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Pelapone Ricardo


Gudleik Helle

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I always thought the RIgas was a vintage sounding/looking unit of modernish construction but fell foul of the clean emissions act or what ever shame that a few dozens units are classed in with 1000's of road units & banned when the total output of nastiest is possibly equiv to the Saturday night smokers out the back of the "Dog& Duck" same as befell the poor old 2 Stroke motor some years ahfter it's almost demise the pollution is as bad if not worse so so the banners are head scratching & saying perhaps it wasn't the 2Smoke that was the problem

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Yes, the Rigas Dizelis was (and no doubt still is) based on a WW2 Deutz engine. Apparently the Germans built a factory in Latvia to produce them for military purposes, and after the war ended the locals, saying in Latvian "If it ain't broke don't fix it", just kept on knocking them out. We had one fitted in our last boat. It sounded lovely, though not quiet, but we did have to run the engine for quite a while before the exhaust cleared.

Edited by Athy
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These motors were fairly common here at one time......as mentioned they were supplied as standby gensets with electric track signalling gear............Pelapone was a "captive' brand of GEC ,and only seen here on gensets ...............I had two of the four cylinder engines from gensets.............I replaced these motors with something more saleable,like a Perkins 6/ 354.................IMHO they are a relic from the days when there was a two year waiting list to buy a diesel engine.....of any brand...........and you took what you could get..................My other comment is if you desire a  "orphan" engine,take my advice and get a direct injection type,not a Ricardo chamber,which will surely crack between the valve seats and the combustion chamber.......................As for value ,thats very easy.....$350 a ton......at the moment.

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Here's another engine that's not really suitable for a canal boat.  Spares almost nonexistent, gearbox adapter plate unavailable, etc.

Course, there are one or two advantages:

£130 from eBay 

Costs very little to run at canal speeds

Sounds gorgeous 

Pushes the 55' boat along very nicely, and stops it within it's own length.

 

 

IMG_0088.JPG

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3 hours ago, NB Esk said:

Here's another engine that's not really suitable for a canal boat.  Spares almost nonexistent, gearbox adapter plate unavailable, etc.

Course, there are one or two advantages:

£130 from eBay 

Costs very little to run at canal speeds

Sounds gorgeous 

Pushes the 55' boat along very nicely, and stops it within it's own length.

 

 

IMG_0088.JPG

Is this a Dorman 2LB?  These appear to be not very popular on the canal and from what I have read about them (which is not much) they look like an ideal boat engines. Is this in a boat and where are you?, I would love to find out a bit more and have a listen to one of these.

 

...............Dave

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6 hours ago, dmr said:

Is this a Dorman 2LB?  These appear to be not very popular on the canal and from what I have read about them (which is not much) they look like an ideal boat engines. Is this in a boat and where are you?, I would love to find out a bit more and have a listen to one of these.

 

...............Dave

It is Dave, it powers my boat a treat but they don't come up that often.  Other points that may put people off, like the lack of a suitable gearbox bell housing etc. (I had to fabricate my own)

However, all may not be lost, I did hear somewhere that these were being produced once more (obviously not in UK, probably China?)  Don't quote me on that as I can't recall where I read it.  Strong, bomb proof engine though.....

Consider the spares situation, I had to buy a donor engine that came with a good supply of new spares.

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, NB Esk said:

Here's another engine that's not really suitable for a canal boat.  Spares almost nonexistent, gearbox adapter plate unavailable, etc.

Course, there are one or two advantages:

£130 from eBay 

Costs very little to run at canal speeds

Sounds gorgeous 

Pushes the 55' boat along very nicely, and stops it within it's own length.

 

 

IMG_0088.JPG

 

Is that a PRM260D gearbox on there?

 

If so it looks TINY, and shows what a huge lump that Dorman must be.

 

I've only ever seen one and I declined to buy it, even though it was for sale. I like to be able top see the flywheel on a vintage engine.

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9 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Is that a PRM260D gearbox on there?

 

If so it looks TINY, and shows what a huge lump that Dorman must be.

 

I've only ever seen one and I declined to buy it, even though it was for sale. I like to be able top see the flywheel on a vintage engine.

