For anyone interested......
Last year my lead acid batteries died, so decided to spend big on Lithium, or LiFePo to be exact, this flavour of chemistry seems the safest and most forgiving of them all. $4500 later, they arrived.
First problem was the placement. Like me, these things dont like low temperatures, we are talking minus something, so I placed them inside the hovel to keep them warm. The generator shed being 30 feet away gave voltage drop issues with the 100 or so amps charging current. This caused havoc with the alternators seeing over 18 volts at their output terminals.
I cured this by running independent sense wires, directly from the battery terminals back to the power shed, allowing the over voltage regulator to work correctly, it now reads the  actual battery voltage and not the alternator output.
The maximum  terminal  charge voltage of the batteries is 14.7 volts, anything higher will damage the chemistry.
Here I simply designed a high voltage cutoff using a LM311 voltage comparator that switches off the alternator field current when the battery voltage reaches 14 volts... plenty, as the Lister is only used as the  backup when the solar fails..
The main charging voltage comes from 800 watts of solar panels. The MPPT controller will switch of at 14.6 volts, this means the bank is full.
Here is the schematic  of the car alternator control when I remember how to do this picture posting thing.....
These old car alternators are modified by removing the internal regulator and connecting one brush to ground, the other to a wire into the controller.
I then wondered about these Battery Management Systems built into these Lithium packs.
After reverse engineering one sample, I could not see how they can "balance" each cell with just a 100 milliamp draw, when each  cell has a capacity of 600 amp hours..... it would have zero effect.
Firstly, I decided to establish if these Lithium cells actually do get out of whack with each other, they cannot be equalised as a lead acid bank can, this would overcook the highest cell. Is this an actual problem, or just an internet theory, steeped in myth and confusion.
I removed the BMS.
After nearly a year, the cells are within 3/10ths of a volt, highest to lowest, so unless I am extremely lucky, very unlikely, the balancing thing appears not to be the issue its made out to be. So, to simplify matters, we leave out the BMS.
It it also important not to  discharge these LiFePos to less than aound 10.7 volts. This apparently causes permanent damage.
This requirement is easily met , almost all inverters will automatically disconnect at around 11 volts.
The difference with Lithium to lead acid is night and day, with a charge absorption efficiency approaching 95 percent, no sulphation or gassing..... no watering, no stress, just set and forget.

and bugs removed. A video of the installation of the engine you saw previously. Added a car radiator via a few welded up brackets using existing mounting holes in engine. The Pro racing stage 6 high impact chrome cooling fan utilising computer designed curved blades helps.... thankfully it has not the intelligence to realise its mounted on an agricultural engine, and not a Ferrari , otherwise it would refuse to work. This will extract extra horespower according to the website......
The two car alternators are parallel wired giving several charging options, the fields being switched seperately.
The Lister sits next to the Petter AV1 and have become very good friends.......
I love the smell of hot alternators, rubber vee belts and that unique sound of a Lister beating against a heavy load.
One day I WILL finish the tidy up in the generator shed......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owhkOuGwbZI&feature=youtu.be

This morning I was continuing the generator shed tidy up, and noticed a crack where one spoke joins to the center hub. This crack was quite noticeable where it had worked a small ridge in the paint that was applied only a month ago. This spoke  has been moving as the engine rotates by the looks.
This is something I guess we should be aware of.
I know cast iron has little expansive strength, and over the huge amount of time, the metal possibly can become brittle. I dont know if cast iron work hardens, but what is concerning is the danger of a flywheel disintegrating and actually killing someone in the vicinity. Its not hard to imagine the mess..... the engine alone is likely to rip itself off any mounting base and wreck itself as well. The spokes are also subject to huge torsional vibration, especially with large singles, and exaggerated by driving a load from the flywheel rim. This could well be why Lister did not put vee grooves into the rim, instead fitting a choice of pulleys direct to the shaft.... here Im just guessing.
Ill get a photo up when my camera charges.
I suggest periodically that all engine owners check their flywheels on a semi regular basis, maybe even tapping with a small hammer listening for a change in sound.....

