TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

What treatment was done on the oil?

It sounds like it was used for 10 years without much maintenance, as evidenced by the 'external leaks'.
A scraper, caustic and hot water (use correct PPE) should help clean off accumulated polymerised oil from the engine. Sand / bead blasting would be a last resort, but should remove it from the metal.
With the valve seats in poor condition, I would expect partially combusted fuel to be present in the manifolds. This could also contribute to wear of the valve stems.
Are you repairing the engine for him or have you acquired it for yourself?
Can you post some photos please?
Regards,
Tony

TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Sounds like it had too light a load for much of the time. Constant rpm motors are not good candidates for wvo.
BTW Tony one thing that grit blasting is not good at is removing grease.

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Agreed
Any diesel lightly loaded will glaze bores resulting in high oil consumption. 10 years with low load and maybe little maintenance? Thank the beauty of a Lister!! Would love it as part of an off grid system I'm planning but the dBa would exceed the neighbours patience I think

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

At this point I think it is a case of chicken or egg with regard to the valve damage.

Unfortunately the heads, barrels and pistons have already been sent for repair.

The unit has only been used to charge batteries during inclement weather so the load factor would not be great.

As far as maintenance goes they were meticulous with oil and filter changes but unfortunately are as mechanically minded as a Koala.

For servicing internals it is a case of ' if it ain't broke don't fix it'.

I'm helping them repair it as a good neighbour would, I sourced a top set from http://www.stationaryengineparts.com and they kindly sent a full set instead, the bottom end seems ok and I'm not that keen to put that much work into it as I have enough of my own work to do.

The fuel mix afaik is wvo with methanol and sodium hydroxide filtered and heated etc.

They want to continue using wvo as they have a considerable amount of oil, equipment and effort invested.

I think it will be a case of get it fixed and see what the next 10 years brings.

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

OK, sounds like they are running it on biodiesel.
Well made biodiesel should not cause any ring, valve or other damage.
What condition are the injectors in? It would be worth having them checked before returning the engine to service.
Tony

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Don't write it off too quickly. There are many ways of silencing one of these master pieces. Most of the noise is from the exhaust. Route that into a burried 44 gallon drum with some bricks or heaps of chicken wire inside does wonders. A little bit of work in the intake and they almost run silent. Searching throu youtube will find you many examples.
One thing I know that kills the old Lister is running too cold. They should have included a thermostat in the cooling system, probably on the inlet like most engines are these days. Keep the head and block hot.

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

MMM, looks like we lost my last post, it was referred to the moderator for some reason.

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

I haven't seen any moderated posts today.
Please try posting it again.
Regards,
Tony

PS.I have moved this discussion to it's own thread.

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Yes thanks, good idea for the new thread and apologies to all if it seemed as though I hijacked the other topic.

When I hit the 'Post quick reply ' button I got a 'popup' saying it was referred to the moderator, dunno.

Bugger, now I'm trying to remember what I posted .

Ah yes, with regard to the valves I guess it is a chicken and egg situation as I'm not qualified to say either way, as for maintenance they are particularly methodical with servicing, oil, filters, etc.( but about mechanically minded as a Koala for anything else.)

The same applies to their fuel production with her having been an industrial chemist, not sure of the exact process but it involves filtering, methanol and potassium hydroxide.

Unfortunately the parts have been sent for repair and no pics sorry.

The loads applied to the genset are only for battery charging when there is inclement weather, which I think would apply to most gensets in an offgrid situation.

I have a lister LD1 'startomatic' 1500W as backup for this very same reason and also a cheapy Chinese 7500W petrol that is used for mig welder, compressor and other heavy loads.

Qwarla, I found the most noise on my LD1 was from induction, I replaced the original oil bath filter with a Donaldson type with a longer induction pipe and the noise reduction was incredible.

Harvey, the bores did not appear to be glazed and there was considerable 'carbon' buildup on the sides of the pistons which gave the initial impression of no lateral movement of the pistons in the bores, we will wait to see the results from the engineering shop with regard to piston wear.

Peter

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Thankyou Qwarla
I have reviewed relevant youtube and yes very happy to find means of quietening these crude beautiful stationary engines!!

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Well got it back together today, new standard pistons and rings, cylinders were just honed, new injectors and they replaced 2 valves.

Purring like a kitten now and when the load was applied it didn't miss a beat.

Started straight up on bio diesel and no smoke.

Peter

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Well done.

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Would love to see a video of it running!
But only if that's easy (I am picture etc challenged on these forums so don't waste time if you're same).
Great to hear of your success!
Kind regards Harvey

Re: TS2 Lister on Biodiesel 10 years

Going there today to re-tension head and check valve settings, I'll try to remember.