Hi folks, I have a good one for you. I'm replacing the old Onan engine in a Rounder 600 skid with a Predator (Harbor Freight) V-twin. I've had to do some mods like the shaft coupler, raising the engine, fabricating exhaust, stuff like that. My issue today is though, that I found out the Predator has a tilt spec of 15 degrees. As in, don't operate this engine past a tilt of 15 degrees, or oil pressure will go away. Of course that makes sense to me. Also of course, I can't find a similar spec for the Onan. I'd like to believe they're similar. I mean those engines oil pickups seem similar, so it stands to reason that spec would be similar. What I'm asking is, does anyone know for sure? Does anyone know of the old Onans had a "tilt" spec? I think I'm going to install an oil pressure switch and have it power a light or buzzer or something to alert the operator if pressure goes away. Thanks!
Won't the low oil level sensor shut the engine off if it's tilted too much?
It does have a low oil shutoff, but the sensor is on one side of the crankcase. So, the engine could tilt one way and be fine, and the other way, hit the shutoff. If I do a buzzer or light or something like it, I might disconnect the low oil sensor. I dunno - I’m still figuring out how I’m going to handle it.
Long term update: I installed the harbor freight engine a few months ago, and it's running fine. What I did was install an oil pressure switch I got from Summit Racing into the oil galley. There's an allen wrench plug right near the oil filter that I installed that switch into, and I wired that to a backup alarm I installed under the seat. So, whenever the key is on, and there is less than 5psi of oil pressure, that alarm goes off. I was mostly worried about how much I would tilt the thing while loading / unloading on a trailer, but doing that never became an issue. The guy did find out that engine burns oil, and you gotta check it a couple times a day if you're running it all day, but as long as he does, oil pressure stays good, and that engine stays running. It's not a bad engine if you pay attention to it, but I gotta believe it won't survive neglect at all.
I know nothing about the v-twin, but in 2010 Harbor Fakes had a big sale on Predator engines. I bought a 13 and two 6.5s for me, two 6.5s for my brother, and one 6.5 hp for my father. All those engines have been neglected and abused, and they are still running.