Surging Kohler Generator

C

Captain Morgan

New Member
Jan 2, 2009
31
Indiana
Boat Info
320 Sundancer 2006
Engines
350 Mercruiser w/Bravo III
I have a problem with my 5kw Kohler Generator on my 320. When I load up then generator it starts to surging. I have had other boats with generators that did not do this. When I open the hatch to look at it when it does this I can see the throttle cable opening and closing the carburetor. It is about a 1 second surge and will continue to do this until the current load decreases. Any ideas????
 
How old are your spark plugs? If they are not brand new, I would try new plugs and see the problem goes away. Mine did the same thing a couple of years ago. I put in 2 new plugs and that took care of it.
 
Plugs - what year is your 320? I assume 2006 or older.
 
My Westerbeke will do this as well when it gets to the upper load limit. I just had it completely tuned. when it surges you can see the voltage fluctuate as well.
 
everthing's irie said:
I say plugs too. same thing happened to my 5kw kohler. Changed the plugs..problem solved
Click to expand...


If not the plugs, the next possible culprit could be the carb. I had the same problem on my 6.5. Changes plugs.. did not help. Took off carb and cleaned good. This fixed the problem.

Mike
 
Our 7.2 Westerbeke does this occasionally when fully loaded and not warmed up. Seems to go away after a bit of running though. I did change plugs a couple years ago and last year changed the oil in the govenor which I don't recall if it had any effect on the surging.
 
1 second? I am not sure that a change in speed when a new load is added that takes place over 1 second is really abnormal. If it happens repeatedly while under constant load, there might be a problem. Am I reading your post wrong.

My generator changes speeds for a moment when a new load is added or removed, I haven't ever seen a generator that didn't. If it does do it for more than a moment, you need to watch out running devices with circuit breakers. When the engine changes speed, the frequency of the current changes, and can fry sensitive devices. I have seen microwaves cooked by this (no pun intended).
 
The genset speed ramps up then down in one second intervals till the % load decreases. I bought the boat new two years ago so the generator has about 60-70 hours on it. I'll look at the plug this weekend and see if that makes a difference.
 
On that new of a generator I would think it would be fuel injected which should give you a lot less problems with fouled plugs than the old carburetor kind. Let us know if plugs help though.

John
 
Is it popping? When it surges? If so replace the plugs.
 
Bridog said:
FYI. My impeller had a blade broken and the spark plugs were shot after only 2 seasons and about 30 hours.
Click to expand...

Load it up when you turn it on (after 1 - 3 minute warm-up). They don't like to run without a load.
 
I just turn everything on with mine. Considering my boat only has 30 amp shore power. I figure I should be fine with everything on.
 
Everything, sort of. On the 340, there are two 30A connections to the shore. Same genny, though. I usually turn on the heat/AC, the Battery charger, and a few other small items. If the AC/heat isn't running, I'll turn on the water heater, and may do so anyway. I do not turn on the heat/AC, water heater, battery charger and microwave at the same time. We use a space heater in the cockpit in the winter. We don't run it and the microwave, or it and a hair dryer, or a curling iron.

Rules of thumb - only 1 major "Outlet" item at a time: Hair Dryer, Microwave, Space Heater, Curling Iron. Then, No outlet item with Stove and AC....
 
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