My Backup Power Projects...

[ForgeCorvus]

Just a thought, how is the Lister you're using for your generator plant cooled ?

I ask because the Wolseley seems to have a water bath (if it was attached to a forge I'd call it a Bosh).
If its a similar set up you could run a heat-exchanger coil through it

[newtonweir]

Hello Briggs, and ForgeCorvus,

I'm so sorry, I only just noticed your two replies, my apologies.

FC, these sort of engines (Lister D, Wolseley WD) are generally all cooled by means of a water hopper. Simply, a tank of water that sits on top of the cylinder head and slowly evaporates. The water hopper will extend down around the cylinder to form a water jacket. The more complicated ones, and those that were modified for heavy work have the top of the water hopper sealed and an outlet pipe will feed to a radiator, the bottom of the radiator will feed back into the engine at the water drain cock (the lowest point in the engines water system. Some engines will have a fan on the radiator. Flow through the radiator is passive, and based entirely on water density (as determined by its temperature). I have seen engines that are screen cooled, i.e. the hot water drips over a fine screen to cool it before it is collected in a hopper hand fed back to the engine.
My Lister diesel however is air cooled, and has an impeller fan on the flywheel which blows air from the fan shroud and up through a cylinder shroud.

Briggs, a couple of things to look for...
-cracks in the crank case (caused by frost)
-get the spark plug out, or take one with you, connect it to the magneto, short the plug on the magneto body, turn the flywheel, check for a good spark
-check around the main bearing (where the drive shaft leaves the crank case) make sure it isn't leaking oil there
-ideally see it running (you don't have to fill it with petrol and water for a quick one minute run), just fill the float chamber with petrol, and watch it run

As long as the crank case is sound, and the main bearing is sound, everything else can be easily fixed. The hobby of stationary engines has a large following, and there are firms out there making parts still. I recently had some custom piston rings made for a Lister D built in 1937 which had been rebored two or three times, and needed 3" + 0.060" compression and oil control rings, but I got it done for £50. There are firms out there such as http://www.stationaryengineparts.com/home.php who will help you with whatever you need. And fleabay turns up all sorts of spares. I've rebuilt two carburettors from ebay part.
Good luck, and don't be afraid of buying a wreck and getting it going, but don't pay more than £80 for any engine.

S.

[ForgeCorvus]

FC, these sort of engines (Lister D, Wolseley WD) are generally all cooled by means of a water hopper. Simply, a tank of water that sits on top of the cylinder head and slowly evaporates. The water hopper will extend down around the cylinder to form a water jacket. The more complicated ones, and those that were modified for heavy work have the top of the water hopper sealed and an outlet pipe will feed to a radiator, the bottom of the radiator will feed back into the engine at the water drain cock (the lowest point in the engines water system. Some engines will have a fan on the radiator. Flow through the radiator is passive, and based entirely on water density (as determined by its temperature). I have seen engines that are screen cooled, i.e. the hot water drips over a fine screen to cool it before it is collected in a hopper hand fed back to the engine.

Thats what I thought.
If you had one with mods for a radiator you could plumb the inlet and outlet into a heat-exchanger as if it was a back-boiler

My Lister diesel however is air cooled, and has an impeller fan on the flywheel which blows air from the fan shroud and up through a cylinder shroud.

Cool, sounds like the engine on my old Citroen Diana (may she rest in peace)..... I'm sure there'd be a use for that warm air

[Briggs]

Thanks for the tips. The one I was after went for £77 and I was outbid by a £1. I will keep my eyes open for a diesel one. Is there a model I should look for, I see a few Lister D1 advertised. Are they okay?

[newtonweir]

Hi,

ForgeCorvus - the manual for that Lister SR1 diesel says it can have an exhaust pipe up to 20ft long... I was thinking of running the exhaust outside, so I would have a length of exhaust pipe about 3ft long. I reckon multiple close wound turns of 10mm microbore copper tubing around that with water pumped through would reclaim a lot of engine heat - I have saved our old hot water cylinder for this!

Briggs - well, Lister D, nice old engines, reliable, aesthetic, well supported for parts - but only give 1.5hp (in the main). Now, if you want to generate power, as I do, you kneed about 1hp to produce 650 to 750W. Some people will say 1hp = 1kW, this is wrong, it is an 'ideal world' figure and not practically obtainable.
As well as allowing (say) 1hp for 750W, you need to add latency, or reserve into that - you don't want to run your engine or generator at full tilt 100% of the time.

Now, I have a Lister D on a dynamo, which charges a car battery which powers things through a 500W inverter, this set up is OK, because the engine isn't required to power through the load, it can just charge the battery at a slow and steady rate, and power is drawn from the battery.
However, in contrast, my diesel SR1 will produce mains voltage for immediate use right out the regulator - so this set up needs reserve.
So, the engine is 5.5hp, this could give us around 4kW of electricity available.
However, the alternator is 2.2kW, so I will be under-working the engine at all times, so provided I don't plug too much into the alternator, that will under run as well.

The best Lister air cooled diesels of this type to go for are the ST or SR kind, ST is best, the number after the letters gives you the number of cylinders - more cylinders gives more hp. There are LDs, LRs, and LTs as well, but these are less powerful, they used to run dumper trucks and so on.

There are so many makes and models of engines out there, its difficult to make a choice, a lot depends on what you can lay your hands on. My diesel was a genuine barn-find, and it took £120 to bribe the farmer - and that was barely in running condition, but he did get his wife to load it onto a pallet and deliver it to me.

Cheers,

S.

[Technik]

Newtonweir - it makes me smile to see someone with so much passion for pre-war technology. This engines are beautiful both mechanically and easthetic. You have a nice little collection there
I think you've ignited a spark in me to try this too

[newtonweir]

Thanks Technik, I hope you catch the bug as I did!

[newtonweir]

Hi all,

Well, I finally finished my diesel generator project, here it is :



The engine was found in a barn.
The alternator was a partially complete ebay job.
The pulleys were machined in return for beer.
I welded the trolley, and generally bodged it all together.

Remaining side projects from this are :
-Noise reduction
-WVO production
-Waste heat recovery

Regards,

S.

[Hamradioop]

absolutely fantastic project. Nice to see it running.

[Sg200sx]

Hi what frequency output do you get from this unit or are you just going for voltage over frequency ie just for lighting and heat rather than anything electronic?