I understand the safety of having a shroud in place if the engine door is open and running. Is there another purpose if the door is closed and it is running? Would half a shroud e.g. the opening side be sufficient? Just curious before I grind back the opening.
George,
Please tell us what generator you have.
Why do you want to "grind back the opening"?
Sorry, I have the 8k Isuzu. Jim I want to insure that after the separation on my set the fan does not clip the shroud and throw the belt again. I am replacing the strap if it needs to remain.
THE Shroud on the 8k Powertech is designed to to push the air thru the radiator not around it.
I thought about grinding mine too. I'm thinking that any movement you get will likely be lateral so if you ground it back 1/4" or so on both sides you would probably be good to go. Your shroud would still do its job but you'd have a good amount of clearance. I thought about doing that but ended up retaining the top shroud to engine mounts with new isolators.
jor
I'd take a good look at why your shroud is now coming into contact with the fan blade after your modification. I've done a somewhat similar mod and have never had any contact after 100s of hours of runtime. I would not modify the shroud, personally.
Mine ran fine with no contact after the modification (separation at bottom and diagonal 1/4" cross bars). What got me thinking about the contact with the fan was George's post regarding running the generator while on the road. To simulate that I shook the engine violently and the fan did contact the shroud. I probably moved the engine more than it would move when driving but to be sure I removed the cross bars and reconnected the top isolators.
It will be interesting to see the different approaches and how they hold up.
jor
If it takes violent actions to make contact, why not rig a travel limiter? A piece of 1/8" diameter garage door cable, a cable clamp nut/ubolt, and find a way to fasten it to the moving generator where normal travel is acceptable but the "violent travel distance is not. In other words, leave slack in the cable. You will then probably never know when and if it worked.
Mine hit on I10 in Louisiana around Lake Charles. It was quite violent and at the time thought I could have damaged our suspension. If you have driven this route recently you may know the area. Hopefully that pavement has been repaired.
Pretty sure I have to much rubber on the arm, both ends, going to a motor mount on the shroud. Replacing with a strap as in Marks modification suggested by Powertech but then again modified at OTM.
No issues static. With the replacement I will post results but don't anticipate running while underway until next spring.
I have the same generator on my 1996. When I bought it in 2008, the rubber mounts for the radiator were shot and allowed the fan to contact the shroud. I could tell that the plastic fan blade tips were not as long as original. I could not find a replacement fan, but it has never overheated. I replaced the mounts and had the leaking radiator re-cored, no problem since. I don't have the bar shown in the picture that is bolted to the generator engine and frame. Do you know if that is original?
George, I just took a good look at your modification, the 2 sections of the frame are miss aligned at the cut line, it looks like the radiator is higher than the original frame.
Jerry,
That is a modification he made when he separated the radiator assembly from the engine mounting assembly. The radiator is no longer subject to the vibrations of the engine which has caused leaks and failure of the radiator for some of us.
George,
When I was figuring out how to build my somewhat similar mounting system, I spent a long time with washers and spacers figuring out exactly how high/low my radiator assembly needed to be to ensure that it never came into contact with the fan. Lots of trial and error. In the end, I can force my generator with everything I've got and it won't contact the fan blades. I think you just need a bit of fine tuning of the height of the radiator assembly.
Thanks for your insights I will give it another go. Taking the bar off tomorrow and replacing. Will give it another test and post.
Jerry the fans are available from Powertech for 200+. Has to be a push blade.
Maybe the price is why I could not find one. :o
A new gen fan blade was available from PowerTech.