Lister LPWS4

[Rob99fla]

Hello. My narrowboat, Beatrice, has a Lister LPWS4. It is a cracking little engine and has done around 2600 hours since new in 1996. I do know that the oil has been changed every 100 hours from new using genuine Lister oil and filters. So, the engine run lovely, uses no oil and even the oil looks clean between changes. I have noticed that in the manual, there are some builds of these engines that have 100 hour oil change and some builds have 250 oil change. I have no plans to change oil any less often but this is what happened. I met a full timer a week or so back in Warwick. We discussed engines as you do. He admitted he did not do engines himself but had servicing done for him. It seems we had exactly the same engine and build number which was build 047. His oil had only been changed at 250 hours from new. The engine had done over 8000 hours but needed a complete rebuild at 6000 hours costing over £4K (eekk!) So, can anyone explain why the builds of the engine have such a large difference in oil change intervals?

 

By the way, I plan to keep changing my oil at 100 hours but I will use Golden Film (for canal boat engines)

[colin loach]

Hi All, dose anyone know what the idle speed on the rev metre should be on my isuzu 42 engine. At the moment it runs at about 500 but the engine shakes when it slows down but when the tick over is sped up to 700 everything is ok .thanks colin.

[steamraiser2]

The difference in service intervals is down to build type, duty and conditions the engine works under. Normal intervals tend to be 250 hrs but your engine has an oil and filter change interval specified by Lister of 100hrs. So what you are doing is correct. Be careful of the engine oil though. Your engine needs a detergent 15/40w oil not a straight monograde oil. If you use a monograde there will be a build up of varnishes inside over time. Changing to a detergent will prevent this although the oil will be black when you change it. In your case clean oil at change time is bad!

 

Having overhauled dozens and dozens of Lister LPW's and LPWS's the cost of £4k for an overhaul is way off the mark. I'm wondering if that cost includes some rip off boatyard charges too as a straight engine overhaul is around half of that? These little Listers are belting engines and are certainly the best of the "modern" engines in narrowboats today.

 

In fact, they are the only "modern" engine we ever touch. To be honest buying parts easily off the shelf makes a pleasant change for us compared with our normal vintage stuff!

[Harmony]

I had a simler problem but, the other way around. Tickover was about 1000rpm and you can imagine trying to moor up on a pontoon next to another boat. because this was a new boat and me being a "newby" I did not know any better. I spoke to the local boatyard and the tickover was reduced to 750rpm. The result was the engine is not racing the gearchange does not "jerk" into gear and manoeuvrability is very precise. So in answer to your question I would advise getting your tickover taken down to 750 (in gear)

[jonathanA]

I can claim no specialist knowledge or expertise here other than I too have a boat with one of these engines.

 

I've read and re-read the Lister manuals for the LPSW and the Lister alpha series engines that these are based on and the difference between 100 or 250 hours for a service appears to be related to the type of oil filter fitted. (plus type of useage etc) Having chatted to a number of other people including the chaps a Marine Engineering Services, the conclusion I've reached is that changing at 100 hours or every year is sensible. my engine has a small dumpy little oil filter which is defintely the right type, but there is a larger version which was apparently fitted to later engines (1999 or 2000 on I think) and the manual seems to imply that the service interval can be 250 hours with the larger filter. Depending on your engine layout there may not be enough room for the larger filter, but as they aren't expensive I'm going to try the larger one in the next few weeks when I do my end of season service. (PM me for the part numbers and an update when i do it). I doubt that I'll want to extend the service interval but knowing I've got a bigger filter on will make me feel a bit more comfortable if I did need to go over the 100 hours between services and the little one just looks so small compared to ones on cars I've changed...

 

I always buy the lister filters and even the lister Oil from either Marine Engineering services (they are always at Crick) or Hawker Sleeman of devon. probably paying over the odds for the oil but at least I know its exactly the right the type.

[PaulG]

I can claim no specialist knowledge or expertise here other than I too have a boat with one of these engines.

