Sharing a silencer between Prop & Genset

[Eastern]

Has anyone any experience with sharing a silencer between the propulsion engine & a genset?

 

I want to use a hospital silencer for both, but as I don't want to run both engines at the same time, I reckon it must be possible to share the silencer - thus saving space and cost.

 

Both engines would be diesel engines with dry exhausts. Could I just connect the exhausts together with a 'Y' piece. or perhaps a simple flap valve to seperate them?

 

All help appreciated!

 

East

[denboy]

yes brother in laws is done like that

[Gary Peacock]

You could do it but it's not accepted to be a good practise by the engine and generator manufacturers.

[Gibbo]

My exhaust produces soot particles and all sorts of other cr*p. Would it be a good idea for that go get blown into the cylinders of another engine via its open exhaust valves?

 

Gibbo

[Ernie]

My exhaust produces soot particles and all sorts of other cr*p. Would it be a good idea for that go get blown into the cylinders of another engine via its open exhaust valves?

 

Gibbo

Agreed, the black, oily, sooty crap that comes out of my (fairly new – 600 hours on the clock) Honda diesel generator is unbelievable. As Gibbo says, I wouldn’t want that being pumped into my engine.

[denboy]

hence the flappy valve on the engine side of the exhaust

[BEngo]

I share a silencer box between generator and engine. I don't have a flappy non-return valve but use a lever valve in the exhaust to so the engine cr@p is not being blown into the generator. (The engine produces loads of Scottish crap of its own so it can stand a bit extra from the generator.) The whole thing is plumbed in 2 inch black iron water pipe so when the valve in its exhaust is shut the generator, (a 15 HP Italian thing) won't start because of the back-pressure. This reminds me to open the exhaust valve! The noise characteristics between the 3000 rpm generator and the 1000 rpm engine are somewhat different so I have an extra silencer which can replace the tall pipe when running the genny. That ensures everything is not anti- social.

 

I have never tried running both engine and generator at the same time.

 

The engine and generator also share a skin tank, so the water piping is similarly valved. Beware that a skin tank is not ideal for a generator though because they are less effective when standing still and so need to be larger than for a similar size engine. since I rarely need the whole 6 KvA from the genny it doesn't seem to be unhappy.

 

N

[Ernie]

hence the flappy valve on the engine side of the exhaust

Makes more sense, you never mentioned anything about a 'valve' in your original post.

Edited to correct the mistakes my keyboard made in the ordering of the letters in my post....

Edited July 21, 2008 by Ernie

[Eastern]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

So if we are agreed that it is a good idea to fit a valve, I think that an automatic one like a flap valve would be best (less chance of a cock up!). Are these available commercially, and where can I get one - or indeed two?

 

East

[Eastern]

Thinking about it further..... If the exhaust pipes were of sufficient lenghth (whatever that might be) then the exhaust gasses would have to compress the gas in the pipe before they could enter any cylinder of an engine. Isn't this unlikely when there is a lower pressure path via the silencer?

 

East

[DHutch]

I know at JCB our DAV* has its front mounted genset exhasting up the same over cab exhast pipe, they have there own silencer, but as far as i know no valves, and i have seen them both running together.

 

 

 

*Data aquirsition veihcal

 

 

Daniel

[denboy]

Makes more sense, you never mentioned anything about a 'valve' in your original post.

Edited to correct the mistakes my keyboard made in the ordering of the letters in my post....

see original post no 1