They are big lumps. If I am correct its a fraction over 3 litres, ticks over slowly but can rev quite high (1800?) if you need that extra bit of power. I was interested as this might meet my needs for a JD3 replacement....lots of power with the good sound of a twin. In fact I think its torque is pretty much the same as the JD3 but from only two cylinders.

I believe they can be got for much much less than a Gardner 2LW and green is so much nicer than grey ?. The spares situation would be a big concern though

 

The JD3 injection pump has just started pissing out diesel, I am tempted to just go a buy a new pump (this is the big advantage of the JD3) but it will be at least £1200 which means physiologically making the decision to keep the JD3 for quite a few more years. If only it would tickover a bit slower and smoke a bit less.

 

I think I might paint the flywheel red and make a little peep hole in the bellhousing ? .

 

............Dave

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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Is that a PRM260D gearbox on there?

 

If so it looks TINY, and shows what a huge lump that Dorman must be.

 

I've only ever seen one and I declined to buy it, even though it was for sale. I like to be able top see the flywheel on a vintage engine.

Yes, a 260 and it is a lump. You wouldn't want it on your toe. ?

 

43 minutes ago, dmr said:

They are big lumps. If I am correct its a fraction over 3 litres, ticks over slowly but can rev quite high (1800?) if you need that extra bit of power. I was interested as this might meet my needs for a JD3 replacement....lots of power with the good sound of a twin. In fact I think its torque is pretty much the same as the JD3 but from only two cylinders.

I believe they can be got for much much less than a Gardner 2LW and green is so much nicer than grey ?. The spares situation would be a big concern though

 

The JD3 injection pump has just started pissing out diesel, I am tempted to just go a buy a new pump (this is the big advantage of the JD3) but it will be at least £1200 which means physiologically making the decision to keep the JD3 for quite a few more years. If only it would tickover a bit slower and smoke a bit less.

 

I think I might paint the flywheel red and make a little peep hole in the bellhousing ? .

 

............Dave

It's 3.2 litres but the max governed speed is much lower at 780 rpm.  The flywheel is massive giving it bags of torque.

out of interest here's a screenshot from the original eBay advert.

 

 

IMG_0235.JPG

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11 hours ago, dmr said:

They are big lumps. If I am correct its a fraction over 3 litres, ticks over slowly but can rev quite high (1800?) if you need that extra bit of power. I was interested as this might meet my needs for a JD3 replacement....lots of power with the good sound of a twin. In fact I think its torque is pretty much the same as the JD3 but from only two cylinders.

I believe they can be got for much much less than a Gardner 2LW and green is so much nicer than grey ?. The spares situation would be a big concern though

 

The JD3 injection pump has just started pissing out diesel, I am tempted to just go a buy a new pump (this is the big advantage of the JD3) but it will be at least £1200 which means physiologically making the decision to keep the JD3 for quite a few more years. If only it would tickover a bit slower and smoke a bit less.

 

I think I might paint the flywheel red and make a little peep hole in the bellhousing ? .

 

............Dave

We do quite a few Dorman LBs. The spares situation is not brilliant but not impossible either. The good thing is that you will seldom need anything other than service parts as they are an incredibly robust engine. One of ours has been in a hotel boat dragging a butty for ten years without missing a beat 10000 hrs and rising. I keep one in our warehouse just for me. If I ever get time to build another boat it'll go in it. A seriously under rated engine.  Sound terrific too.The Chinese do make a clone LB, Not CE compliant though and has their own fuel equipment on it which is pretty much unserviceable in the UK

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On 05/11/2018 at 08:11, steamraiser2 said:

We do quite a few Dorman LBs. The spares situation is not brilliant but not impossible either. The good thing is that you will seldom need anything other than service parts as they are an incredibly robust engine. One of ours has been in a hotel boat dragging a butty for ten years without missing a beat 10000 hrs and rising. I keep one in our warehouse just for me. If I ever get time to build another boat it'll go in it. A seriously under rated engine.  Sound terrific too.The Chinese do make a clone LB, Not CE compliant though and has their own fuel equipment on it which is pretty much unserviceable in the UK

 

Well as you have one in storage.....if I sent you some dimensions could you have a measure and tell me if there is any chance of one fitting into my boat?? We have a quite small engine room built for the Beta JD3 and I suspect the beds might be too close together to fit an engine with a bigger flywheel. It might well be that the JD3 is really the only viable engine for us in which case I can stop wasting my energy dreaming of bigger old ones ?

