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| I would like to know where I stand on engine fuel efficiency for irrigation engines. I only have one diesel engine irrigation well and I've been trying to tweak a setup and engine to get the most bang for my fuel. Its a homemade power unit of an CAT 3116 engine out of an old school bus. I can't be for certain until I fill up again, but I might have been able to get it down to 4gph(or maybe a little less). I have 250 hours on it this season and the gauge is still showing over half a 2000 gallon tank. Years ago when I set the engine up for the first time I recorded 4.7 gph but it seemed to deteriorate over the years(poor record keeping and it wasn't tracked well since). Last year and injector went out mid-season and I had the repair shop do an over-head that was badly needed. I've installed a huge truck air filter. I lowered RPMs from 1900 to 1675.
I've thought about implementing a water cooler to cool the engine so I wouldn't have to run the engine fan, but thought it would probably be more trouble than it was worth. And it has an air-air pre-cooler, that I'd need an electric fan for, and to run when the pivot needed to walk dry. I don't know how much power it takes to turn a fan. But at night the viscous fan clutch isn't locked up with cool ambient temps, so its probably marginal. I'm kind of getting down to the law of diminishing returns. It'd take a lot of fuel saved to pay for all that, even @ 3.50/gallon
I'm pumping 900gpm and I think the pump is 120' down(don't know static water level) But originally they estimated my HP requirements to be 90hp.
So what is your most fuel efficient engine? GPM and how far do you have to lift the water?
What is your least fuel efficient engine?
Edited by 00rooster 7/28/2014 21:35
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Irrigation engine fuel efficiency contest
