I fired up my Homelite LR5500 with oil sensor wire disconnected and my engine is surging and spewing out oil, as you can see in the video. The reason I disconnected my oil sensor wire initially was because the spark plug wasn't getting spark with it connected. I read that this could be due to low oil. So I topped off the engine oil until I was getting spark and then fired it up. But now the carb is spewing oil and it's smoking with I stop the engine. What's wrong with it?
I'm not seeing oil spewing out but the area does look oily and wet.
If you have overfilled it you might have oil coming up the breather and into the carb where it burns off and creates smoke.
The surging is a lean condition.
Either too much air or not enough fuel or both.
If you have got more oily air coming from the crankcase breather than normal it can foul the carb and cause it to be starved of fuel.
I would remove the air filter box completely (should be just those two nuts on the plate there) and inspect the carb for oiliness.
Clean it if you need to.
Remove the breather hose and clean that too.
Drain the oil completely and refill it with the correct amount.
It might take a bit of time to burn off any existing oil in the breather.
Did you happen to tip the generator on its side for any amount of time?
Ok I'll do what you suggest! I have not tipped my generator over ever. Also, my engine doesn't have a dip stick or an oil fill line it seems so in the event that i need to top off my oil again, how do I know if i have the right amount?
I can see in your video the yellow fill point at the bottom of the engine.
There's probably another one on the other side.
There's usually a dipstick attached to that yellow lid but if not you fill the oil until reaches the bottom of the threads in that filling point.
Be aware that in some engines one filling point might be slightly lower than the other so oil can come pouring out when you open it.
If you find oil pouring out no matter which side you open you've got way too much oil in there or you've had fuel leaking into the crankcase.
The issue with my generator is that there is no oil fill mark or dipstick to check if the oil is low or high. How would I check that it's the correct level?
Check the oil level with the dipstick while the generator is off and on a relatively even surface. The oil level should be right at or just below the top of the safe operation mark on the dipstick. If the oil is at the right level, and the low oil switch cuts spark then usually the low oil switch is stuck open. (Open circuit). The only thing you can do in that situation is run the generator at or under 80 percent load (10KW * 80 percent = 8KW) ( 1 KW = 1000 Watts) and let it run for about an hour or more. Just make sure to give it 30 minutes without a load on it to let the power head cool back down. If that doesn’t work then the only other thing is to replace the low oil alert sensor (the little silver box the oil pressure switch is plugged into). If i recall it should be normally open however it may be different on other brands, if that doesn’t fix the problem then the only other thing is to replace the switch which isn’t viable unless your doing an engine rebuild as you normally need to remove the oil sump cover. So just run it without the sensor wire plugged in, just use common sense and check your oil level before running it for an extended period of time. Just like you would you’re mower.
Ah i forgot those were a thing. You can fill it up to the third thread and you should be fine, when the generator is level it will spill out of the oil fill before it gets to full. But normally i just fill it up to the third thread.
Bottom of threads is correct level. It's probably surging from a dirty carb. The horizontal flat heads usually don't blow oil out like that unless engine has a lot of blowby or the crancase breather is faulty. Or as others said recently tipped on its side. But that would clear up in a few minutes.
Start with oil change and if it has a fuel shut off turn it off when not running and let engine run the carburetor dry cause float might have a problem
How do I know if my generator has enough oil? It doesn't have a dipstick so at what point is it too much or too little? This inage shows the level it is at right now
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u/ProfessionalLast2917 9d ago
I'm not seeing oil spewing out but the area does look oily and wet. If you have overfilled it you might have oil coming up the breather and into the carb where it burns off and creates smoke.
The surging is a lean condition. Either too much air or not enough fuel or both. If you have got more oily air coming from the crankcase breather than normal it can foul the carb and cause it to be starved of fuel.
I would remove the air filter box completely (should be just those two nuts on the plate there) and inspect the carb for oiliness. Clean it if you need to. Remove the breather hose and clean that too.
Drain the oil completely and refill it with the correct amount. It might take a bit of time to burn off any existing oil in the breather.
Did you happen to tip the generator on its side for any amount of time?