Mangas Power Decreases Maintenance Costs by 72% with High Capacity Oil Pans
Not long ago, in a remote location, a service tech fights a cold and harsh environment to perform an oil change on an industrial generator. They have made the long drive to this remote location and performed this service 20 times already this year as the service intervals require 22 services per year. The service tech frustrated and cold contemplates how many generators his company uses and the miles burned up to keep up with the grueling maintenance schedule. He believes there has to be a better way.
Mangas Power asked this same question when looking for a way to improve their line of generators…………
Company Backgrounds:
Mangas Power: 
Mangas Power is an Oilfield engine supplier. Mangas Power builds Generators, Power Units and Irrigation systems using Industrial Engines that run on natural gas or propane. For over 40 years Mangas Power has designed and built systems to help their customers solve unique problems and reduce maintenance costs. Mangas Power boasts generations of engineering experience including engineering for the Ford motor company.
Canton Racing Products: Canton Racing Products is a high performance oiling and cooling products manufacturer. Since 1981 Canton has been designing and manufacturing oiling and cooling products for both racing and industrial applications. Canton has built a reputation through working with some of the most renowned companies in the automotive and industrial world. With over 30 years of experience working on the most challenging oiling and cooling situations, Canton is a leader in their field.
Product: 5.7L GM Engine.
The Problem: Due to the nature of the oilfield industry often times the Mangas Power units are in remote locations. These remote locations can also very often be in incredibly harsh environments. The environment is very rich in Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S). This H2S enters the engine through the air filter and is removed by the oil. In these harsh environments and strenuous operating conditions a proper engine maintenance schedule can prevent costly downtime and repair bills.With these units being spread out, most of the generator maintenance time was being spent traveling to the different units to perform the scheduled maintenance. The GM maintenance schedule for the 5.7L engine calls out a 20 day service interval. This 20 day service interval works out to approximately 400 hours or 9,000 miles. This grueling maintenance schedule was not only costly but also difficult to maintain without falling behind. Beyond just the cost of the maintenance of the actual field units is the mileage added to the service trucks that travel to these locations. While the maintenance of these engines is crucial to obtain the efficiency and life cycle required, the schedule and cost proved to be a legitimate problem.
The Solution: Mangas Power contacted Canton Racing Products to produce a large capacity custom oil pan to use with the 5.7L engine. With minimal clearance requirements in the Mangas Power set up Canton was able to increase the capacity of the oil pan by extending down and to the sides. (To see how oil capacity affects the engines operation click here). The oil pan's final design provided 2 0qts of capacity, four times the 5 qt stock capacity. This increase in capacity allowed Mangas to extend their service interval from the 16 days to 75 days. That is a 450% increase in their service interval. This service interval translates to 81,000 miles instead of the original 9,000 miles!
This increase in capacity allowed Mangas to extend their service interval by 450%
The Results: The increased generator oil pan capacity has eased the maintenance schedule burden along with saving Mangas Power's customers money. The average cost of an oil change in a field unit is $300. Using the larger capacity pan from Canton Racing Products the yearly oil change rate went from 22/year down to 6.2/year (See Service Interval Graph Below).
This is a yearly savings of $4,740 per field unit. This savings is thanks to the affect the larger oil capacity has on the rate of oil breakdown and the resulting extension of oil life. In the case of the Mangas Power engines, which operate in a H2S rich environment, the extension of oil life was additionally affected by the improved dilution rate of the H2S. When engine maintenance causes disruptive downtime or costs are significant like they were for Mangus Power, an extra capacity oil system is a solution worth considering.