Hi all,
Well I finished swapping over parts from my old Kubota diesel (EL300-AR) to the engine bought earlier this week (EA300-N). While these engines are very similar they are not identical. The "new" engine had a larger injector bore than mine (one I bought did not have injector) so I just swapped out the head from my old engine. I'm reusing the head gasket with several coats of the copper spray stuff on block, head and gasket. I know it may fail, but I had to try. While the head was off I saw NO ring groove wear and the was NO slop in the wristpin or lower end. Also the "new" engine has a small PM alternator in the cooling fan that is supposed to put out 10A @ 12V. The oil dipstick was not the same either, but my old one has a better grip so I'm using that. The fuel tank is now gone as I have a 5Gal can already set up with inline filter and lines. I also reused the intake from the dead engine because the "new" one had some sort of priming pump that complicated the fuel line routing considerably. This engine has hand cranking capability the other engine lacked. That might be a big plus if the batteries go too low. The exhaust from the "new" engine is gone and replaced with my custom setup from the old engine. (Huge muffler from Caddy and oversized pipe out the side of my power house way up high and pointed away from the house).
After priming the fuel pump, hooking up the electrical and making sure coolant and oil were right I set about starting the little beast. I cranked it for about 15 seconds with the compression released to get oil back into areas that might have dried out from sitting around and to work air out of the injector line. With that done it took less than 2 complete turns and the little oil burner was popping! No glow plug use required so the compression must be good.
I ran it for about 10 minutes to let things warm up and then slowly brought the speed up. My old engine never seemed to have a good governer response but this one sure does! I opened it to full throttle and tried the alternator loading. When the engine first "saw" the load it sped up a little then settled right back down nicely. My old engine would just speed up and black smoke would boil from the exhaust. This one doesn't smoke blue or black with that load. This engine has no rattling or unexpected knocks. Oh sure it makes some common diesel sounds, but nowhere near as noisy overall as the GX160 Honda (5.5HP). I saw no fuel, coolant or oil leaks and a restart test when it was warmed up was instant.
I would say I am very happy with the deal I got and with the engine too. The guy selling these is a real nice man, also living off grid, and I plan on going back for another. At his price I can't afford not to. No, I'm not getting a deal on another for posting this nor am I selling these for him. I'm just very pleased and think anyone in need of a small diesel engine might look at this as a bargin. Oh, if you need a log spillter or other hydro application these come with a pump attached. I removed the pump from this engine and replaced it with the belt pulley from the old engine. I now may set the Honda up to run a splitter, as we heat with wood. Conversely I may sell the Honda and buy another one of these for a splitter. This is one of the best deals I've had come my way in a LONG time. Heck, I paid $300 for the Honda and thought that was a deal, and I paid #250 for this "new" engine as it lacked some parts like the injector and a few other minor things gone.
Link to retail and specs here for 300 series engines:
http://www.southeasternpower.com/easeries.htm
Link to eBay listing of "new" engine here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Kubota-Diesel-Engine-6-5-HP-motor-Water-cooled-Elec-st_W0QQitemZ170010018970QQih
Z007QQcategoryZ11754QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
RogerAS
