Micro CoGen.

Hi all,

Forgive me, I havent read the whole deal on this engine, but when my engine came from India, the bump clearance was not correct. It would start, but not every time. I would go through bump clearance specs and set them correctly. Since I did this, my 16/2 running WMO doesnt smoke and starts easily. I converted mine from the CoVs it came with (Atul told me they were fitted because the Americans like them) to blanking plugs, and adjusted the cylinder block shims to spec, and the rig runs like a clock besides the slop in the linkages. I still have to bush the arms for bronze to fix that, but indeed, getting bump clearance correct fixed most everything.

Goodluck,
Rom

Yea, those are good rigs if you have the right one. You should look for this one in particular. http://www.nivelparts.com/pages/product.aspx?sku=700&c=014&n=

It has brushes almost triple the size of the standard motor brushes. Rated at 1hp there abouts, wont go over compression, but is a quick setup compared to standard automotive starting with a flywheel and such.

Chris R used a standard cart starter and put it on the gen head pulley, and that set of gear ratios allowed him to start the unit very easily i believe. Only thing he found was that it wore the brushes down rather quickly, but I havent got the final verdict on what the cause was, whether it was the speed the starter was running at being tied to the gen head, or just the long hours his machine does. I looked into one way bearings to see if we could 'disconnect' the starter for long running times.

More news as it develops, I am moving my lister to its final place soon, and then I will look into a permanent starter arrangement like the above.

Rom

Hi all,

Some might have read a thread or two about my involvement with Lister slow turners in the Bahamas, I just wanted to point out to folk down here that I have a pretty large stock of parts here to help with the repair of RA Lister CS and VA series engines available. In stock, in Abaco. I also have 3 VA engines with SoM beds that will require checking over and new fuel systems available. Sheet metal is in semi rough shape, but nothing that cant be repaired.

Parts were imported direct from India and are reasonably priced, duty paid of course.

Send me a private message for more info.

Rom

Hey hey,

Just sitting here waiting for the power to come back up on this lil rock in the Abacos. Weather is finally starting to calm. I didnt bother to shutter up for this one, underestimated it slightly, but came out fine. Someone clocked 148mph gusts a couple miles from here, so it wasnt as bad as it could be. Be careful on the coasts and low lying areas though, storm surge is trouble. I sunk a golf cart I forgot to move to higher ground. Will be working on pulling the motor and batteries tomorrow and get it cleaned out to fire up. Battery pack looks good, didnt burn the terminals off, just polished the frame around the shorting areas.

Best of luck to everyone in the way of Sandy, I cant begin to imagine how difficult it must be to deal with storms like that in the States.

Rom

Hey All,

Been thinking about auto shutdown systems. I was wondering what everyone has been doing. I have seen a few with murphy switches and such, and I have one here that hasnt been installed. I have seen a few systems on here, but cant seem to find much at this time. Can someone provide a link with photos of the mounting of these systems and such? Hell I have 8" of bronze fittings to just make a mount for the sensor for the radiator fan, where is the murphy sensor going and such, without having 15 pounds of bronze hanging off the end of the water jacket manifolds?

Thanks
Rom

1. what prime mover are you using or planning to use?  Power Anand 16/2, Broadcrown 19kw

2. what hp or kwatt (mechanical) output is the prime mover? Above

3. what generator are you using? AC only? DC only? or both? AC only

4. how long have you had the unit? '09 for Lister Type, '08 for the Broadcrown

5. how long does it run or are you planning to run,  per day, week, month or year? Per Day

6. is the unit used for primary power, backup, emergency, or? With our power outages, Backup

7. do you harvest the waste heat and use that heat?  if so for what purpose? domestic hot water
production, space heating or both? Do not harvest

8. if you are not harvesting the waste heat, are you planning to do so?  do you have any interest in doing so? Not at this time

9. do you use any form of automation, such as autostart? No, found to be very expensive, easy to burn up equipment do to the nature of the grid failures

10. if you do not use automation, would you do so if it were commonly available and reasonable in price? For shutdown systems on the Lister, as a kit? Sure

11. how would you rank fuel efficiency of a unit, not very important, somewhat important, moderately important, very important, or most important. In the case of the Broadcrown, Very Important, having to burn 6.20$ a gal diesel. Lister burning WMO, not so much, cant burn it fast enough really.

now a couple of other questions

12. where do you find the information you rely on to make decisions about your genset designs? Internet

13. do you feel that there is enough information available to you to make good decisions regarding design? Yes, I find 99% of what I need on Microcogen and Listerengine.

Rom

Nice Chris,

I have recently found an SR1 on lubbers that one weekend we will go collect and hold until we can restore or find someone who wants to do the same. It's not well at this time, I believe the piston is frozen in the bore.

It's rated at 6hp at 1800. I believe the ST is maybe 4, I get confused with those engines.

Thanks for the reassurance, I have a friend here I convinced to couple a ST5 to his VA. He is a long time diesel mechanic (76yo and still working in the cramped conditions of boats) and did not like the flicker or the fact that his UPS wouldnt take the power. Loose poles on the rotor didnt help me any either. Well his twin Veebelt pulley from grainger was only 10Lbs aswell. My ST12 and the ST5 came from Power Solutions and are great bits of equipment, and I'm sure we will make it viable enough to get him to run it more often.

With the flicker reduction of the 1 phase 110-220v reg from http://www.centralgagenerator.com/parts/parts.php will help me restore faith in this guy in the system.

Please dont think this engine will come out like new, polished copper and the like. VA One will be a working engine, ingesting my horrible waste oil. And when it burns out its bore, we will send the barrel to the machinist to be sleeved and do it again. I have 15 alloy piston sets downstairs waiting to restore these engines to service, or replace parts on the same. I consider it a labour of love, and the 3 other VAs I have at this time will be put back into operating condition eventually.

Rom

Small update tonight regarding the head

Rom

Hey everyone,

Started a new thread on the Lister Engine forum about a VA that my brother and I are bringing back to life.

Click http://listerengine.com/smf/index.php?topic=6366.0 see some photos if you are interested. Image heavy.

Rom

Was just talking to someone about my ST head and thought of Joel, any new news? I hope he is still on the right track.

Rom

I'm in Abaco, The Commonwealth of the Bahamas

Rom

Well I reason that TRBs are the reason we dont get SoM weight flywheels for listeroids. The bearing is too far inboard to support even the regular wheels IMO. Least not without flex in the crank. Compared to the white metal bearings, the TRBs are like 4" away from the flywheel, this distance is not supported compared to the plain bearing units. Maybe it really it isnt alot for the sake of flex, but a 120# flywheel is a joke compared to the 300+# SoM units.

Rom

Yea, the oil still comes out black. Some stuff that looks like soot comes out, but not nearly enough to change the colour. I do have a Raw Power inline oil heater for the centrifuge, maybe getting the oil good n hot will help to seperate more out. I doubt the oil would ever be clear coming out, but the more junk you get out the better.

Still, its just a listeroid, parts are cheap. I wouldnt want to run a real one on the stuff though.

Rom

The Centrifuge is a turnkey unit from www.simplecentrifuge.com

It is a 2 part rotor with a feeder cone. They have a better style unit up for sale now that I believe is more efficient than mine. I would suppose you would have to buy the turnkey to get the newest rotor, but you can get my older 2 part rotor verison for $650 - just the rotor.

I thought to build my own rig with their rotor, but I didnt/dont have the time for it, so I ordered the whole rig so I could get on with it. Mr Lister would still be on diesel if I didnt buy the turnkey rig.

Rom