Gardner 2LW

[GSer]

AT last after 3+ months of being messed about, I've eventually got my new (to me) boat.

 

It has a 2LW fitted, I've a few questions I like to put to the assembled Gardner experts on here, i'm going to get a manual ASAP but in the meantime.

 

 

1. When started from cold it spins up well, starts to catch after 10-15 seconds cranking, but soon dies as soon as the starter is released. On the second attempt it starts to catch almost immediatly and then runs on if the starter is released, during this initial period there is no response from the 'throttle' for a while perhaps 10-20 seconds, then the engine starts to respond in a 'normal' fashion, settling down after a while to a nice even tombre. This may be normal I just want to check there isn't a problem with fuel draining back for that what it feels like to me. I'm adding about an inch and a quarter of throttle when starting from cold.

 

From hot it starts in an instant with barely a flick of the starter.

 

2, There are two levers and what appears to be two 'latches' on the side of the injector pump which I guess are extra fuel levers, how and when are these used? I can't seem to get the levers to latch and I don't want to force things till I know what i'm doing.

 

3, where is the oil topped up?

 

These are pretty basic questions but i've not had a direct handover from the previous owner, so I couldn't ask them directly (the engine has basically stood for a couple of years apart from the odd run-up)

 

Many thanks

 

Paul

[carlt]

PM me your email address and I'll send you a scan of the manual, in PDF.

[Gibbo]

1. Sounds like what happens if you try to start one without the cold start button pressed.

 

2. They shut off the injectors.

 

3. In the round horizontal hole just to the side of the injector pump on the chain casing. Mine was easy to find coz it says "Oil" on the cap. It is usually there, though I have seen a few with it in a different place.

[Timleech]

1. Sounds like what happens if you try to start one without the cold start button pressed.

 

2. They shut off the injectors.

 

3. In the round horizontal hole just to the side of the injector pump on the chain casing. Mine was easy to find coz it says "Oil" on the cap. It is usually there, though I have seen a few with it in a different place.

 

1. Agreed

 

2. Also can be used to prime the injectors for starting in very cold conditions or after getting air in the system (eg after changing filters).

 

3. Often have a carnkcase breather/filter fitted on top, in which case the 'OIL' label is missing. Either way a lobed aluminium cap, maybe 3.5" dia, which screws into place. Some LW engines have them on the rocker covers.

 

Tim

[GSer]

Many thanks for the anwsers, I'll have to have a search around for this cold start button, i had assumed (wrongly) that it was the two levers!!!!

I will have a search around for the oil filler it's not on the rocker cover I know that.

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[LEO]

AT last after 3+ months of being messed about, I've eventually got my new (to me) boat.

 

It has a 2LW fitted, I've a few questions I like to put to the assembled Gardner experts on here, i'm going to get a manual ASAP but in the meantime.

 

 

1. When started from cold it spins up well, starts to catch after 10-15 seconds cranking, but soon dies as soon as the starter is released. On the second attempt it starts to catch almost immediatly and then runs on if the starter is released, during this initial period there is no response from the 'throttle' for a while perhaps 10-20 seconds, then the engine starts to respond in a 'normal' fashion, settling down after a while to a nice even tombre. This may be normal I just want to check there isn't a problem with fuel draining back for that what it feels like to me. I'm adding about an inch and a quarter of throttle when starting from cold.

 

From hot it starts in an instant with barely a flick of the starter.

 

2, There are two levers and what appears to be two 'latches' on the side of the injector pump which I guess are extra fuel levers, how and when are these used? I can't seem to get the levers to latch and I don't want to force things till I know what i'm doing.

 

3, where is the oil topped up?

 

These are pretty basic questions but i've not had a direct handover from the previous owner, so I couldn't ask them directly (the engine has basically stood for a couple of years apart from the odd run-up)

 

Many thanks

 

Paul

 

Hi,

 

Others have written it all. I got my manuals from gardner enthusiast.com

 

Great engines engines

 

Leo

[Athy]

It would be good to hear more about your newly-acquired boat! Any photos?

[GSer]

It would be good to hear more about your newly-acquired boat! Any photos?

 

 

No personal photos at present it's on a hard stand at the moment, there is one nice picture on the Norton Canes website gallery.

