Seems to be working well, the MX60 is the limiting factor at present but 60A is pretty respectable.  Be interesting to see how the specific fuel consumption changes with load. I doubt that you are loosing much economy by running under full load.

Not sure how those engines work out, Listers were not at the top of the list for fuel economy and I have no idea what has been changed on these copies. Certainly you will do far better than a belt driven conventional wound field alternator.

I get you are burning a gallon of fuel every 4 hours or so. Diesel is ~135k BTU a gallon - so heat rejection is that, less exhaust heat,less electrical production ...

And, the size radiator he used looks to be the size used on 30hp tractors. I think it is within the abilities of the radiator.I think a heater core would work.

It should still run fairly cool at this low of an input voltage.

Hi Roy -

'Yes i agree Dan. I will measure fuel consumption soon.'

Im curious to hear your results....  Im going to do that with my steam engine this week I think.

'The radiator Im using is a cast iron radiator. It measures roughly 24" wide, 24" tall and 6 " deep.  The coolant volume (including the lines) is roughly 3.25 gallons. Im using EG (50% water) for coolant. It works well. It might be slightly overkill for what Im doing, but further experimentation brings more power output so Im sure its suited well. Im sure it would work fine in your case.'

I'm surprised such a small one does the job - nice to hear.  I have a tiny one like that but didn't think it was big enough and got a much larger one.  Ill likely try the small one first now.  Im going to install it in the shop/try to capture a little heat.

'Im only getting 1.6kw max. This is because the MX60 will limit near 1600watts. Short of custom designing an MPPT from scratch that will handle 120A @ 28v, this is what im stuck with. plenty of room to play around. 2 MX's could be used if there was some isolation done in the stator. Maybe if it was wound for 6 phase, but split at the neutral (2 x 3 phase). This would allow for feeding of 2 MX's without coupling of the input. You CANNOT COUPLE THE INPUT of the MPPT controllers. boB when you coming out with the Classic!!???  (hehe)'

What you're doing seems to work well but I have to question the logic in using the MX60 in this application.  It seems like - if you get the alternator right.. there would be no room for improvement using an MPPT controller (and they're expensive and they limit you to 60 amps).  

'Im sure even with 1.6kW out, it will rival most generators in good fuel consumption.'

Yes, I expect you are running quite efficiently.   The thing that will be hard to get over is the simple fact that it's a fairly antique design with pretty low compression - I don't think the listeroids are quite as efficient as a lot of newer engines.  Theyre not bad though.

 'I can run it forever at 1.6kW and the stator will stay ice cold.'

Yes, mine is that way too.  Last time I ran it it was not 'ice cold' but it was about 90 deg if I recall.  (it was about 40 - 50 outside)

 'I have slightly more copper than you, but it is of a bigger guage (#14 x 4 in hand). Im running into the MX at approx 72 VOC and when in operation, it drops to 62v under load. Again, the caps help take out the ripple.'