Piston rings new generator will not seat, burns too much oil

[mtnmankev]

Sorry this isn't square related, but I need some advice.
Got a Predator inverter generator from HF, actually a good unit, quiet and very fuel efficient, but it is burning way too much oil due to the piston rings not seating.
Any ideas to help the process, or should i just return it under warranty ?

 

[SirRobyn0]

Hour many hours you have on it and what are you using for oil? With that info I'll tell you what I think.

 

[Blue Ox]

Plug in a bunch of hair dryers, hot plates, and any other resistance loads you have available. Load it to about 80% of capacity and run it for a few hours. If that doesn't seat the rings it's what you get when you buy Chinese.

 

[Salty Crusty]

Bon-Ami!!!

 

[mtnmankev]

I run Castrol GTX 10w30 in all my 4 stroke engines here, have had very good success with it.
At this point, probably have 100+ hours on it, mixture of light and heavier loads.
This is the second one I had, the first one ran perfect, used no oil, but the starter rope was finally ready to break but since it's such a PITA to replace the rope, and it was still under the extended year warranty, it got returned for a new one just before that year ran out.

 

[idahovette]

@Salty Crusty , that's exactly what my old friend Dave did to his 56 BelAire. Tired old 265, 3 speed 2 dr sedan(nice car). He would routinely pour a small amount of Bon-Ami straight down the carb while it was running. Cleaned it up for week at a time! But ya gotta know, Dave was a tight MF, never did do anything about it, just drove it til he got a year old 65 Coronet hardtop with a 426 wedge and a torqueflight for a song and the 56.

 

[Matt69olds]

If you have a warranty, I wouldn’t mess with it. Return it and let them troubleshoot it.

If you do get it replaced under warranty, I would run the new engine kinda hard for a couple hours (don’t abuse it, but don’t baby it) then change the oil. Monitor the oil consumption closely until your sure everything is good.

The worst thing you can do for ring seal is to baby the engine. Run a new engine gently just long enough to make sure nuts are going to stay on bolts, then work it normally.

 

[SirRobyn0]

@mtnmankev with over 100 hours on it would be getting it warrented if I were you

 

[mtnmankev]

It will get returned Friday.

 

[SirRobyn0]

It will get returned Friday.

Sorry I didn't say more earlier I was at work and all hell was breaking loose. Any how I have given heavy consideration to getting one of those myself so if you exchange again I'd like to know how it goes.

As for breaking in a small engine I've done a number a few on the farm, if it came with a break in oil I've used if not whatever I have on hand has gone in the crankcase, it's been started, checked for leaks and put into service. Nothing special at all. One such engine was put into a lawn tractor about 15 years ago, now this is not your average lawn tractor, it tows 6 foot box trailer, has chains and wheel weights on it that are never taken off. Trailer is mainly used to haul wood up to my house. As needed, about once a week or so, the trailer comes of and the blade goes on the front of it. The blade is used to scrape out the bird runs, this is done at full throttle and it's hard as hell on the tractor. I have had to weld braces on the front to keep the frame from spreading. My point is nothing really special was done to break the engine in, other than to use it, and it only this year has started burning oil. Of course I've changed it regularly, so I think your best bet is to try another unit, those generators have pretty good reviews online so hopefully you just got two bad units in a row and the third one will be good.

 

[Grit dog]

Bummer dude. Probably a long drive to return. At least it’s under warranty! Merry Xmas!
New generator

 

[mtnmankev]

Bummer dude. Probably a long drive to return. At least it’s under warranty! Merry Xmas!
New generator

It's a 120 mile round trip from my home, and the roads are worse than ever due to all the idiots moving here and zero road maintenance in the off grid environment.

 

[Salty Crusty]

Did you buy the standard or mosquito killer model?

Double check before you return, they won't give you money back on one that's performing as advertised....

 

[peats]

no need to run 10/30 unless you have startups in the 30 degree range or less. run 30w when you get a new genny.

 

[mtnmankev]

temps here run into the single digits at times, often in the teens.
The new gen runs good and doesn't smell like the last one did, I broke it in running it full speed for a few hours with varying loads before allowing it to run low speed for max fuel economy.