Ruston Hornsby engine (help needed please)

[The Rose]

Hi all, 

 

I'm new to this forum. I own a 57ft Doug Moore narrow boat (The Rose) and she's fitted with a Ruston Hornsby engine (see pics)- Can anyone tell me what model and age this is please and where I can find someone to work on it (near Tattenhall, Cheshire). Also any other information greatly appreciated such as best place to buy parts etc. 

 

 A the weekend she overheated, blew out some blue smoke, then white smoke, then died. 

 

Thanks in advance for any info. James

[Tracy D'arth]

You could try Dave or Joe on 07964 103345, old school mechanics.

[The Rose]

Thanks Tracy- rang them- spoke to Joe- he'll be sorting it out (hopefully). 

 

In the meantime if anyone has any further info on this engine and where to get parts- would be gratefully received. Many thanks

[David Mack]

This looks to be a copy of a RH engine built by Greaves in India. Phil Lizius of Longboat Engineering imported them into the UK for a while, so this may be one of his.

[The Rose]

Forgot...this plate is displayed outside the engine bay if that helps...

 

[Stroudwater1]

If its the one I looked at she was sold last year needing major engine work (And hull work) , were you able to get that done ?  

 

Sounds like she may need  wore work, is she starting at all now? 

 

Nice looking boat 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Stroudwater1

[The Rose]

Yes- the hull was sorted (lots of welding) and clean bill of health given afterwards (blacked and surveyed: June 2021). Not sure about the engine service history- but has been running fine for the 12 months I've owned her so can only guess it had all been sorted. I suspect this problem was down to an air lock in the coolant system which caused her to overheat. 

[Eeyore]

Looks like a marine version of a two cylinder VRH engine.

[PaulJ]

Think the previous owner wasnt exactly mechanically minded and the installation suffered from some interesting adaptions 😀

Moved this from Droitwich a while ago and can remember it being fairly empty of coolant and air locked when I collected it. Had a leak on the pipework on the engine somewhere which I seem to remember was down to a dodgy thread.

Was a bit smoky at times and spent much of the move sweeping the roof of sooty bits that got blew out the exhaust-think it may have had the exhaust decoked ?

It did have a habit of dying just as you tried to stop occasionally- it didnt appear to be lack of fuel supply etc nor overheating - you could coax it to start on one cylinder and give it a good hard rev and it would magically clear and then run OK -until the next time😀 Id guessed at sticky injector and/or fuel pump.

Other than that was a lovely engine to chug about with -I did talk to someone about it once -if it was you apologies for repeating myself..

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by PaulJ

[Motorboater]

Ruston 2YD when I saw at braunston a while back.

[john.k]

Gearbox is Indian made too...by Greaves Cotton.

[PaulJ]

There you go-all the info you need tucked behind..

 

[The Rose]

Nice one- thanks very much!

 

Got a guy coming to look at it next Tuesday to hopefully diagnose the problem and today I've spoken to Phil at Longboat Engineering- lovely chap who really knows about Ruston Hornsby engines. Fingers crossed its nothing too serious and that I can still get hold of parts!

 

Once the engine is sorted, she will be getting taken out of the water, freshly blacked and surveyed and will going up for sale as I've just bought another boat. 

[PaulJ]

1 hour ago, The Rose said:

 

Got a guy coming to look at it next Tuesday to hopefully diagnose the problem and today I've spoken to Phil at Longboat Engineering- lovely chap who really knows about Ruston Hornsby engines. Fingers crossed its nothing too serious and that I can still get hold of parts!. 

Please post how you get on-such a intermittent problem and would love to know the cause.

[The Rose]

Will do.....

[john.k]

Indian made spares for these motors used to be cheaper than dirt......like $10 for a piston ,liner ,rings set....not extra well made ,but the price allowed for adjustments.........in contrast to UK made Ruston parts for the five and 6 cylinder motors in the RB cranes..

[MtB]

12 hours ago, PaulJ said:

Please post how you get on-such a intermittent problem and would love to know the cause.

 

 

I had that exact problem on my Gleniffer occasionally. Turned out to be an inlet valve sticking open. 

[john.k]

Good point..if there is sticky carbon particles coming out and fouling the superstructure,then sticking valves  and heavy valveseat buildup are quite possible..........in bigger engines this can be cured somewhat by squirting kerosine on the valve stems with the engine running,just enough to run down into the guides.

