Micro CoGen.

Sounds like you are on the right track Ed... our 6/1 kits are selling for $1990 a set.

Best of luck!

dieselgman

A slight clarification Tim... the injector will never 'creak' or open as long as the injector fuel lines are loosened. You spin over the engine long enough for air to exit those loosened lines and only clear fuel is coming out. Then tighten them up and the injectors should begin opening - a hydraulic raltionship with the fuel pumps.

dieselgman

Henry,

I concur completely with all you have said here... Lister/Petter has badly dropped the ball on their US operations as well as stepping out of a leading role in innovation and expansion for the past decade or longer. This has been very frustrating for us dealers and especially bad for end-users.

We do NOT recommend their Alpha series engines as a strong competitor to the others mentioned, and certainly NOT in terms of longevity. The US Military has used these extensively in battlefield and other support equipment so there is a fair amount of activity in rebuild and maintenance parts for them. These do come up fairly often at auction sales. My company has picked up the ball for much of the legacy Lister equipment including the Alpha series... LPA/LPW/LPWS. We maintain parts stocks into the $ millions and ship practically anywhere in the world.

dieselgman

Has your unit ever been stored outside? It is common enough for moisture to enter manifolds and damage valve seats, or stick rings in place if the valve is open. Also sometimes internal condensation can happen if your weather is just right for it. Other than that, carbon can be removed and your unit restored with a bit of elbow grease. Some people soak them full of diesel or kerosene and allow everything to loosen up that way. We generally just pull them apart and replace everything that is suspect. That can be as easy as a ring set and gasket set if engine not too badly worn.

You can use compressed air to help remove excess carbon if you first remove the manifolds.

dieselgman

Henry,

As long as there is a viable shipping and communications system available, a strong parts network is available for most makes regardless of locale. This is especially true of the major solid brands you mention and of course Lister as well. There are a few we would not recommend based on these same factors - perhaps Deutz, Lombardini might fall into this area (strong engines but difficult or expensive to get parts for). Isuzu has also proven a bit difficult for us to source wear and tear components - we have a small fleet of rentals using the Isuzu 4 cylinder.

Based on this same criteria, we believe that Lister is a very strong contender for minimum maintenance. Not the modern water-cooled variety though.

In Alaska, the major oil companies switched over from Lister gensets to Kubota in the late 1990's. These decisions are sometimes driven by a different set of parameters than you or I might use as owners of only 1 or 2 machines. In part we as individuals have limited budgets for repair and replacements. The oil companies fully expect to replace these expendable fleets on a 3 to 5-year cycle regardless of condition. The Kubotas have been a solid choice for the reasons you mention, this is pleasing to the bean counters for this large fleet. The references to life-expectancy figures of 20 to 40 k/hours however do not seem to match up that well with the mainstream of these engines. We buy up their surplus and see a lot of blown up stuff well under the 10,000 hour mark. Still, in a modern water-cooled engine, we would take the Kubota hands-down over a similar Lister any day. The modern water-cooled Listers just have not lived up to the Lister reputation that was built on their legacy engines over the years. Go back a generation and the picture is much different though. The Lister air-cooled stuff is legendary for its reliability and life-expectancy.

I offer these observations based on long-term experience as an owner and operator of this equipment as well as a business owner supplying parts and service for these machines all over the world.

dieselgman

Just need a good size lathe and some steel and aluminum blanks to experiment with... shaft extension seems to be the problem area.

dieselgman

Welcome to the forum David!

dieselgman

Yep, made me look!  We've had this discussion a little while ago about the potential mis-representation that the original Lister references make.
It makes me wonder about how copyrights are handled in England.

dieselgman

TS2 is well suited to run 7.5kW at 1800rpm but it may also be run from about 1200 to 2500 rpm.

dieselgman

The TS2 is a good prime mover for about 7.5kW. They are commonly used for generators and $200 is a steal on that. We pay $250 core charge all day long for these - regardless of location or condition.

Good find!

dieselgman

Sounds pretty good to me fab! We can't see a flaw in the old pump, but that is to be expected, they are a very finely lapped precision fit and there must be a flaw in that original element that was causing the erratic behavior.

For fuel pump supply line seal, Lister used what they call a Dowty washer. It is a steel washer with bonded rubber inner seal that squeezes onto the banjo threads and shoulder, and can conform to irregular surfaces - (within reason). The only drawback is they most often require replacement when removed and they are not easy on the pocketbook $$$  

Your fuel costs sound great as well! Keep up the good work!

dieselgman

Guys, if supply of the modified bearings (and hollow dippers to go along with) becomes an issue, we can investigate and stock them here. Up to this point we have left most of the modifications to others. Our forays into the clones is mostly as a service anyway and we prefer to tailor it to the real needs and gaps that might exist in the marketplace - not necessarily to compete with other viable sources, because the total demand is quite limited.

dieselgman

Foam does wonders for sound absorbtion. I use one of those containers for a mobile shop in Alaska... foamed and skinned inside, very little noise gets in or out.

dieselgman

It was also common for certain automotive pumps and alternators to have pressed-on pulleys. They required some minor special tooling to remove and install but were very effective and I have not seen any failures. I do not remember clearly, but I believe they used smooth shafts without any alignment keys.

dieselgman

Yes, quite the similarities there! Ha! Ha! Must be for the real hard-core geek guys and gals!