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Steve56

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Posts posted by Steve56

  1. 17 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

    From an earlier (1999) Master Parts List/

     

     

     

    Screenshot (2445).png

     

     

    Yes they had two different versions on marine engines :

     

     

     

    Screenshot (2446).png

    The early marine engines used a Lucas starter motor. Originally there was a choice of isulated or earth return. Lucas then stopped supplying the insulated starter hence the use of the twin 4ST solenoids when insulated earth was required. Moving on to later engines Lucas stopped supplying starters altogether so Lister moved over to using Nippon Denso starter motors. These later starters can be fitted to earlier engines with no other modification to the engine.

    • Greenie 3
  2. 14 hours ago, Eeyore said:

    Curious that it has a pipe (usually for a gauge) on a fitting behind the sender.

    Probably worth following the pipe and wire to see where they end up. Might be an oil temperature gauge sender?

    IMG_0084.jpeg

    What you have there looks to be a VDO oil pressure sender. That pipe will be the feed pipe. Can't see exactly what engine you have, but if it is a SR engine the pipe will run to the forward end of the fuel pump housing. If an ST engine then it will run around to just above the oil filter on the crankcase door. Both of these engines would have originally used a mechanical gauge if ordered as an extra from Lister.

  3. I can quite safely say that. During my time as a Lister Petter engineer I visited the Sabb factory in Bergen to assist them with the engine. Also as a lifeboat it is necessary to be able to run the engines out of the water for short periods, hence they would be 100% keel cooled. As the photo shows the engine is fitted with a dry exhaust.

    • Greenie 2
  4. 1 hour ago, Peugeot 106 said:

    Another thing I’d check if it’s had seawater cooling is the exhaust manifold. I’ve seen one off a lifeboat that looked fine until it was cleaned up when it was discovered that corrosion had got the inside of it and it leaked when pressure tested. It was seawater cooled I think and the seawater was piped into the exhaust after the manifold.   I’m not sure how long or under what conditions it had been stored after being taken off the life boat. Yours is probably fine but I thought I’d mention it.

    Around 50 years ago I worked on semi submersible drilling rigs (wildcat wells)  in the North Sea and we once took a lifeboat out for a spin. It was absolutely terrifying. The worst bit was being winched back on board. It’s a long way down and even further back up when it kept swinging into the rig leg resulting in a hole in the lifeboat

    The engines were started on compressed air stored in bottles on the boat in case electric starters sparked and BOOM….i presume they had flame arrestors in the exhaust. Happy days and very happy money!

     

    This engine would have been keel cooled so no worries about corrosion.

    5 hours ago, David Mack said:

    What's the connection between Lister Petter and Sabb? Did Sabb market LP engines in Norway?

    (And note its Sabb - one 'a' and two 'b's that make marine engines and Saab that used to make cars).

    Not really much of a connection. Sabb would purchase a marinised engine from Lister Petter and then carry out various modifications to make it suitable for lifeboat use.

  5. 1 hour ago, Francis Herne said:

    R W Davis at Saul Junction?

    Well respected yard and they've built a wide variety of Dutch-style barges.

    One issue would be no route to the Thames (except via Land's End!)

    I would second that. They have built a number of barges as well as many other styles of boat over the years. The quality of there steelwork is excellent. Dependent on size should be able to go across the K&A to London. It would certainly be worth having a chat with them.

  6. 10 hours ago, njdo said:

    Hi all.

    Fitting out a boat for the first time (experienced in kitchen and bathroom fitting!)

     

    But discovered an engine problem on our maiden voyage. Overheating, blown fuses. 

     

    Cause or symptom.. after replacing the sealant cap I have coolant leaking between the coolant tank and what looks like an exhaust.

     

    Thinking I maybe need to unbolt the 'corregated' pipe from the tank and apply some kind of resin seal before bolting back on?

     

    Or way off the mark?

     

     

     

    Screenshot_20240104-212819.png

    Pointless sealing it as it will only mask the problem. There should not be coolant at this point. Possibly an internal leak in the tank, head gasket failure. Maybe external water running back down the exhaust. As a start maybe remove the exhaust and see which way the water is coming. 

  7. 8 hours ago, Harrington II said:

    It may be a bit late but I have a Lister LPWS4 year 1989 build number 45 and it is nothing like the one in the original post.

    Seems odd. The marine version of the LPWS4 was not introduced until the early 90's when the only marine build was a 42. The build 45 only followed on a couple of years after that.

