Help!! Why does my propane engine keep shutting down?!
One of our customers recently called us regarding a power problem with his propane grinder.
It seemed as if there was no power going to the engine. Whenever he would begin to grind, the engine dropped its RPMs and ran sluggishly. The emission light would eventually come on and the engine would shut down.
He tried everything he knew to remedy the problem, but still no improvement. As a last resort, he called our mechanical technician, Ryan T, to see if he knew what to do.
After pondering the problem together for several minutes, Ryan suddenly had an idea. The customer had mentioned earlier that the propane’s shipping container had shown some damage to the top of the box.
Ryan suggested maybe the air intake wasn’t working properly. He asked the customer if the plastic cap that sits on top of the air intake chimney was inverted. In other words, was the cap sitting flush to the top of the chimney?
The customer looked and reported it definitely was!
Somehow during transportation, the cap was pushed down and became stuck in an invert position. Since the cap was not allowing any air to flow into the engine, the engine would choke and eventually shut off. The solution was to pull the cap back into its original, extended form and place on top of the chimney. Problem solved, thanks to Ryan T!!