# Chinese Diesel Generators



## Rubberducky (Mar 30, 2013)

Just curious if there is any interest in starting something for these air cooled Chinese diesel generators. I have one and I know there a lot of the, out them. Some have been running for many hours and then there are some that were DOA. I have under 10hrs on mine. Starts right up and runs great. I run Mobil 1 synthetic in. I actually use 5w40 and have no problems. I change the oil every 5 right now while it is still new. I got a few shavings in the filter on first change, but none since. Mine is the enclosed version which is why I decided to buy it. At 5hrs I took the enclosure off completely and went thru all the bolts and lines for peace of mind. I am not too familiar with the build quality of the generator side but the yanmar clone seems to be as good as you can get without getting it from yanmar. I have a friend who replaces any broken with oem yanmar parts and he says everything is interchangeable. I have an interlock plate I put on my panel and I can power just about everything in my house except central ac. I do have natural gas for heat and hot water so not much electrical load except for lights and appliances.


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## Dutchy491 (Sep 18, 2019)

Rubberducky said:


> Just curious if there is any interest in starting something for these air cooled Chinese diesel generators. I have one and I know there a lot of the, out them. Some have been running for many hours and then there are some that were DOA. I have under 10hrs on mine. Starts right up and runs great. I run Mobil 1 synthetic in. I actually use 5w40 and have no problems. I change the oil every 5 right now while it is still new. I got a few shavings in the filter on first change, but none since. Mine is the enclosed version which is why I decided to buy it. At 5hrs I took the enclosure off completely and went thru all the bolts and lines for peace of mind. I am not too familiar with the build quality of the generator side but the yanmar clone seems to be as good as you can get without getting it from yanmar. I have a friend who replaces any broken with oem yanmar parts and he says everything is interchangeable. I have an interlock plate I put on my panel and I can power just about everything in my house except central ac. I do have natural gas for heat and hot water so not much electrical load except for lights and appliances.


It would be great to hear how that Chinese generator has treated you these past few years... 😬 Dutchy


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## ToolLover (Jan 13, 2020)

@ Rubberducky: I am going to pass some advice to you and you can do as you please.
In the 1970's I owned five + diesel pieces of equipment and over that span of time I owned many more diesels. Perkins, Detroit, Cummins, Kubota and MBenz brand engines.
I knew a guy that was in charge of maintenance for a large trucking company. He advised me that Shell Rotella was the choice of trucking companies for diesels. He said the his company had never had a engine failure due to oil related problems.
I bought the Rotella in 50 gallon drums and I too never had a oil related problem in 30 years.
Diesels pollute the oil and turn it black on the first use.
Today in the gas burners I too use Mobile 1, but I am not too sure that Mobile 1 is rated for diesels nor will it stand up to the black pollution the diesels create. You would be wise to check into that before you ruin that engine.
My advice would be to drain the Mobil and refill with Shell Rotella.


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## Dutchy491 (Sep 18, 2019)

His original post is from 2013. I was just interested to see if that piece of chinese junk was any good. LOL. If Oil specs show a C*** rating it will cover a diesel application. Owners just need to see if it’s the correct C rating specified in the manual. S*** indicates spark engine, ie gasoline. Some good oils can serve both applications. Dutchy


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## exmar (Jun 29, 2015)

Here on the farm, all the tractors and dozer are diesel, JD's. They have never seen anything but Rotella.


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## Dutchy491 (Sep 18, 2019)

Shell Rotella, but which Rotella? It’s not the same as it used to be for years. Now there’s T4, T5 and T6.


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

the new synth rotella works well!


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## Airstreamer67 (Oct 3, 2020)

I use conventional 15W40 Rotella in my 25-year-old Yanmar-Gillette 6000W diesel, and also in my F250 truck, and Kubota RTV and tractor. All good.

The only problem I've had with my Yanmar genset through the years is wearing out a capacitor and running with too light of a load. The light load seems to have lowered the Yanmar's maximum capacity due to wet-stacking, but since the genset serves the load I have, that's OK with me. One of these days I'll have to clean or replace the piston rings clogged up from wet-stacking; but not today.

As a backup, I use my Honda EX4500S. I run the Rotella in that, too.


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## ToolLover (Jan 13, 2020)

@Airstreamer67: I think I saw a detailed post on another forum about wet stacking. Was that your post?


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## Airstreamer67 (Oct 3, 2020)

Yep, that was my long-winded spiel about our two hurricanes in 2020 and how I kept the power flowing with my gensets.

I like my old Yanmar diesel, and it's been mighty good to me over the decades, but diesels don't like to loaf. They want to run at a pretty heavy load to keep the wet-stacking problem away. And since I'm not going to add load just to keep the generator happy, I've wet-stacked it through the 25 years I've had it, and since the effects of that are cumulative, they caught up with me in 2020. Nevertheless, my old Yanmar is still satisfying my base load except for when I need the air conditioner, and that's when I fire-up my ole Honda 4500 backup to take over.

It works for me. I'm ready for the 2021 hurricane season which is right around the corner. Presently, we're dodging Spring storms. We had a dilly of one last night, but the utility service wasn't interrupted so I didn't need to bother my gensets.


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

yup it is shaping up to be a rough 2021 storm season!


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