Yesterday had another CS 3.5 delivered !!!  Im  pretty excited about this one, its complete and after a check over and oil change, it ran very nicely. Today I washed it down with copious quantities of diesel, inside and out, and attacked it viciously with the water blaster.  The big end is perfect, the first thing to look at in my experience when the sump arrives  full of grungy tar. The injector pump has a tight spot, the original snake fuel filter has decomposed, but other than that shes a wee honey. its a late model, one of the last 3 1/2s built in 1948 I believe.
Tomorrow Ill blow over a coat of  green to tidy her up, have a base to weld up, and hump it into position next to the Petter, it will do as a backup. I was told it has a copper home made head gasket, this will need checking to see the clearance, given any absence of knocking, Im assuming its probably ok. These I believe are the rarest of the CS Listers, and the spoked flywheels are certainly the nicest looking in my opinion.

Well, pics never happened. Photobucket has died, and the suggested photo host on here, coppermine??? keeps asking for a global password??? What the hell is that? Tried attaching, that dont work for me either. My life is obviously a mess.
So, no pics sorry.

Were there any graphs ever published giving this information?
Can I simply assume a Petter AV2 will be twice the power of an AV1, and if so, would the torque curves match, or does two cylinders make it completely different? Just wondering as I weld up the support frame to accept either engine and ancillaries.
 Im also curious as to where the crankcase breather is on the Petter, the crankcase pressure seems excessive and wondering if its blocked? T Lister used a flapper valve to create negative case pressure, the Petter  doesnt seem to have anything similar?

thanks....

For anyone using car alternators to charge battery banks, heres how its done.
Slowly tidying the AV1 install as i catch up on other work. The important thing right now its up and running. It doesnt look as nice as the Lister, I guess ill just need to get used to it.




Looking into the rear of the alternator, all the diode block and regulator have been removed. Three heavy 20 amp cables are  connected directly to the three stator coil terminations, and two lighter 5 amp wires connect direct to the brushes, 1 wire on each brush



The three stator connect to the remote diode block, there are six diodes in all. The ones i used were got from the scrap dealer from some defunct industrial equipment, an absolute overkill, these are rated at several hundred amps each. 30 amp stud mounts are sufficient to extract 80 or so amps from an alternator, as the cooling is more effective when remotely mounted like this.



The two brush wires, one connects to battery negative, the other to battery positive through a switch, this turns off the amp or so current drain when the engine is not running. To reduce the charging current , and there are good reasons to do this, a resistor is wired in series with the on/off switch mentioned above. I use a car coil ballast resistor, reducing the current from 85 amps to 50 amps. Reducing current will make the alternator last longer, will allow a smaller engine to work less, and is great for a periodic equalising charge when the banks reach 15 volts. ... assuming a 12 volt system, my setup has a switch across this resistor to give high and low charging rates.
 With the regulator removed, these alternators will happily charge well above 17 volts, and maintain their full output current.
There seems to be two types of alternator, the usual one is around 55 amps, the bigger version 75 amps nominal, although both once modded will output well in excess of this for a short period.... just watch the heating in the stator windings.
Alternators will work in either rotation, BUT.... the fan is designed to suck through when running clockwise. The fan will need modding if running counter.... look for a fan with straight and not angled blades, these will then work in either direction.
A 24 volt alternator will work identically to the above, just halve the current and double the voltage, the wattage remains the same, as does the horsepower required.
By remoting the diodes, an alternator will last years rather than a few months when using it as it comes.
Its also beneficial to the engine to increase the alternator pulley diameter to spin the alternator at around 1000 to 1500 rpms, this reduces wear on belts, requires less power, and increases bearing life and belt to pulley contact.
I have found this to be the easiest and cheapest way to charge batteries with a decent amount of current and using commonly available parts.

Today I said good bye to an old friend. My  loyal companion for so many decades breathed her  last. After the con rod oil dipper unknowingly snapped  from a metal fatigue fracture, she continued to soldier on, not complaining or giving  any outward signs of distress, eventually loosing all compression and quietly  coming to rest. There is over 3mm play in the big end,  the piston has nearly 1/8 inch play in the cylinder. Rather than seize through lack of lubrication, she continued to run and  give me her very best right to the end.
 Rather than scrapping her, she will take pride of place on my back lawn as a monument to reliable dependability and how life used to be.
She was 77 years old.
 RIP.