I have a lister ST3 engine as part of a 15kva genset. When I bought it it was reputed to have done only 20 hours running. Subsequent examination of engie parts suggests that this may well have been true. After around 100 hours use, I noticed the oil start to creep up the dipstick, and sure enough , diesel was getting into the oil. Checked all the usual things, loooking for cracked leak-off pipes, leaking injector pipes, changed the lift pump diaphragm, had all the injectors serviced. Still the same.Started to suspect an individual injector pump lower seal The engine was running a bit rough, and by 'cracking' injector pipes and using decompressor on individual cylinders, found the cylinder nearest the fly wheel was the rough one.
No choice now but to strip and look. The whole head was coked up on the exhaust side, with the exhaust manifold aperture almost closed off with very hard carbon. (got a small cupful out). Rings were completely free, valves in good condition, (just a bit of work needed due to carbon build up causing sticking, but only to be expected). Wear-wise, everything in virtually new condition.
Looking at the common exhaust manifold, the cylinder aperture nearest the flywheel again, nearly closed off, the others with a bit of build up but not excessive.
Any ideas about this one any one? Haven't looked at the other heads yet, but will have to. In the meantime having to use my original 3kva lister single cylinder genset to charge my battery bank of 900 amp hours, which I can normally charge at an nitial rate of 150 amps.