 

The boat is Apache, nice boat with a murky past, it having been mixed up in the Ed Rimmer/Challenger fiasco, it's been sitting on brokerage for perhaps a year, I think maybe its financial history scared a few people off, it did me for a while, and for others a sailaway might not be ideal, but then I thought someone had to buy her, it would never be left to rot, so that someone might as well be me. So quite few months of digging a trawling the paperwork eventually led to me owning the boat, and very nice it is too.

 

She is a bit tatty and faded now and the engine is red rusty in places, rust has also got to the inside of the cabin top but I sorted that this weekend, rubbed it all back to bare metal and gave it two coats of two pack epoxy primer, looks good now. The gas locker is also a rusty pit, strange seeing as it's never had any bottles in it, but that will be treated next, I may as well get some little bits done before the fitout starts.

 

I'll get some pictures sorted

 

Paul

[Athy]

Good stuff, and welcome to the Gardner club! Shh, don't say it out loud, but I don't really know how my 2LW works either. Is the engine newly reconditioned? Ours was done in 2006 by Walsh's, and at first she was a PIG to start in cold weather - indeed, flattened the batteries last winter and I had to buy a Clarke 4000 battery booster to get her going. Last weekend we started her for the first time since December, took the 4000 along fearing the worst, but behold! after grumbling for about 30 seconds she gradually came to life. I've been told that they are very "tight" at first but that they gradually loosen up as they get run in.

[GSer]

Good stuff, and welcome to the Gardner club! Shh, don't say it out loud, but I don't really know how my 2LW works either. Is the engine newly reconditioned? Ours was done in 2006 by Walsh's, and at first she was a PIG to start in cold weather - indeed, flattened the batteries last winter and I had to buy a Clarke 4000 battery booster to get her going. Last weekend we started her for the first time since December, took the 4000 along fearing the worst, but behold! after grumbling for about 30 seconds she gradually came to life. I've been told that they are very "tight" at first but that they gradually loosen up as they get run in.

 

 

Yes, this was a Walsh's supplied engine, all the paint has started to fail and all the nuts and bolts have rusted, but she sounds sweet and I can't wait to get her wet!

[Athy]

I have just looked at your boat's photo on NC's site, and can only abandon my usually finely-honed critical vocabulary and just say: WOW!

No, the paint job is not the best part of the Walsh's rebuild. I have bought a tin of Gardner Grey from Tony Redshaw to repaint her. It's a slightly different shade from the Walsh's job, but Mr. Redshaw reckons it's correct and I ain't about to argue.

[LEO]

No, the paint job is not the best part of the Walsh's rebuild.

 

I will cheerfully agree with your comments with regard to their efforts on my 2LW.

 

Hope 'Trojan' was not too badly damaged during the breakin.

 

Leo

[Grace and Favour]

Oh very pleasant looking craft, Gser - - - - very pleasant indeedly

[Athy]

I will cheerfully agree with your comments with regard to their efforts on my 2LW.

 

Hope 'Trojan' was not too badly damaged during the breakin.

 

Leo

 

Leo, you are most kind. Nope, no damage apart from a half-inch square of paint missing from the side hatch where the chap had forced it open, nothing taken, wonder why he bothered.

His muddy bootprints were in the engine room but nowhere else. Maybe he opened the side hatch expecting to see cupboards, shelves etc. groaning with comestibles, saw just a big grey two-cylinder thing glaring at him, and retreated in confusion.

He did break into 'Wynwood', two boats along from 'Trojan', and ate their food and drank their drink.

So maybe the moral of this tale is, fit a Gardner, it's a deterrent to burglars!

[LEO]

He did break into 'Wynwood', two boats along from 'Trojan', and ate their food and drank their drink.

So maybe the moral of this tale is, fit a Gardner, it's a deterrent to burglars!

 

He probably took pity on you, feeling that as you have 'shelled out' so much on a engine you have not been left with any cash for food and drink.

 

Leo.

[GSer]

Thanks everybody, I found the cold start button yesterday, wow what a difference!. I had got a little used to the sluggish start up, but when I used the extra fuel button she fired up with such eagerness it made me jump!

 

Very happy now

[Athy]

Do enlighten me: is that the one underneath one of the fuel filters, on the left as you look at the engine's pretty side?

