Lister Petter identification- LPWS4?

[Baltic]

Recently I bought Cox 27 Family Fisher with Lister Petter diesel engine.4 cylinder, 40Hp, 3000RPM

I am not familiar with this brand of engines, so I am looking for help in reading the data from the engine plate.

No.4000618LPWS4A042

S0202183/001

Is it LPWS4 model? What year of production? Any other data hidden behind the numbers?

Additionally in the right lower corner of the plate there is number: 85?4 01120 .Any idea what does it stand for ? 

 

[magnetman]

Not sure if it is the same as the older engines but I seem to recall when I had an SR2 the last two numbers were 23 and you add 50 to get the build date. 

 

So mine was 1973 and by the same logic yours would be 1992. 

 

 

Yes it is a LPWS4. This is a slightly different engine to the LPW4 I can't remember why.

 

I think one of the types needs very regular oil changes because of having hydraulic tappets. 

[Tracy D'arth]

4LPWS  with glow plugs, indirect injection.

 

https://listerparts.co.uk/Alpha.html

[Stilllearning]

Nice engine, I had one in a 50ft narrow boat. Yes lots of oil changes, but oil is still cheaper than the labour to fix the bearings. Check out what gearbox and propeller you have, and that they are all correct for the boat. Nice boat too, BTW.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Stilllearning

[jonathanA]

2 hours ago, magnetman said:

Not sure if it is the same as the older engines but I seem to recall when I had an SR2 the last two numbers were 23 and you add 50 to get the build date. 

 

So mine was 1973 and by the same logic yours would be 1992. 

 

 

Yes it is a LPWS4. This is a slightly different engine to the LPW4 I can't remember why.

 

I think one of the types needs very regular oil changes because of having hydraulic tappets. 

not sure magnet man, this looks very different to other LPSW engines /Alpha industrial engines to my untrained eye....  

 

so please treat the below with caution until someone who really knows what they talking about comes along... 

 

for a LPSW4, the 42 is the 'build'.  The numbers preceding LPSW are the year code and serial number IIRC. There was another thread recently were someone detailed the info 

 

from memory the first two digit are the year code 1990 =40 - so yours is a 1990 engine I think , then the serial/engine number. LPSW4 - engine A = anticlockwise rotation and 042 build number - ie what accessories are fitted /intended use etc.  Mines a build 47 and differs from yours in being skin tank cooled for instance. 

 

i'll see if I can find the link to the other thread.  but if you search on google for LPSW4 you will get a lot of hits on this forum for this engine. 

 

The received wisdom is these engines need regular oil changes (100 hours) 

[magnetman]

8 minutes ago, jonathanA said:

not sure magnet man, this looks very different to other LPSW engines /Alpha industrial engines to my untrained eye....  

 

 

It is odd that the ID plate is fixed on with two different types of screw. One seems to be stainless and the other is mild steel. 

 

Might it not be the original plate? 

 

 

It is very Volvo coloured. 

[David Mack]

Lister engine numbering 1981-2000.

From https://realdiesels.co.uk/identitydata.html

[Baltic]

1 hour ago, magnetman said:

It is odd that the ID plate is fixed on with two different types of screw. One seems to be stainless and the other is mild steel. 

 

Might it not be the original plate? 

 

 

It is very Volvo coloured. 

As far as I know the engine was repainted by previous owner.He wasn't sure if the engine plate was original.

I found this engine very similar (visually) to the one I have Mitsubishi S4S/ Lister Petter DWS4.I am really confused what engine I have...

[Baltic]

Non drive end of my engine.Very similar to what I posted above 

[jonathanA]

A fairly random pic of a lpws4 of t net. 

Maybe yours is this mitsu ishi version youve found? 

I'd say yours doesn't look like the usual lister canal boat engines from the lpw lpws range. Although I would not claim to be any sort of expert on them ...  

[magnetman]

I looks the same as the Mitsubishi version but why would it have the wrong plate? Seems odd. 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by magnetman

[john.k]

The OPs engine has a Japanese style fuel filter with the primer button on the top....seems it has the wrong tags.....maybe whats left of Lister /Petter could solve the mystery.

[magnetman]

 

 

Does look like Mitsubishi. 

 

 

The oil filler looks the same. 

 

1st image is engine in boat 

Second is the Lister/Mitsubishi

Third is Mitsubishi turbo diesel

The parallel lines cast into the rocker cover seem a bit of a trademark as well..

[RLWP]

That is not a Lister Alpha

 

Richard

[magnetman]

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. 

 

 

[Steve56]

As Richard has said it is definitely not a Lister LPWS4. It's a Mitsubishi engine. Lister did make these under licence for Mitsubishi and actually badged some of them as Lister. It was the Mitsubishi S4S engine which Lister called DWS4.

[jonathanA]

So has someone put the wrong plate on the OPs engine ?

[Steve56]

3 minutes ago, jonathanA said:

So has someone put the wrong plate on the OPs engine ?

Certainly looks that way as the engine shown in the photo and the engine number shown are totally different engines.

[RLWP]

11 hours ago, Steve56 said:

Certainly looks that way as the engine shown in the photo and the engine number shown are totally different engines.

 

Makes a change. Usually I find old Lister masquerading as other old Listers due to parts being swapped around

[magnetman]

Its odd. Someone appears to have gone to a bit of effort to misrepresent the engine. They would have had to drill and affix the ID plate in a non original location

 

In the picture of the Lister Mitsubishi there is no plate in that location it seems to be just a sticker. 

 

 

So where is/was the ID plate for the Mitsubishi Lister meant to be? 

 

 

 

 

On 01/09/2023 at 14:25, Baltic said:

Recently I bought Cox 27 Family Fisher with Lister Petter diesel engine.4 cylinder, 40Hp, 3000RPM.

 

As it appears to be the DWS4 according to specification it is around 60hp @2500rpm and 3.3 litres. A significantly more grunty engine than the LPWS4. 

 

 

[David Mack]

For anyone wishing to badge another engine as a Lister lpws4, I just spotted this on ebay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325247163894

[magnetman]

Is someone going to post something like 'maybe the engine has an interesting provenance' ? 

 

 

[Steve56]

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.

[jonathanA]

maybe the engine has an interesting provenance  🙂

 

 

coat

 

 

(sorry magnetman couldn't resist) 

[Harrington II]

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.