Lister CS 3/1 recommissioning

[dieselspanner]

Hi All

After joining the site and having the error of my ways pointed out, ref converting petrol Listers to diesel I 'won' what appears to be a 3/1. Many thanks to those who set me right

 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221688475214?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)

I'm now waiting for a friend, who's driving down for a weeks skiing, to drag it from the Welsh boarders to the Pyrenees, I'm learning you need mates when you develop an interest in Listers!

Whilst waiting I've trolled the site and shamelessly cut and pasted (plagiarised, truth be told) a recommissioning crib sheet, thanks again to the guys who posted on various topics.
I'll recycle it here and would be grateful for any further contributions / additions to help save me from myself. I realise it may not 'cough' at all, in which case I'll soon be well up the list of posters

Many thanks

Stef



Lister recommissioning start up


Push down on each valve stem to make sure they are free before turning the flywheels to eliminate breaking a rocker arm. Check tappet clearance.

Fill the rocker shaft greaser and purge out the old grease.

Change the oil!

Before starting remove the crankcase door and flood the big end and mains with oil from a pump oil can. Operate the hand lever on the oil pump to make sure oil is reaching the mains.

Fill the recess in the head around the valves with oil. There is a little screw near the tappets marked 'oil' , remove that and pour in about a qtr pint of oil.

Use a compressor and solvent should you find the oil lines need sludgy oil cleaned out of them.

Don't forget the 2 screw heads right above the main bearings on the top of the housing (inboard of both flywheels) This puts oil right to the crankshaft helping the lubing there.

Fill the pushrod and tappet tops with oil.

Change the fuel filter. Be prepared to bleed the fuel system. Clean fuel tank as appropriate.

Check the operation of the fuel pump, including that the rack moves properly, and check and lubricate the external governor and stop/start linkage.

The injection pump may be stuck tight with ancient fuel deposits

Cooling system, rad or tank cooled ? Unless the engine was drained down when it was last used there could be frost damage , check carefully.

Flush the engine water ways. Check the water hoses. If rad cooled fill with new anti-freeze solution or drain, before laying up, change the fan belt and service the greasers on the fan shaft or oil the bearings if the later type are fitted.

Check function of starting handle, clean rust from shaft, just in case she fires first time!!

[dieselgman]

Congrats on that win and welcome to the Forum!

Your check-list looks to be a fairly comprehensive listing... I assume you have already cleared the ports of any debris and made sure there are no insect nor rodent nests hiding in there.

Once you have completed your check-list, roll the engine over very slowly by hand and "feel" for any mechanical obstruction or tight spots. This might indicate water entry and rust damage in cylinder. Observe proper opening and closing of both valves.

If you feel no obstructions through a full 360 rotation, then spin it faster with the hand crank and feel for good compression. It should be quite hard to get it past tdc on the compression stroke (every second revolution). It is possible to temporarily bring up the compression, and also lube the upper cylinder walls and rings, by simply injecting a tablespoon of oil into the inlet port - or through the injector port. If you do this, it will often compensate for stuck rings until some heat and mechanical action can take effect after it starts up.

So now you have a free-turning engine that also makes good compression, time to check and see if the fuel system (pump and injector) are working. Use your decompressor lever during this process to allow easy spin up to cranking speed. With the fuel rack fully open, and after priming fuel system and purging (bleeding) any air in the system, spin up engine and listen for the tell-tale injector creak (every other revolution). It will be a distinctive mechanical noise and only occur every second revolution. No creak sound generally means either air remains in the system, you have  a stuck injector, or a non-functioning injection pump.

dieselgman

[Combustor]

Hello Dieselspanner,
                          Your checklist sounds fairly comprehensive. You and "she" should get on well. While you have the crankcase door off, and before filling oil, take a paintbrush and a pint or two of kero (parrafin) and scrub out the bottom of the sump, including the oil suction screen. Many old motors were run in their day on a non detergent oil, and all the gunk was meant to settle in the sump base and be cleaned out each 1000 hours or so, but rarely happened. If you get it reasonably clean you can run a modern multigrade diesel oil and just drain it while hot. Fill oil before closing the door and operate the oil priming lever till you see the oil filling the recesses above the main bearings. Replace the splashguard and check the dipper clears the slot in it OK.
         The Ebay pic shows quite a clean and unmolested machine. In the photo it looks like the pin between the rack and bellcrank is missing. Worth a check. Good luck with the startup, keep us informed of progress. Regards,
           Combustor.

[George A]

Wow.......congratulations on a good win! I noticed the seller said it might be missing parts, but all I can see is the air cleaner and muffler are gone. Looks pretty complete and in decent shape otherwise.

That injection pump probably needs a bit of attention, judging by its appearance.....the rest is just honest age.

Most guys on this side of the pond would give their left arm for a deal like that...enjoy!

[millman56]

Hi Stef,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I saw this engine when it was on the bay and noticed that it was described as a 3-1, a closer inspection of the rocker shaft block on the main photo would suggest to me that it may be a 5-1, the 3-1 has two rocker shaft support blocks where the 5-1 has one central block secured by one of the head bolts and a smaller bolt,  also the photo of the spec plate shows an ambiguous blur which could be a 3 or 5.  Just keep your fingers crossed !!   

Mark.

[dieselspanner]

Well it's arrived, and I'm amazed at the accuracy of the observations of fellow members!

The rockers are held down by a central block with 2 different sized bolts - I still can't see that on the Ebay photo!
And there was a rodents nest, complete with empty nut shells and bedding, it was between the valve springs!

There was 2 gallons of water in the sump and the oil was heavily contaminated with grease and grit.there's 30 - 40 thou of play on the big end, a few thou on one main bearing and next to no compression. That's as far as I've got so far, the grease has trapped the grit every where the crank has managed to fling it inside the crank case so a complete strip down seems to be the only way forward.

My best guess is that someone has poured a handful of sand into the sump and after it had done it's worst another kind soul added the grease to stop the knock from the big end.

I'll post more when the ski season ends and I can get stuck in properly

Thanks to all

Stef