1983 monaco has sat for 6 years. 6.5 propane onan, ideas for startup?

[vic n min]

Hi everyone!

GREAT site! Such a vast amount of knowledge here! I searched for a specific thread covering startup of a propane generator, but could not find one.... so here goes.

I just bought a 1983 34'(ish) monaco and the previous owner(s) let it sit for 4-6 years here in the arizona desert. It was originally bought here in AZ too so no rust issues. Brakes need major work, I know already. It has a factory LP powered onan 6.5 genset with 350 hours on the clock at the control panel (if it still works). I can only assume it has not been started in 6 years but know it's been a minimum of 2. I plan on changing the oil, filters and plugs... anything specific to the propane that I should do? I have brought back a bunch of gas motors from the dead but propane is a different animal...

I will be going over this rig from front to back and top to bottom over the next 2 months preparing to live full time in it. I will change every filter, oil and fluid and perform a major service and inspection to every component - I am very mechanically adept and have the means to tackle just about anything on her. I will use the checklists provided here to double check what I already am going to do.

That being said, I sure would like to hear some tips and tricks from the people here! It is on a chevy P30 chassis, 454/allison combo that were both replaced in 2002 or 2004 by a dealer at around 20,000 miles and the whole chassis now has just over 40,000 on it.

Hopefully I will be able to lend some of my knowledge/advice to you folks in the future as well!

Thanks!

Vic

 

[sadavis80]

Vic,
I don't have a lot of experience with LP generators, but their 'claim to fame' is that they can be left for YEARS and still fire up ready to go.  They don't have the carb clogging issues of gas and they don't have the oil contamination problems of diesels.  It sounds like you're making all the right decisions for getting it ready ... tho you might want to see if you can turn it over a couple of times by hand - and it wouldn't be a bad idea to squirt some light oil in the spark plug holes before doing that.
Good luck and enjoy,
Steve

 

[vic n min]

thanks! I was hoping that was the case with the propane, glad to hear they have some "claim to fame", all I could find was how people hated how much LP they used lol.

I planned on squirting the cylinders with WD-40 when I changed the plugs and turning it over many times by hand. Then I was going install new batteries and crank it over with the new fluids, no propane and the plugs removed for 30 seconds or so to let it build up some oil pressure. Then put the plugs in, ad propane and try to start her up.

I will try to post my progress and take pics along the way so I can hopefully ad some valuble info to the archives here