Listeroid top end lubricator

[veggie]

Automatic valve train lubrication.
Interesting setup. Especially for long duration runs.
Anyone know how this works?
I wonder if it uses the existing lister oil pump or a separate pump driven by a pulley.?
Where does the excess oil go ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b22NJmwoEzQ

veggie

[Carlb]

that looks like a lot of oil sitting there to me.

[bschwartz]

Seems really overkill to me.  Has ANYONE here had a top end failure due to lack of lubrication?

[playdiesel]

Go back and take another look. There is a piston pump mounted under the intake rocker arm, he closes the camera in on it in the video. The pump is drawing oil from the pool on top of the head and it of course returns there when it runs off the rockers. Kinda clever, but I tend to think like bschwartz, why when simple has worked for eons

[Ronmar]

There is a lot of oil up there, probably so much that the top of the valve guides are submerged...  Too much oil in a valve guide is probably not a good thing.  Wonder what the valves and exhaust look like?  All the original lister cross section drawings showing oil level have the level way down in the cups, with enough lube provided by wicking and misting when the head gets hot.

I think a better way would be to use some oil from the main pump thru a small capillary tube to the head.  A second tube could be installed from the head down to the crankcase.  With a properly functioning case vent flapper, the overall case vacume should move the oil from the head back to the case at someplace usefull such as over the cam bearing out by the injector pump...  The positioning of the upper end of the tube would determine the oil level maintained in the head.  A strategically placed glass tube could also show you flow up from the main pump.  No flow might indicate a pump problem before bottom end damage occurs...   

[Ronmar]

I think one needs to differentiate between true Listers and Listeroids in case the valve guides are cross drilled and swallow too much oil.

I don't recall ever seeing a cross drilled valve guide...

[vdubnut62]

Ronmar, are you sure that you would want your oil exposed to the "outside" and then returned to the crankcase?
Or maybe I misunderstood?
Ron

[Ronmar]

Ronmar, are you sure that you would want your oil exposed to the "outside" and then returned to the crankcase?
Or maybe I misunderstood?
Ron

Is the oil that lubricates the valve train or overhaed camshaft on your automobile engine reaching the outside?  All of this should be under a valve cover...  You really want the valve cover in place, so the oil mist created by the hot cylinder head is concentrated on the moving parts and not carried away by the surrounding air.

The original is a little cheesy, so I have been toying with the idea of one that covers better and extends down to cover the pushrods.  This would require a modification to, or the incorporation of the compression release into the design.

[Ronmar]

I don't recall ever seeing a cross drilled valve guide...

Here you go, an out of focus cross drilled valve guide

Interesting, is that out of your twin?  I have never come across one before.  Most every auto application I have ever come across have seals on the top to prevent oil intrusion.  All the other small engines I have worked on have had no such holes that I recall.  I know my 6/1 dosn't have them, because a hole like that would cause the engine to consume all the oil in the spring cup, and mine dosn't as the top of the guide is just above the top of the spring recess/cup... 

[Ronmar]

Yea, but that "feature" kind of defeats the oil mist lubrication scheme by draining most all the oil out of the spring cups...  I would say that too little oil is as bad as too much.

[Crofter]

Mine appear to be drilled too as no oil is accumulating. I plan to restrict the holes next time I have it apart. Something semi porous like a tooth pick of balsa wood or a piece of butcher cord. still feed a seep to the guide but also hold a reservoir of oil in the spring recesses.