Onan Drip Pan Replacement

Probably to avoid having to answer the question CrackerD had. Sort of like the Deli that puts a pound of meat on your sandwich so they won't be accused of being cheap. Meanwhile half the meat gets thrown out along with the longevity of the under-loaded gen.
Btw, I keep hearing of the smaller gen being referred to as the "back up" gen. It's not. It's the low load gen and should be used on a regular basis when you don't have your big draws turned on. Motors don't like not being run.

In all my years, I have NEVER had to replace a generator from being under loaded. Never had one live a short lifespan due to load. Here in South Florida I've seen plenty of the smaller gens having issues and leading a very short life span from never being run because they were too small to be useful. The only times I've had to replace or rebuild generators was either very high hours, or catastrophic failure from something like the exhaust riser leaking salt water into the motor.

I tore down an Onan trade in (around 20 kw) many years ago. With less than 1000 hours it looked near new.
Took forever to start and smelled when running.
Poor genny just ran a refrigerator and small water heater when in operation.
Amazing what we found when the head was removed.
The exhaust passage in the head and exhaust manifold were near completely clogged with black, gooey exhaust carbon.
Wearing a full leather welding suit and helmet, I used a cutting torch to burn this goo out of the head and manifold.
Let me tell you about strange flame patterns and lava flows coming out of the manifold. Ug, and the mess it made.

Started and ran like a champ after cleaning up and lapping the valves in a little.

I understood the trade in was for a newer set at half the kw.

crackerD

Seems we are running away with your thread, are we of any help?
Were we of any help?
Were your questions answered?
What did you decide on your path?

Either extremes are bad. Running with 30 to 40% load will be far better than always running near 90%.

In most boats, especially south, you almost always have some air con running plus what ever else is needed. I ve never had to worry about the gen being too lightly loaded... but I ve had to run the second one for a few hours a day with a full house

Using my example in post #24, That would be less than 5% load. Cylinder and head temps/pressures never had a chance to come up.

On our boat, with washer, dryer, full sized stove-oven, 2 water makers, 3 A/C raw pumps, 6 A/C compressors, full sized fridge, chest freezer, dual element 30 gal water heater, air compressor then the little things; It takes the 30 to run all while in the islands on full loads.
When we just do an overnight local by ourselves, running one or 2 A/Cs, the 9 does great.
On those perfect nights, the inverter.
North FL, south GA does have some real hot days, but more nicer days than south FL and the islands.
Were on inverter most times while traveling.
Yes, this takes a little thought but works for us.

The older Hatt 74 we work on has new 20 & 12kw gennys. One, the other or both are available pending guest / loads on board.
While he transits, he also can open the new windows for the helm, galley up and saloon. No inverter yet but the lower cabins are cool running on the 12.
This model has the hallway between the engine rooms. Lower A/Cs are best left running down here.

Another newer Hatt 72 we worked on has no open window ventilation. He runs a single 20 mostly and with full boat, needs both of his 20s.

All this text just shows, pending the boat, owner and load management; different generator options makes sense for different installations and owners.

The OP has that smaller (real low hour) gen-set he may have never thought about using. Probably why the condensation (IMO) has rusted out the tray. 11.5kw should run that boat half of the time easily.

If the OP was to consider getting a new gen-set, we have demonstrated lots of possibilitys in the next set up.

With that news let me repeat my earlier question: Is there a reason the OP couldn't just slide a slightly smaller pan inside the old or even just float resin into the pan to seal it?

That must be tight engine room.
Can you send some pictures of the area around the gen-set.
What else is in the $5k?

island engineer fix it like nycap is suggesting, or put a brand new generator in. I wouldn’t spend $5k fixing just the pan on an old generator.

@#$% that! I would just line the old pan with some heavy duty Reynolds Wrap!

But really a new pan made a bit smaller or larger should be able to be slid under the generator.

If the generator is right below a floor hatch, it could be lifted with chain hoist from above a few inches the get the new pan under.