diesel engine black smoke

Dear Kamal kat, Well a hate to answer you in a question, but like horses one needs to be facing the right end to figure it out. So is it possible Wet-Stacking was not considered a maintenance aspect and this unit is in poor shape.....At the other end electric loading is not the cause, but instead an effect?

Sounds like the engine is loaded,or overloaded, a little more information is required

Did the genset trip on reverse power,

Did it stay on the buss

Voltage, frequency, Kw, KVARs Power factor under load

number of sets, total normal load is the load balanced between sets(load sharing problem)

was it first or last on line and maybe some off line readings

Dear Kamal-Kat,

This is not due electrical loading but an effect. This may be due to

(1) Sudden overload (2) Clogged air filter (3) Less fuel supply for the load

(4) Chocked up fuel filters (5) Faulty timing of injectors etd.

Manroop.Chennai.

most probably the black smoke is caused by the following problems.

1- clogged return fuel pipe and the engine is flooded with unburnt fuel.

2- timing.

3- faulty load sharing, over loads the engine suddenly.

you have to test the volt and frequency simultaneously. if the frequency drops before the voltage then the cause is in the fuel pump or overload if the voltage drops first then look for a faulty AVR (automatic volatge regulator)

Yours was the first properly formulated reply. The ones before you walked around it with actually hitting it!

I give you a GA for that....

Having read the replies after you I can categorically say that yours was THE ONLY CORRECT answer in the whole blog!!

Black smoke indicate that the engine is overloaded or the air cleaner is dirty or may be the fuel line is cloged replace the fuel filter . when the engine RPM drops the voltage also drops

air cleaner dirty or leaking injector

Yes dad, your right it is incomplete combustion, also in cases of less than ideal starting, some black smoke is not unexpected.

I do not know why #5 got a GA he has mixxed up a carberated engine with a diesel engine. Diesel engines get a full shot of air per cycle where as carbs do not except at full throttle the fuel ratio for a gas engine is for the most part stable 14.7to 1 a diesel engine can very from 0 fuel ( an engine idling down ) to 3or 4 to 1 fuel ratio ( an engine that has had poor maint. and is working at high throttle). high rev no load can be somewhere around 1000 to 1 a plugged fuel filter will restrict flow and cause it to react as if you were backing off on the throttle ( not smoke black ) a plugged air filter or improper governor setting are most common causes of black smoke

Black smoke from a diesel or a petrol engine just means that the fuel to air ratio is wrong. It means that too much fuel is being burnt with too little air.....

No more, no less.

He therefore earned his GA for that point alone as he was I believe the first to mention this.

I'm not sure if we have a clear picture of the situation, it almost sounds like there is a load change on one engine, does it continuously smoke, like I asked earlier does it stay on the buss, whats the metering say, and when they say smoke is it a plume of smoke. What does it do unloaded, what does the lube oil look like, is there crankcase pressure, how does the engine start.