Zanshin I Fischer Panda 5000 LPE Generator Problems

Fischer Panda LPE5000

The top blade of this impeller has broken off and was causing the reduced water flow through the genset.

Broken impeller

The impeller cover and old impeller from the Fischer-Panda genset aboard Zanshin I

Broken impeller removed

The new exhaust elbow is sitting on top of the generator, still in it's plastic wrapping.

Fischer-Panda generator

This morning I turned my attention to the Fischer Panda generator, deciding to replace the impeller first. This turned out to be a good decision, as one of the blades was missing as can be seen in the pictures below. The work went faster than the previous time, but is still rather arduous since it is difficult to get at. This was yet another opportunity for me to use the Band-Aids in the medical kit before their expiry date.

Once the impeller was replaced and the through-hull for the cooling water turned I pressed the starter button on the generator, expecting it fire up and chug away immediately as it had always done in the past. Unfortunately, after 10 seconds of turning the starter motor over nothing happened. I had the enclosure open and was surprised to see a small wisp of smoke escaping from the side and also smelled diesel fuel. Thankfully, I have a digital camera with close-up function and could get a view below and behind the cooling water reservoir and was surprised to see that the exhaust elbow seemed to be perforated. Although this doesn't explain the starting issues I realized that this was serious and needed attention and replacement.

I spoke with Electec in St. Martin and the new mixing elbow has been ordered and is on it's way to the Caribbean, so my next destination will be St. Martin in order to get this fixed.

Update 11/12/2009The part that should have arrived several days ago finally arrived and the technician from Electec came aboard in order to replace it for me. After almost 2 hours of work he told me the bad news - it was a much bigger job than expected and we would need to lift out the generator somehow in order to get at the elbow and the bolts to which he currently has no access. It is beginning to seem that Fischer Panda detractors might have some reason - this is the most common problem on generators of any manufacture and it makes little engineering sense to make that replacement a major process requiring several hours for people and necessitating removing the generator from the housing! I now need to spend a couple more days here in St. Martin - while it is a pretty place I did not consider it a destination but just a port to stop at. I will have been here a whole week of my vacation just for shopping, provisioning and repairing the boat. At least the food is great.
Update 14/12/2009 David was supposed to show up at 10:00. Shortly before noon I e-mailed Elected asking where he could be and after 13:00 I received a response that he was sick. Then they told me that they couldn't pull anyone off work today or tomorrow to work on my boat and in any case another part would need to be ordered from Germany and air shipped here. All of this in decidedly conciliatory tone. I am giving up on Electec and sailing to the BVI in the hopes that I will get better service there.
The generator is partially taken apart and I will have to reconnect the exhaust hoses to ensure I have continued hull integrity during the crossing. I'm not a happy camper at the moment and will surely really lose it once I get the bill for labor from Electec.
Despite several mails to Electec asking them for the part number that still needs to be ordered for the generator I haven't gotten a single response back; which is rather a childish method indeed considering what has transpired so far. I did see that my credit card got charged for the mixing elbow but haven't received an electronic bill yet; but I think that the charge was just for the elbow plus freight and not for the 2 hours labor - which would go a long way in ameliorating my issues with them if that were the case.

This broken exhaust elbow corroded through due to hot exhaust gases and boiling/steam salt water.

Leaky exhaust elbow

The side view of the Fischer-Panda mixing elbow on my old LPE5000 genset on Zanshin I

Genset mixing elbow

Fischer Panda control panel

Update 2010-05-02. I had contracted with Tim Dabbs at Marine Maintenance Services to replace the elbow for me and they had done so during my absence. Unfortunately, the work had been difficult as the screw heads had been stripped by the previous attempt and they had had to cut off the heads and drill out the screws in order to complete the project. To make things worse, the coolant connector had leaked upon reassembly and by the time I was there the whole coolant was in the enclosure and generator bilge area, making a miserable mess. This bright green mixture of antifreeze and water alone wasn't too bad, but a significant amount of diesel had leaked as well so the resultant concoction was pretty miserable and I spent a lot of time and several bags of rags to try to get it out.
I still couldn't get the engine started but Tim came by shortly before I left and he thinks it is most likely the either the valves malfunctioning (which would be a good thing) or the rings being shot (bad thing). The engine has fuel going to it and sucks in air, but won't fire. As seen in the pictures below, the exhaust manifold was almost completely blocked with buildup and that explains the generator's low output and could have caused blowback issues which in turn caused other problems which now keep the engine from working.
We decided that I would wait until the boat is returned to storage to remove the engine and send it to Compton Marine for repairs. I'll do without the generator this trip, as I still have 750 liters of water capacity and upgraded the alternator to supply more electrical power. But it is frustrating to have an expensive toy on board which doesn't work. I'm worried that my desalinator will have problems as well, as I won't run it when hooked up to shore power (due to contaminated water in marinas) and thus can only use it with a functioning generator.

The corroded and clogged mixing elbow on Zanshin I. The Fischer-Panda LPE5000 had additional problems at the time, but luckily it was repairable.

Fischer Panda corroded elbow

The corroded and clogged old mixing elbow for the Fischer-Panda LPE5000 gneset aboard Zanshin I.

Genset corrosion

Clogged exhaust on Fischer-Panda