  8. On 19/12/2023 at 05:48, john.k said:

    Little Listers need the drive end housing to be useful in  a boat ........a motor from a dumper should be bought complete with the gearbox preferably ......which will guarantee a round housing to bolt to a marine box ........any Lister thats belt drive is near useless in a boat.

    The flywheel housing will be the same regardless of what the engine is being used for.

  9. On 02/09/2023 at 09:21, magnetman said:

    Presumably L-P did marinise some Mitsubishi units at some stage. 

     

    It doesn't make sense to deliberately misrepresent a Mitsubishi as a Lister. 

     

    The screws are a giveaway though to be fair. 

     

     

     

     

    Lister DWS4

     

    https://www.maesco.com/products/lp/lp_del/lp_del.html

     

     

    Delta series not Alpha series. 

     

     

    There were marine versions of the Dellta engine. Not sure that they were marinised by the Lister factory. Possibly marinised by Rodger at Cotswols Diesels on behalf of Lister.

  10. On 14/04/2009 at 17:07, simonk said:

    Changed the oil in my Lister LPWS4 last week using the recommended API CC 10W40 and a manufacturers oil filter (though curiously, there was a smaller filter on there before). Just come back from cruising over the weekend and found that after a couple of hours use the low oil pressure light comes on when in tickover gear (and sometimes in idle too). The light goes out when revving a bit more. There is also a slight overheating problem (90-95 degrees?) which is "cured" by revving in neutral and/or by turning off the calorifier circuit.

     

    If the oil pressure is low at low revs does that also mean it is too low at higher revs, even though the warning light goes out? The pressure gauge needle also waves around sometimes. Bearing in mind the engine has apparently done about 7500 hours (is this a lot or not?) how seriously should I take this warning and what's the best course of action?

     

    a. Ignore completely and keep using it, hoping nothing untoward happens?

    b. Rev it a bit more and be careful not to use in tickover too much?

    c. Use 20W50 oil and and then hope it works? I think it has been used in this engine before so am I making a mistake going to 10w40 or 15w40 (just going by the manual...)? If this works, is there any disadvantage to using a higher viscosity oil like this?

    d. Get it serviced? What could be the reasons why this is happening?

     

    The only other thing I have noticed is that it starts easier than it used to. Is a 10W40 oil the same as a 15W40 oil at normal working temperature?

     

    Thanks,

     

    Simon (who is mechanically-minded but knows jack about engines/oil and even less before he got a boat).

    Here's a little info that may help. As you can see the Alpa engines always had a relatively low oil pressure from new and this causes no problems. Is your idle speed correct, it should be around 950 rpm under load. If it has dropped off which is quite common with this engine your oil pressure will also drop off at idle. Also info on the various filters fitted to the Alpha range of engines. Yours should be fitted with with letter B. You can check against the dimensions to see if you have the correct one. But in all honesty it will have no bearing on your oil pressure whichever one is fitted.

    Screenshot_20230730_154353_Adobe Acrobat.jpg

    Screenshot_20230730_154457_Adobe Acrobat.jpg

  11. Back in the day this is the type of header tank supplied by Lister as an optional extra for use with the Polar manifold. It would be piped up to the manifold overflow pipe. The manifold would then be fitted with a plain non pressurised cap, and the pressure cap would be fitted to this header tank. Also the original water pump fitted to that engine would have been a non bypass type, therefore it would have a standard type thermostat without the extra flap fitted. Also noticed previously mention of thermostat jiggle pin. On the set up above the jiggle pin was removed on assembly. This was to alow a small amount of water circulation before the thermostat opened. As the pump was non bypass this ensured there were no internal localised hot spots. By the time Lister moved over to the later type cooling system the engine was also being fitted with the later pump. If the pump has ever been changed the chances are it will be the later type pump as the early pumps were made obsolete but were totally interchangeable. 

    Screenshot_20230713_162158_Google.jpg

    • Greenie 1
  12. 15 minutes ago, RLWP said:

     

     

     

     

     

    Then they spring back to full length

     

    It's much easier to follow the other instruction in the manual and wait 30-45 minutes before trying to turn the engine over after fitting them. In practice, unless your in a race pit it takes longer than that to reassemble the engine to the point it will run

     

    Richard

    Yes they do spring back when you release them. But this will not cause any problems as there is no oil in them. They will only operate again one the oil has circulated through them. I like to do it this way just for the sake of clearing out any dirty/contaminated oil.