[The Rose]

As promised- an update: The engineer from Barbridge (Joe) came out noted that the starter motor was jammed- he sorted that then the engine started first time and ran sweetly. He said that quite often when these old engines overheat they will seize than run fine again when they have cooled down. I'm planning to take it down to him for a full service/change coolant pipes etc, but before I do I need to address the root cause of the overheating problem- which according to Phil (Longboat Engineering) is down to the fact that its had a calorifier retro fitted. I don't use the calorifier so I'm happy to get it disconnected and I can plumb so no problem with this- but my question is this- the pics show the inlet and outlet to/from the calorifier- should I just disconnect these and blank them off? (The engine is cooled via a skin tank). 

[Tracy D'arth]

17 minutes ago, The Rose said:

As promised- an update: The engineer from Barbridge (Joe) came out noted that the starter motor was jammed- he sorted that then the engine started first time and ran sweetly. He said that quite often when these old engines overheat they will seize than run fine again when they have cooled down. I'm planning to take it down to him for a full service/change coolant pipes etc, but before I do I need to address the root cause of the overheating problem- which according to Phil (Longboat Engineering) is down to the fact that its had a calorifier retro fitted. I don't use the calorifier so I'm happy to get it disconnected and I can plumb so no problem with this- but my question is this- the pics show the inlet and outlet to/from the calorifier- should I just disconnect these and blank them off? (The engine is cooled via a skin tank). 

Why not just fit a gate valve in the calorifier circuit so that you can reduce the flow to a level where the skin tank is not bypassed too much?

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Why not just fit a gate valve in the calorifier circuit so that you can reduce the flow to a level where the skin tank is not bypassed too much?

 

 

Although I don't think we can tell from the photos, my suspicion is Phil from Longboat thinks the calorifier has been connected up to the engine by a muppet, who connected it in series with the skin tank. 

 

If I'm right and Phil is right (!) then a gate valve will choke off all cooling. 

 

And I too have experienced an engine seized from overheating, just starting and running fine once cooled. This was an A series BMC back in about 1973

 

[Tracy D'arth]

5 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

Although I don't think we can tell from the photos, my suspicion is Phil from Longboat thinks the calorifier has been connected up to the engine by a muppet, who connected it in series with the skin tank. 

 

If I'm right and Phil is right (!) then a gate valve will choke off all cooling. 

 

And I too have experienced an engine seized from overheating, just starting and running fine once cooled. This was an A series BMC back in about 1973

 

In which case fir another gate valve between the two connections as a bypass, throttle the calorifier feed so that it just heats

[The Rose]

OK: I've fitted an isolation valve on the feed and return to/from the calorifier (probably just needed one on the feed but hey ho!). I did check with the engineer who came out to see it and he said that would sort the problem, but would be grateful if anyone could let me know if this will cause a problem before I  fire up the engine. As far as I'm concerned it wont as the calorifier is fed directly from the engine (not via the skin tank)- so all I've done is taken the calorifier out of the equation and forced the coolant to flow through the skin tank only (surely as per the original design). The first pic is the feed pipe, the second is the return. 

[PaulJ]

26 minutes ago, The Rose said:

OK: I've fitted an isolation valve on the feed and return to/from the calorifier (probably just needed one on the feed but hey ho!). I did check with the engineer who came out to see it and he said that would sort the problem, but would be grateful if anyone could let me know if this will cause a problem before I  fire up the engine. As far as I'm concerned it wont as the calorifier is fed directly from the engine (not via the skin tank)- so all I've done is taken the calorifier out of the equation and forced the coolant to flow through the skin tank only (surely as per the original design). The first pic is the feed pipe, the second is the return. 

It shouldnt upset it although I would double check with Longboat in case its actually a bypass for thermostat thats been tapped into.

Did you inherit the secondary electric circulation pump that was fitted to the calorifier circuit or had that been removed? Im guessing thats its such a convoluted circuit you wont get much flow through there without that pump being switched on so in effect it was blanked off anyhow.

Glad to hear shes running sweet-she did before 99% of the time-it was just the 1 % that threw things out 😀

 

[john.k]

for a small sum,you can buy an infra red hand held temperature  measuring device......with this you can detect overheating,,track hot /cold water flow ,and even measure your own temperature .........a very useful device.