What have you done to prep this week?

[dragon5126]

I found a 5000w/6250w surge generator on Craigslist yesterday. Checked it out today, used but functions perfectly. 120/240v with circuit breakers on all 4 plugs and a wheel kit.
I picked it up for $225. It also came with a 25' 10/2 w ground with a box that connects directly to our camper.
Down side is that it is very LOUD! I am very open to ideas on how to quite it down even a little. Upside, it's gonna help me get the chicken coop put together quicker, we'll have a genset for the camper should we need to boondock sometime. And if needed we have power for our freezers and fridge for a period.

First and foremost is what is the physical size of the gennie (not rating)and can you post a pic? Secondly, what type of motor is on it? It is always possible to replace the muffler with something bigger and quieter but you have to becareful that you dont end up burning the exhaust valve(s) depending on what you do. Be careful about putting any kind of shroud around it. Overheating the genset itself, can destroy the windings and you are stuck with a motor that runs bit no electricity. A "friend" did yhat with one of my small generators. Now I have spare parts for a machine I dont have.

[bacpacker]

First and foremost is what is the physical size of the gennie (not rating)and can you post a pic? Secondly, what type of motor is on it? It is always possible to replace the muffler with something bigger and quieter but you have to becareful that you dont end up burning the exhaust valve(s) depending on what you do. Be careful about putting any kind of shroud around it. Overheating the genset itself, can destroy the windings and you are stuck with a motor that runs bit no electricity. A "friend" did yhat with one of my small generators. Now I have spare parts for a machine I dont have.

It's roughly 18x18x24 give or take a little. Has a 10hp B & S engine.
I assume you can run a longer muffler/same diameter without much problem but you can't close the diameter without burning issue's in the valve train. I guess what I'm tryin to say, Don't increase the back pressure too much?
The surround I was thinking about was just a tall set of walls to direct the sound upward as opposed to out. Not sealing it off.

[dragon5126]

not enough pressure can burn valves on a small enginge being run for long periods of time worse than too much which just chokes off the flow of air through the mill. All internal combustion engines are, is just air pumps, so they work best when they move the most air (within reason). Brigs engines are easy to quiet down with different mufflers but take a bit of welding to make the adaptors to make... They use basic pipe threads to mount the mufflers so all you really need to do is find a small car muffler and make a mount for it to fit on the Gennies frame, make a heat shield for it and the pipe you need to route up to the exhaust outlet of the motor and mount it up. the trick is to transition to about 1 7/8'' exhaust pipe asap out of the motor. A muffler from a SMALL 4 cyl car or even any multi cylinder motor such as a quiet cycle should take care of the rest better than an actual small engine muffler, as small engine mufflers are really just spark arrestors.