  13. 5 hours ago, Peugeot 106 said:

    When you take injection pumps keep the shims with each pump. I think it may be wise to leave one in then when you replace them you twist anti-clockwise ( or clockwise I can’t remember) to retain the setting. Maybe worth asking Richard about this if you are ringing him, Don’t worry about taking the head off it’s not so bad and you know about draining the oil down for the hydraulic tappets. Interested to know what Richard thinks about reusing the head bolts and skimming the head? Some people say you can’t skim LPWS and others say they have skimmed hundreds !

    there’s an awful lot of urban myth surrounding these engines probably caused by Lister Petter not being interested in supporting their own product. Must have been easy for Beta to take the market……..but maybe it makes good financial sense to ignore leisure customers (For lister petter)

     

    good luck. They are a decent little engine do let us know how you get on. Last tip as an amateur mechanic I am rigouroys about using correct torque and wrenches as per the manual. They are all specified in the manual and I just don’t have the “feel” to do without although I’m sure mechanics don’t feel

    the need. Tools are cheap compared to the cost of  marine engineer

    All very best 

    When injection pumps are removed from these engines the shims stay with the block, not the pump. The reason for this is that the pumps are pre shimmed on manufacture, so every pump will be the same. Any differences will be with the tolerances on the crankcase and fuel pump tappets. As you say it is possible to always leave on pump in to keep the setting. If done this way it is important to wind the stop lever back so it is the pump, not the stop lever holding the rack in position.

    The problem with support is that when the engine was originally built it was built by Lister Petter themselves who would give all the support needed. When Lister Petter shut down many years ago the name was sold on and there have been a number of owners over the years. I suppose another thing is that when the original engine was built it was all built in house at Dursley. This would include all the casting in there own foundry, all machining in there own machine shop. So Lister had total control of the quality. After the shut down of the factory and when made elsewhere it was more just an assembly operation with parts being supplied by outside contactors, and not all of them UK based. Going back there were a number of the ex Lister engineers, including myself that started working for themselves. Unfortunately as far as I am aware most of us have now retired.

  14. 15 hours ago, Peugeot 106 said:

    Probably true too but I have much less experience than you. I think the Alpha engines may need proper maintenance. The problem is that people don’t expect to have to look after their engines properly and just get in any Tom, Dick or Harry if they have any problems. With an Alpha you are a bit on your own and  Lister Petter don’t seem to show any interest and it’s a free for all amongst the many supposed experts

    Sad really but the leisure market is probably not worth it for them even if they did introduce the canal star years ago

    Not bad engines in my view. Cheap enough secondhand, Spares readily available , fairly straightforward to fix just expect difficulty if you need support 

    As you say the Alpha range does need proper maintenance, unlike the older Listers that would take a lot more abuse. They definitely need the regular oil changes. If the oil is allowed to get to black and thick it will cause the tappets to jack themselves open, at best holding the valves off there seats, at worst causing the valve to hit the piston. As has been mentioned when the head has been removed it is important that the tappets are compressed before spinning the engine over. Lister did supply a special tool for this job. Personally I would always remove them and squeeze in a vice to ensure all the old oil was out of them. 

    • Greenie 1
  15. 6 minutes ago, jonathanA said:

    just to be clear that picture is my lister NOT  Si-Fi's.   which is this one  and not the proper lister part in use, hence the temp switch in the pipe, don't see why that would matter.   Does seem to me to be a flow problem - perhaps a faulty stat or wrong stat ?   I suspect the issue with the expansion tank could be overfilling ?

    Caullie.jpeg

    As you say not the correct Lister part, but would make no difference to the operation.

  16. 40 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

     

    So it is a bypass stat and almost certainly a waxstat that will often leak wax when badly overheated. That cause it to stay closed when it should have opened and short circuit the coolant back into the engine as described above.

     

    20220911_140816.jpg

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    As you rightly say the thermostat is basically a normal wax state, but with the extra flap on the bottom to seal the bypass as the stat opens.

    What is shown in the photo is the hot water feed to the calorifier. If no calorifier was fitted then the temperature switch would fit directly into the pump. When a calorifier was fitted or a kit ordered then Lister would supply this special union to allow for fitting of the switch and the hose. The return hose would connect onto a t-piece which was on the return pipe which can just be seen at the bottom of the photo.

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