The factory rep told me that genset life is shortened by how many times it is started up and shut down. My oil consumption now is probably the result of the previous owners not loading the genset enough. Not loading the genset also causes reduced engine life. Having been in the generator business for many years I have a few comments to post. I would say that the average life span of a marine generator is about 5,000 hours. As a general rule they don't wear out, they blow up! This is usually the result of an impellor going bad and the rusty overheat switch failing or something similar. Exhaust systems not properly done is a huge problem leading to the generator choking it's self to death. I was on a sportfish yesterday that had just undergone a $750,000 refit, the exhaust on the brand new Onan had one 180 degree fiberglass bend and two 90 degree bends in addition to the muffler, not to mention the 20ft run to the transom. Any guesses on the lifespan of that puppy? The other side of the coin is the 137ft Perrini Navi that I did a valve job on one gen and a short block on the other, both with 28,000 hours. Generator loading is an issue as well. They like to be loaded at 80% and no less than 50%. The mega yacht solution is to have 2 smaller sets with auto paralleling or an auto load bank. The trawler crowd has the option of using a smaller gen in conjunction with an inverter that will parallel with the generator for peak shaving. Regards, Harris [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/bmp which had a name of e-mail logo.bmp]