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Oh man; decisions....!


sniffy the great

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Started the day off with a GRP cruiser firmly in our sights  - viewings lined up etc and research done here:

And then we spot a narrowboat on sale ?10 minutes away and think “may as well take a look en route to Cruiser#1”. Guess what? Fell in love with the narrowboat. But it’s 3 times the price of the most expensive cruiser we were considering.

 

We are going to have to put in an offer, even though it’s not been out of the water for 5 years so we’d have to pay for that and a survey. But it was just what we’d always imagined.

 

I’m going to have to make an offer and hope for the best. 

 

Hey  - why do we get these ambitious ideas at our time of life?

 

Doug

 

 

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1 hour ago, sniffy the great said:

it’s not been out of the water for 5 years so we’d have to pay for that and a survey

See if you can arrange to have it stay out of the water if your offer is accepted, cos it’ll need blacking. 

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I was thinking of an offer subject to survey. This would necessitate it coming out of the water. If the survey was ok, then I’d get the blacking done while it was out. If it wasn’t, I.d back out and swallow the cost of a he survey.

 

Sound sensible?

 

incidentally, it has a Lister LPWS3 engine. Do these have a reputation, good or bad?

 

Doug

Edited by sniffy the great
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3 minutes ago, sniffy the great said:

I was thinking of an offer subject to survey. This would necessitate it coming out of the water. If the survey was ok, then I’d get the blacking done while it was out. If it wasn’t, I.d back out and swallow the cost of a he survey.

 

Sound sensible?

 

incidentally, it has a Lister LPWS3 engine. Do these have a reputation, good or bad?

 

Doug

 

You will need to discuss it with the boatyard taking the boat out of the water, especially if it is a dry dock.

 

Sometimes they have other work booked and use it for surveys in between longer jobs. 

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13 minutes ago, sniffy the great said:

 

I was thinking of an offer subject to survey. This would necessitate it coming out of the water. If the survey was ok, then I’d get the blacking done while it was out. If it wasn’t, I.d back out and swallow the cost of a he survey.

 

Sound sensible?

 

Perfectly sensible as long as you can get all parties to agree :)

 

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1 hour ago, sniffy the great said:

incidentally, it has a Lister LPWS3 engine. Do these have a reputation, good or bad?

Excellent engines.

I had the LPWS4 (same as the LPWS3 but with an extra cylinder)

 

It had done 10,000+ hours started 'on the button' and didn't use any oil (or leak)

 

It is critical to change the oil every 100 hours, even going a few hours over has led to 'problems' but is not an issue if you monitor your hours and act in time.

 

If you buy it I have most of the owners, workshop, and maintenance manuals, including a parts list.

 

I can dig them out and do some Pdf's for you.

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Excellent engines.

I had the LPWS4 (same as the LPWS3 but with an extra cylinder)

 

It had done 10,000+ hours started 'on the button' and didn't use any oil (or leak)

 

It is critical to change the oil every 100 hours, even going a few hours over has led to 'problems' but is not an issue if you monitor your hours and act in time.

 

If you buy it I have most of the owners, workshop, and maintenance manuals, including a parts list.

 

I can dig them out and do some Pdf's for you.

Yes, I passed on a boat that had a LPWS4 as there was no record of oil changes so I had the oil tested and the results indicated a high percentage of copper suggesting bearing wear.

 

IIRC you should also use a detergent oil in these engines. 

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Excellent engines.

I had the LPWS4 (same as the LPWS3 but with an extra cylinder)

 

It had done 10,000+ hours started 'on the button' and didn't use any oil (or leak)

 

It is critical to change the oil every 100 hours, even going a few hours over has led to 'problems' but is not an issue if you monitor your hours and act in time.

 

If you buy it I have most of the owners, workshop, and maintenance manuals, including a parts list.

 

I can dig them out and do some Pdf's for you.

I would be interested in the manuals mr denfield if you get the chance. Please, Thankyou 

Edited by rusty69
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Good luck with your survey and subsequent offer, and I hope you get the boat you want.  I did, a couple of weeks ago, and moved it to my home marina today.  

 

Edited by Tom Morgan
forgot to say something!
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I have the lpws4 and it seems a solid engine

note what others have said about the oil changes, it's shorter hours than a lot of engines because they use a small sump and filter

mine starts instantly with heaters and from cold has no smoke after 3 seconds

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9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Ok, I'll try and root them out - I've got a feeling they are on the boat but they may be with the spare engine - I'll have a check in the 'shed' ®, 

 

Stand by.

Thanks Alan. No hurry. I've been 20 years without a manual, but it would be useful. 

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That ludicrously short time between oil changes might make me think twice. It would mean that, if you were out cruising and did reasonably long days, the oil would need changing every fortnight.

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15 minutes ago, Athy said:

That ludicrously short time between oil changes might make me think twice. It would mean that, if you were out cruising and did reasonably long days, the oil would need changing every fortnight.

Which is why, when we were 'out' for 3 or 4 months I'd carry several cans of oil and several oil filters.

At 5 hours cruising a day its every 20 days, but you (we) don't cruise every day so it was every 5-6 weeks.

If you are all 'set up' it is only a 20 minute job.

 

Run engine for 10 minutes to warm oil

Pump-out oil, Change filter, Re-Fill oil another 10 minutes.

 

I could almost do it in the time it took SWMBO to get up and make a cup-of tea.

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24 minutes ago, Athy said:

That ludicrously short time between oil changes might make me think twice. It would mean that, if you were out cruising and did reasonably long days, the oil would need changing every fortnight.

our record was 6 days between changes (and even that was over by 3 hours) although that was unusual because we were travelling 16-18 hours per day

 

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5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Which is why, when we were 'out' for 3 or 4 months I'd carry several cans of oil and several oil filters.

At 5 hours cruising a day its every 20 days, but you (we) don't cruise every day so it was every 5-6 weeks.

If you are all 'set up' it is only a 20 minute job.

 

Run engine for 10 minutes to warm oil

Pump-out oil, Change filter, Re-Fill oil another 10 minutes.

 

I could almost do it in the time it took SWMBO to get up and make a cup-of tea.

This is an aspect of narrowboats that does make me pause. As someone who likes the cruising, the scenery, the ambience of boat living but is more or less a mechanical ignoramus, I wonder if my spectacles are too rose-tinted. I don’t think I’ve done an oil or filter change in my life - wouldn’t have a clue how to start. I suppose these days, there’s a handy video on YouTube.

 

I notice that the details of this boat say there is no running hours gauge. Is this unusual? Presumably without a gauge, it’s necessary to keep a log of the engine running hours. I also guess it’d be a good idea to change the oil and filter right away just in case?

 

Doug

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14 minutes ago, sniffy the great said:

I also guess it’d be a good idea to change the oil and filter right away just in case?

It would be a good idea to get some idea of when it had its last oil change (check thru the boat documentation for copies of invoices for oil, filters etc)

 

Irrespective of the 'hours' a boat should not be left standing (ie over Winter) with dirty, black, acidic oil in the engine, it should be changed before 'lay-up' even if it has only done a 'few' hours.

 

Re the 'hour clock' I think it was standard that the Lister engine panel was fitted with a 'clock', but if it hasn't got one, then it hasn't got one. 

No clock and not being used / moved / lifted out for 5 years would make me very suspicious of the level of preventative maintenance that has been done.

 

It is simple enough to buy and fit an 'engine hours clock'.

 

The lister engine panel should (would normally) look something like this :

 

 

IMG_1537.JPG

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