Thread: Life of a genset

Ask Gav, he's our resident genny guru.

20,000 hours to rebuild is about right for a machine that size, but some go longer - we got rid of one recently with 32,000 hours - a Cummins NT powered 300KVA. Generally, under about 750KVA is generally not viable to rebuild.

It's not just the engine you have to take into account. Let's say you're paying around - what - $70K for you 400 if it's a good quality, open set, or $10 to $15K more with a good capony. I would imagine if they are part of a group of paralleling machines, then they run a decent control system.

So, you get the engine fully rebuilt - depending on engine $35 to $50K and that's fine if everything else is in perfect working order, but chances are, the main alternator is full of dust and crud, so send that away to get cleaned, baked and re dipped - $2.5K then clean everything else, check for damaged wiring, service the breaker and put it all back together. You will now be close to your purchase price and you still have a lot of second hand parts in the system which could cause you grief.

That's pricing it with local support in mind, not sure how you'd go where you are or what extra costs due to distance you would have.

IMO I would ditch the unit and buy a new one - we hire machines out all the time for this sort of thing, and when we swap them out and replace them with new machines the old ones go to scrap or get sold at auction 'as is' for not much.

Ever thought about a term rental on a new machine? You end up with fixed costs over the life of the machine, with no depreciation or replacement costs. If the machine has a catastrophic failure you're not out of pocket. You just end up with a new genset every few years for the same monthly charge. I'm sure there would be someone around that could do this for you up there?

Sorry, just a thought - I have trouble turning my 'Sales' brain off...

other than routine accessory parts for the engine, constant loaded running is the best thing for a diesel, shut it down, do the precautionaries (core plugs, belt driven ancilleries front and rear crank seal type stuff) on the engine, replace the alternator wearing parts and fire it back up and then fire


with good maintenance, fuel oils and filtration, I'd expect the engine to make a minimum of 10 years, excluding the bearings and slip rings (if they're fitted) the alternator should last forever.