[GSer]

Do enlighten me: is that the one underneath one of the fuel filters, on the left as you look at the engine's pretty side?

 

 

It is on the injector pump, under the LH end (I think, i was blindly feeling in the dark when I found it) Just press it in, there was a slight click, i'd guess it resets itself once the engine has started.

 

Paul

[Albion]

Do enlighten me: is that the one underneath one of the fuel filters, on the left as you look at the engine's pretty side?

 

If it's like the Gardner 4LK that I had in Albion it will be a button that you press in to allow the fuel injection pump rack to move further than normal. You press the button in and, with your other hand, move the rack fully across before releasing the button. Once the engine fires up the rack returns to the normal position due to the governor and the button pops back to the normal position automatically. The cold start enrichment button is essential on Gardners in winter and useful most of the time, to be honest. For a diesel, Gardners have a fairly low compression ratio which means that the temperature rise (particularly cold) in the cylinders due to compression isn't as high as it would be in other, higher compression ratio, engines and hence the more difficult cold start if you don't use the extra fuel button.

Roger

[Athy]

If it's like the Gardner 4LK that I had in Albion it will be a button that you press in to allow the fuel injection pump rack to move further than normal. You press the button in and, with your other hand, move the rack fully across before releasing the button. Once the engine fires up the rack returns to the normal position due to the governor and the button pops back to the normal position automatically. The cold start enrichment button is essential on Gardners in winter and useful most of the time, to be honest. For a diesel, Gardners have a fairly low compression ratio which means that the temperature rise (particularly cold) in the cylinders due to compression isn't as high as it would be in other, higher compression ratio, engines and hence the more difficult cold start if you don't use the extra fuel button.

Roger

Thanks Roger. Now I must find that rack!

[GSer]

Must find a manual, i didn't do any more than just press the button in, perhaps I was just lucky that the engine sprang into life

[Albion]

Thanks Roger. Now I must find that rack!

 

Right

On the injection pump you should see two pumping elements (for a 2LW) just above the two levers that can operate the elements to either disable them, one at a time, or to pump the element to inject fuel for testing/bleeding purposes. You will probably see two small windows just at the bottom of the pumping element chambers through which, when the engine is turning over, you will see the element rising and falling. You will also get some slight fuel seepage from these past the working clearance of the elements in their chambers.....this is normal and nothing to worry about providing it isn't pouring out, in which case the pump is knackered.

Below those chambers you should see a horizontal rod sticking out (parallel to the engine cylinder block) which is connected, by a linkage, to a lever on the end of the governor (a large circular casting (guess about 5 or 6 ins in diameter) with the lever mounted on the end of it sticking upwards (this is the lever connected as described above). The cold start button will be mounted under the rack somewhere and, if anything like the 4LK, will be pointing towards the floor. You squeeze this button upwards (and in my experience it can be quite a tough squeeze) and, at the same time move the rack and linkage away from the pump and against a the tension of the light spring that's there to return the rack, letting go of the button when the rack has gone as far as it can. If you want to test that you've got it right you can move the rack back to it's original position and you should hear a click as the button returns to its original indent in the rack. The big lever on the end of the governor bob weight chamber will move to and fro as the engine revs change to regulate the fuelling and cope with applied loads on it.

Phew, I could have shown you in a fraction of the time it takes to explain.

Roger

[kbarber]

If it's like the Gardner 4LK that I had in Albion it will be a button that you press in to allow the fuel injection pump rack to move further than normal. You press the button in and, with your other hand, move the rack fully across before releasing the button.

Roger

On our 4LK the rack normally moves out as soon as the button is pressed, without needing manual assistance. (I say normally; last time we started it the rack didn't move until persuaded.)

[martyn 1]

I've been told that they are very "tight" at first but that they gradually loosen up as they get run in.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I was just reading through a spotted this line, I have rebuilt (all new bearings, crank grind, liners, pistons, valves etc) alot of Gardner LW's and every one even after months sat without running starts within a turn or two(cold start button used) even when the last time I tried during all the snow this winter just gone.

 

And as for the smoke, yes LW's do smoke a little when cold. but this isnt big clouds of white smoke that I have had some people try to tell me is normal, if you get them set up right its visible (Just) for the first 5-10 mins then once warm its gone. If you have anything other than this its ever not timed right or is worn.