partition attenuates airborne, of these material is way way too low. If you can see the generator from the outside of the enclosure when the fan is on, it may be reducing sound but it's not enough design to reduce sound enough for my needs.


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

I don’t understand your reasoning for using the roof mounted fan as the intake. How does this reduce external noise or efficiently vent hot air from the enclosure?



Bulldogger said:


> I"m not sure I'll be able to discuss it on this forum. At lot of members have small inverter generators with shed designs that work for generators like that. But the enclosures don't have enough mass to stop enough sound from larger generators.


Well you’ve started the conversation, don’t hold back now. 

I had a conventional 439cc generator in a plastic suncast shed like you have pictured. It was lined with MLV and foil faced foam. It was significantly quieter compared to the bare shed. The air intake had a hood also like the picture but the exhaust was not. The engines exhaust ran through an automotive muffler before exiting straight out of the side of the enclosure.

My two eu7000s running in my current enclosure do not require much additional sound attenuation. Honestly my exhaust fan is as much or more audible then the generators.


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## Bulldogger (Feb 19, 2021)

drmerdp said:


> I don’t understand your reasoning for using the roof mounted fan as the intake. How does this reduce external noise or efficiently vent hot air from the enclosure?
> 
> 
> Well you’ve started the conversation, don’t hold back now.
> ...


 The roof vent isn't designed to attenuate sound. It's design to stop water from entering. But because of that design, there are no straight paths for water to enter. Though it's not designed to reduce sound transmission, that nature of the design will. Because there are no straight paths for sound to enter or exit ether 

Sound above about 500Hz travels like a wave. If you drop a pebble in a pound the waves travel equally in all directions. However, sound above this frequency behaves like a ray, goes in a straight line. Think like a ray of light though the properties of light are different. Don't hold me to this because I don't want to debate anyone about the properties of light vs sound. But this is a loose example. If you had a flashlight and tried to "shine" it out of your enclosure, would the "beam," ray come straight out the fan of vents? Yes, right? If you had vents at angles, you could still see that a light source was inside the box, right? However, the brightness of the light would not be nearly as much as that when you shined the flashlight directly. This effect is greater with sound. Sound and light are not the same, it's just a loose example.

Ok, sound isn't light but does behave like a ray above bass frequencies. If you use one of the decibel meters on your smart phone, you will see that the noise produced from portable generators is well above 500Hz and thus travels in a straight line. Sound looses energy, when it turns, attenuated. Any design of vent that force sound to make a turn will reduce the level of sound exiting that vent. 

A better option than the roof vent would be to construct an angled vent with a viscoelastic like, Green Glue between two layers of wood or cement board. Then, the sound striking the vent would be absorbed upon striking the vent material, turned into heat energy, and also have to make a turn and loose further energy.


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

Bulldogger said:


> The roof vent isn't designed to attenuate sound. It's design to stop water from entering. But because of that design, there are no straight paths for water to enter. Though it's not designed to reduce sound transmission, that nature of the design will. Because there are no straight paths for sound to enter or exit ether
> 
> Sound above about 500Hz travels like a wave. If you drop a pebble in a pound the waves travel equally in all directions. However, sound above this frequency behaves like a ray, goes in a straight line. Think like a ray of light though the properties of light are different. Don't hold me to this because I don't want to debate anyone about the properties of light vs sound. But this is a loose example. If you had a flashlight and tried to "shine" it out of your enclosure, would the "beam," ray come straight out the fan of vents? Yes, right? If you had vents at angles, you could still see that a light source was inside the box, right? However, the brightness of the light would not be nearly as much as that when you shined the flashlight directly. This effect is greater with sound. Sound and light are not the same, it's just a loose example.
> 
> ...



I hear ya, I guess my main question is why use the roof vent as the intake instead of exhaust. Just seems more practical to allow the hot air to escape up since incoming cooler air will naturally displace the hot air anyway. Plus sound exiting up is less audible then sound bouncing off the ground. Just thinking that a baffle on the roof of the enclosure can perform the same function of making the air turn to loose energy why maintaining a efficient cooling scheme.


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## Bulldogger (Feb 19, 2021)

drmerdp said:


> I hear ya, I guess my main question is why use the roof vent as the intake instead of exhaust. Just seems more practical to allow the hot air to escape up since incoming cooler air will naturally displace the hot air anyway. Plus sound exiting up is less audible then sound bouncing off the ground. Just thinking that a baffle on the roof of the enclosure can perform the same function of making the air turn to loose energy why maintaining a efficient cooling scheme.


 Roof vent is exhaust. Read everything I wrote. Not just that post. The fan is going to be on side.
Sound can exit from anywhere with proper design. It in fact will exist from everywhere.


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## drmerdp (Apr 10, 2018)

Got it, missed your first post on the subject on page 1 and misunderstood your fan placement. A single fan on the intake source isn’t a common configuration.


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