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Easy start engine.


planedriver

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6 minutes ago, facthunter said:

No way. It's a hit and miss governor where the valve stays closed to keep the revs down and only fires when power is required.(load).  That Vid is quite old. Nev

The guy has the sound down exactly, but I can't place the engine; it would be quite old too.

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It could be any one of a large number of stationary engines built all over the world. They are actually quite efficient because when they fire it's a decent  push and when they don't no fuel goes into the motor. The inlet valve does not open. Would not suit a moving vehicle as it would be jerky. On full load the engine sounds normal and even.  Nev

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I reckon it's an Indian Lister, sold as a Metex in Australia, and frequently referred to as a "Listeroid". A couple of friends had an agency for them for a long time, from the 80's to the early 2000's.

The Indians copied all the 1940's Listers and built them in backyard workshops, utilising kids like the ones in the video.

 

Metex kind of ran out of customers here after purchasers realised Indian backyard manufacturing methods wasn't really up to the reliability they were used to from the original Listers.

Plus, Australian exhaust emission laws started to be applied to imported stationary engines, as well as motor vehicles, from the early 2000's, so that helped can the Metex imports.

 

However, that hasn't stopped probably at least 20 other Indian companies from manufacturing "Listeroids", they're still very popular in India.

 

https://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/lister-engines.html

 

 

 

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And here's the story of the Lister Company

 

 

 

Not to be confused with the antiseptic solution, Listerine.

 

Listerine is an American brand of antiseptic mouthwash that is promoted with the slogan "Kills germs that cause bad breath", Named after Joseph Lister, who pioneered antiseptic surgery at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Scotland, Listerine was developed in 1879 by Joseph Lawrence, a chemist in St. Louis, Missouri. Inspired by Louis Pasteur's ideas on microbial infection, the English doctor Joseph Lister demonstrated in 1865 that use of carbolic acid on surgical dressings would significantly reduce rates of post-surgical infection. Lister's work in turn inspired St. Louis-based doctor Joseph Lawrence to develop an alcohol-based formula for a surgical antiseptic which included eucalyptol, menthol, methyl salicylate, and thymol (its exact composition was a trade secret). Lawrence named his antiseptic "Listerine" in honor of Lister.

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Our local Rural Heritage Village preserves and restores all sorts of old machinery. Their annual swap meet attracts enthusiasts from far and wide.

There’s nostalgia hearing old Listers like the ones I battled in my childhood, but it gets bizarre when dozen of old farts sit proudly running their restored engines: noisy, fumes and smoke and these old blokes couldn’t look happier!

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Hey watch it! I'm one of those "old farts" who happens to also restore vehicles and machines as well as fly. The video certainly mimics a single cylinder, twin flywheel Lister 4-stroke diesel commonly called a CS (for "cold start"). I have a 6 HP at 400 rpm example built in 1946. It worked for 50+ years driving a pump at Wirrabara Forest in Sth Aust and the only issue when it was taken out of service and replaced was a blown head gasket. That's all it took to have it running sweetly again. Throttled back to just above idle it's exposed pushrods fascinate viewers who have never seen 4 stroke valve operation on an engine. 

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Bushy Glad to hear you are one of those Old Farts keeping our heritage alive.

When I visit my home town every few years, my brother takes me into his garage and challenges me to start the old Lister pump engine from our farm. In the early 50s our dad bought it at Casino Show, after seeing a demonstration of it running while sitting on four beer bottles. I have memories of starting it at quite a young age, my little hand could barely cover the air intake to richen the mixture.

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I spent 7 years crank-starting a Southern Cross YB single-cylinder diesel engine on a 32V lighting plant, in my teenage years and early 20's. Cold morning starts were a PIA! It's not something I want to revisit!

Even earlier than that, my Father purchased a Ronaldson-Tippett CK model 2 cyl, 25-27.5HP for driving a Stalker centrifugal pump on our dairy farm. Now that was a monster of a thing to crank! No electric starters for them!

 

I currently own a 3 cyl Ruston-Hornsby VSO, awaiting restoration. It produces about 30HP at a maximum speed of 1000RPM. It weighs over 800kgs!

I'm not looking forward to cranking that thing either, I think I'll be setting up some kind of electric start for it!

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I used to start the Lister engine twice a day for milking and charging the lighting batteries. never a problem to start and that was in the UK. Beautifully reliable. A similar engine was the Petter and I bought one for my 28" yacht, what a heap of shit it was. Nothing like the old motors of the fifties.

As far as starting diesels it is more about technique than strength. I used to hand start an 11 litre AEC engine powering a compressor. Just bounce it backwards and forwards until you get up momentum and then get it over TDC.

I can't remember if the Petter had a manual decompresser or if it had a groove in the flywheel with the decompresser running in it.

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1 hour ago, Yenn said:

I used to start the Lister engine twice a day for milking and charging the lighting batteries. never a problem to start and that was in the UK. Beautifully reliable. A similar engine was the Petter and I bought one for my 28" yacht, what a heap of shit it was. Nothing like the old motors of the fifties.

As far as starting diesels it is more about technique than strength. I used to hand start an 11 litre AEC engine powering a compressor. Just bounce it backwards and forwards until you get up momentum and then get it over TDC.

I can't remember if the Petter had a manual decompresser or if it had a groove in the flywheel with the decompresser running in it.

There was a knack to everything, particularly on the farm. As you grew up you learnt how to milk a cow, when you had the strength startinf engines, using a crowbar, late teens shearing sheep, throwing hay and grain bags

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Back when I first started shearing ( nearly 50 years ago ) Lister motors were common in shearing sheds driving overhead gear.

 

There was a long overhead shaft the length of the shearing board that the shearing stands down tubes were driven off by a large pully and cone drive.

 

The shaft was driven by the Lister motor with a flat belt.

 

I can still smell the fumes and hear the " choof choof " of the old motor, the steam coming out of the old 44 gallon drum full of water used for cooling.

 

They were bullet proof and ran on the smell of an oil rag.  

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1 hour ago, facthunter said:

There's nothing wrong with the quality of them.. You don't need a radiator Just keep water in it and the boiling takes the heat away..  No pump needed Thermo syphon.   Nev

But protect it from frosts- our pump engine sat on the creek bank for decades and finally suffered a cracked head, which was easily brazed up.

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Our Ronaldson Tippet was stolen out of our shearing shed around 20 years ago. It would have taken at least two very strong blokes to lift it.

Whenever I see vintage engines I take a very good look - I’d recognise it immediately due to a particular braze repair on it.

I believe these vintage engines bring big money these days.

 

Frogs lived in the cooling water tank, but by morning smoko she would be pretty warm so they would be out on top lifting their feet. On one occasion the old engine spluttered and coughed and the shearer’s were going crook. A frog had got too hot and jumped from the top of the cooling water tank straight onto the spark plug lead. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire !!

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