 

I've read and re-read the Lister manuals for the LPSW and the Lister alpha series engines that these are based on and the difference between 100 or 250 hours for a service appears to be related to the type of oil filter fitted. (plus type of useage etc) Having chatted to a number of other people including the chaps a Marine Engineering Services, the conclusion I've reached is that changing at 100 hours or every year is sensible. my engine has a small dumpy little oil filter which is defintely the right type, but there is a larger version which was apparently fitted to later engines (1999 or 2000 on I think) and the manual seems to imply that the service interval can be 250 hours with the larger filter. Depending on your engine layout there may not be enough room for the larger filter, but as they aren't expensive I'm going to try the larger one in the next few weeks when I do my end of season service. (PM me for the part numbers and an update when i do it). I doubt that I'll want to extend the service interval but knowing I've got a bigger filter on will make me feel a bit more comfortable if I did need to go over the 100 hours between services and the little one just looks so small compared to ones on cars I've changed...

 

I always buy the lister filters and even the lister Oil from either Marine Engineering services (they are always at Crick) or Hawker Sleeman of devon. probably paying over the odds for the oil but at least I know its exactly the right the type.

I've got the 3 cylinder version of that engine, and when I bought the boat it had a Cooper's Z121 filter fitted. This would be the equivalent of the "dumpy" one described above.

The following are also equivalents:

 

Unipart GFE173

Bosch 451103073

BMW 11421258039

Crosland 2022

Ford 6066094

Ford 6066095

Ford 6066096

Crosland 691

Chrysler 75221627

Talbot 75221627

Saab 9144445

Champion Filter C104

Motorcraft EFL134

Motorcraft EFL400A

TJ Filters FB5311

Fram PH2964

Fram PH2966

Fram PH46

Powertrain PMFL22

Powertrain PMFL22B

Motaquip VFL123

Mann W712/2

[Eeyore]

Hello. My narrowboat, Beatrice, has a Lister LPWS4. It is a cracking little engine and has done around 2600 hours since new in 1996. I do know that the oil has been changed every 100 hours from new using genuine Lister oil and filters. So, the engine run lovely, uses no oil and even the oil looks clean between changes. I have noticed that in the manual, there are some builds of these engines that have 100 hour oil change and some builds have 250 oil change. I have no plans to change oil any less often but this is what happened. I met a full timer a week or so back in Warwick. We discussed engines as you do. He admitted he did not do engines himself but had servicing done for him. It seems we had exactly the same engine and build number which was build 047. His oil had only been changed at 250 hours from new. The engine had done over 8000 hours but needed a complete rebuild at 6000 hours costing over £4K (eekk!) So, can anyone explain why the builds of the engine have such a large difference in oil change intervals?

 

By the way, I plan to keep changing my oil at 100 hours but I will use Golden Film (for canal boat engines)

Generaly LPW, direct injection engines (with lower compression ratios and no glow plugs) have 250 hour oil change; and LPWS, indirect injection engines (with higher compression ratios and glow plugs) have 100 hour oil change. Its mostly to do with how much of the "products of combustion" get past the piston rings and into the oil; which is much more on an indirect injection engine.

Steve

[Rob99fla]

The difference in service intervals is down to build type, duty and conditions the engine works under. Normal intervals tend to be 250 hrs but your engine has an oil and filter change interval specified by Lister of 100hrs. So what you are doing is correct. Be careful of the engine oil though. Your engine needs a detergent 15/40w oil not a straight monograde oil. If you use a monograde there will be a build up of varnishes inside over time. Changing to a detergent will prevent this although the oil will be black when you change it. In your case clean oil at change time is bad!

 

Having overhauled dozens and dozens of Lister LPW's and LPWS's the cost of £4k for an overhaul is way off the mark. I'm wondering if that cost includes some rip off boatyard charges too as a straight engine overhaul is around half of that? These little Listers are belting engines and are certainly the best of the "modern" engines in narrowboats today.

 

In fact, they are the only "modern" engine we ever touch. To be honest buying parts easily off the shelf makes a pleasant change for us compared with our normal vintage stuff!

 

Many thanks for the re-assuring reply. I thought that the £4.5K was far too high. I think they might have taken advantage of the guys little knowledge. With regard to my oil. I am sure its the correct Lister oil that has been used throughout. The last owner was almost excessive about oil changes. Perhaps I'm exaggerating a little about the clean oil. I mean its not completely black. I love the engine even more now. Many thanks. Rob

[Night Hawk]

We have a Lister Canalstar Engine and we change the oil every 100 or so hours, change the oil filter every other oil change. It's uncanny when I forget to change the oil...the engine gets to around 110 hours or so then starts to sounds slightly different - more fumes in the exhaust and so on. At first I thought it was just me imagining that my old engine was telling me something but there is a noticable difference even when I'm only a bit late with an oil change....Once changed, it behaves as usual.