 

and...what are those twin belts doing on the front of the engine?, it looks almost like two water pumps, and it looks a bit like they are driven off the cam rather than the crank???

 

...............Dave

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  • 2 months later...
On 04/11/2018 at 20:21, NB Esk said:

It is Dave, it powers my boat a treat but they don't come up that often.  Other points that may put people off, like the lack of a suitable gearbox bell housing etc. (I had to fabricate my own)

However, all may not be lost, I did hear somewhere that these were being produced once more (obviously not in UK, probably China?)  Don't quote me on that as I can't recall where I read it.  Strong, bomb proof engine though.....

Consider the spares situation, I had to buy a donor engine that came with a good supply of new spares.

 

 

 

 

I think I read somewhere way back that there was a connection between Dorman (which I have LB3) and Ricardo.?

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On 06/11/2018 at 10:11, dmr said:

 

Well as you have one in storage.....if I sent you some dimensions could you have a measure and tell me if there is any chance of one fitting into my boat?? We have a quite small engine room built for the Beta JD3 and I suspect the beds might be too close together to fit an engine with a bigger flywheel. It might well be that the JD3 is really the only viable engine for us in which case I can stop wasting my energy dreaming of bigger old ones ?

 

and...what are those twin belts doing on the front of the engine?, it looks almost like two water pumps, and it looks a bit like they are driven off the cam rather than the crank???

 

...............Dave

Dave , I hadn't noticed your request for dimensions. Drop me a pm with your requirements and I'll measure the one newly arrived here.

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1 hour ago, beardshave said:

I think I read somewhere way back that there was a connection between Dorman (which I have LB3) and Ricardo.?

There was a connection between Ricardo and just about any diesel manufacturer, certainly in UK and the rest of the empire, but also with some US and European makers.  Harry Ricardo ( d 1974) did much early diesel combustion work and his 1920's book (The Internal Combustion Engine)  was an engineering definitive.  Ricardo invented the Comet and Whirlpool combustion chambers and had a long list of diesel engine patents to his name.  Manufacturers paid to use his patents, and combustion chamber designs.

See the Wikipedia entry for Harry Ricardo.

N

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1 hour ago, steamraiser2 said:

Dave , I hadn't noticed your request for dimensions. Drop me a pm with your requirements and I'll measure the one newly arrived here.

 

Sorry, I should have contacted you. I have been thinking long and hard about this (yet again) and concluded that our Beta JD3 is the right engine for us. We usually do well  over 1000 hours each year and are pretty much dependent on the engine for everything, and so a good solid modern engine is what we need, I just wish I could make it sound a bit better (and smoke a bit less). Having swotted up on all the vintage engines, obtained torque curves and speed ranges etc, I did conclude that if we did get a vintage then the Dorman 2LB would be my choice.

 

Actually my real first choice would be a Kelvin K2 but that just wouldn't fit. The engine room is quite small, designed for the JD3, so even a Dorman would be a bit difficult.

 

Your comment that the spares situation is not so good was also a factor, if the JD3 does fail then as last resort we can purchase a drop in replacement, in fact we did this when we first got the boat. I hope to bump into the boat with the 3LB that you have recently done sometime this year and hopefully have a listen to it....that might change my mind.

 

................Dave.

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Why not a 3 or 4cyl Perkins  from the same era,spares available everywhere ,and cheap.........as opposed to a Dorman orphan.....unloved and unwanted......incidentally Perkins took over Dorman,in one of the govt sponsored "pay nothing,but keep on the workforce....at least till after the general election."......so you can pretend your 3/152 is a Dorman..........or even a Gardner....Perkins took Gardner on the same kind of deal.

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