How bad are the Tier 4 small diesel engines?

RonA

RonA

Active member
Looking at some small generators and anything new has to have the tier 4 stuff that everyone complains about. Does it shorten the life of the motor, or just drain the users wallet every couple of years with replacement and repairs? Looking at something like the 50 hp Kubota or Perkins engine.
 
I am a dealer mechanic for CAT and our lawn/garden small tier 4 motors (perkins 2.2l) are pretty trouble free and use a passive regeneration system. Other than early generation head problems that were solved, they are quite robust for the abuse they take.

The regeneration muffler doesn't adversely effect the engine, and i have yet to see EGR on anything smaller than a 3.8L CAT engine. When regen is needed, the engine just needs to be up at operating temp and it ads heat to the exhaust stream with post injection events (IIRC). most times in the skid steer, its its being used, it keeps itself clear.
 
Have you considered an air cooled Deutz engine? One less system to maintain is all I'm thinking.

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Central Maine Diesel has a couple different models that I like. If I can get the Generac running and sold, they would be the place to look.
 
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Biggest thing with the tier 4 emissions gensets is to make sure that you load them hard to burn the emissions out of the system. If you are only using them to under 70% capacity they will build up and have issues. We are running one at work for our office trailers, every 1500 machine hours they come out and load bank it by putting some monster electric heaters on it and run it at 105% of capacity for about 30 minutes. Ours is running 24/7, they said that if it was used sparatically they would come and load bank it more often so that the particles do not sit in it.
 
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Engine wet stacking and dpf soot load are two separate issues. On a cat gen. the owner can trigger a manual regen. to keep the dpf clear, but that doesn't help the engine if it's been run unloaded for a while. The wet stacking is what the load bank is for. It's sometimes difficult to diagnose wet stacking since the evidence in the exhaust is burned up in the aftertreatment and any excessive blowby gets run back into the intake now.
 
06 DIESEL said:
Biggest thing with the tier 4 emissions gensets is to make sure that you load them hard to burn the emissions out of the system. If you are only using them to under 70% capacity they will build up and have issues. We are running one at work for our office trailers, every 1500 machine hours they come out and load bank it by putting some monster electric heaters on it and run it at 105% of capacity for about 30 minutes. Ours is running 24/7, they said that if it was used sparatically they would come and load bank it more often so that the particles do not sit in it.
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Sounds just like trucks that run PTO’s. Fuel trucks are the worst. Spend most of their time idling and never get hot enough to burn and can’t idle up to regen.
 
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