Author Topic: New Engine ( AKA, More Blasphemy!)  (Read 2725 times)

guest22972

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New Engine ( AKA, More Blasphemy!)
« on: June 24, 2016, 03:35:23 AM »

I was trolling ebay the other night and saw an ad for a little Diesel engine finishing in about 12 Min.  Checked out the ad and the thing sounded promising although I asked myself several time If I really needed / wanted another engine.  No, I wasn't drunk and of course one ALWAYS needs / wants another engine but clearly I was tired and not thinking straight but I did the right thing and bid and won it.

The engine is a Lombardini 6LD 325. It's a single Cylinder 325 CC air cooled Diesel.  I won it for the princely sum of $80.  Bargain!
 I suspect it has been in some sort of marine use in it's former life by the look of the water pump on the thing and the rust but it  is also mounted on a home made looking frame with carry handles so who knows? Part of the charm and Mystery guessing where these treasures have been and what they have done in a former life.
The seller messaged than rang me to say they would be coming right past my place and they could drop it off for me. Terriffic ! A very nice bloke and his equally friendly wife turned up and the guy couldn't wait to show me how the thing fired up. Even sitting on the uneven concrete of the end of the driveway it started first pull and I was immediately impressed by how smooth the thing ran.

I'll say this, the German Hatz I have and this Italian Job sure run a lot smoother and somewhat quieter than any of my China Diesels, much as I love them too.
I took the thing round the back and couldn't wait to fire it up again myself. Went over everything, Oil, which was very clean, fuel and added some water into the pump so as to not run it completely Dry.  Looked like it hadn't seen water in a Looooong time going by the dry corrosion and stiffness of the filler plug in the alloy body.  I filled the pump to the top and noticed not one drop of water came out the inlet. I looked for a blockage but saw a falpper non return valve. Thinking it was stuck I put a screwdriver in there and the moment I touched it, water came out but stopped as soon as the driver came out.
Impressive sealing for a bit of rubber! Wish my bathroom tap I can't get to sealed that well!

I looked at the controls and saw a throttle lever and what I thought was a decompressor beside it. I thought that must have a long rod to activate the valve. The lever required way too little pressure to move to full position to be moving a valve so I thought had to be a shutoff.  Later examination at a different angle allowed me to see the word STOP faintly visible under the many layers of white paint caked on the thing.
I could see no decompressor so in my haste to fire the thing up, I thought I'll get on the net and find where it's at later.  I wound the supplied starter cord round the rope pulley and just managed to wind the thing with my hands through compression.  Once past there I gave the rope a heave and the thing fired first stroke and sat there very elegantly idling away.

It did rattle a bit on the patio tiles so I grabbed some nearby blocks of styrofoam and lifted it onto them front and back and there it sat.  The aircleaner cover was  rattling and I noticed there was no element and the bolt was bent so I straightened that and tightened it and that made the thing a lot quieter.
It's a real sweet running little engine. It's rated for 3600 RPM which is much faster than any of my other diesels but after letting it run a while I gave it the beans and the thing runs very smoothly flat out.

I stopped and started the thing again with no trouble at all and played with the throttle at different RPM. The seller mentioned it still had old fuel from where it had been stored about 5 years when he got it from his father in law. I thought I'd top off the tank with some of gods Fuel, veg oil and see how that went.  Didn't make an iota of difference and I couldn't even get a wiff of that wonderful donut smell.  Probably needs to get a lot more in it. While it was running I hit it with some degreaser and gave it a good hose off which didn't seem to worry it in the slightest.  Got a bit of dirt and dust off the thing but otherwise it's almost dry as a bone.  I suspect the slight bit of greasy dirt on the thing is from spilt fuel rather than any oil weep from the thing.

I played with it a while then came in leaving it running at a good speed just to heat it up and clean out the cobwebs.  After about 45min, I heard the revs drop and the thing died.  On my way out the door I saw it blowing a bit of white smoke so I wondered what happened. Checked over the vitals again, all good. Turned over fine if almost impossibly through compression so I wound it up and now being educated through YT Vids these things in fact have NO decompressor ( another first in my engine collection!) Wound it back to compression and gave it a yank.  Again it fired right up and settled to where it had been purring like a kitten.  Watched and played with it a bit more then came in and about 20 min later it died again.  Started right up again as well.

Pretty sure it's a case of blocked fuel filter so I'll get another one to replace the substantial looking one in the workshop manual I downloaded and see how it goes.  I should say I'll see how much one costs first. I have a feeling it's going to give me a fright. The Filter is in the tank and has a long bolt holding the thing up to and sealing through the bottom of the tank. It seems a big filter for the just over 4L tank. If they are too pricey I'll just stick on a Subaru filter I use on my truck and other engines that do a great job and last forever.

Despite the scathing and unpatriotic comments my Italian mate directed towards his countrymen's engineering abilities and they products they produce, this seems a really nice and well engineered piece of equipment. I noticed the fuel pipes are crimped into place rather than just clamped and there are other such touches which show the things are built for reliability and quality rather than lowest possible price of manufacture.
It even has a fueling control which I haven't seen before. You have you high and low speed settings on nicely accessible screws on the governor assembly but you can also control the rate of fuel injected. NICE!
I also saw there is another engine of the same series, bore and stroke that makes the same rated power but at half the RPM. I'm wondering if they managed to do that but just fueling the thing up from the factory?
The rope start on these is also factory. Ironically, it seems the electric start model had a rewind starter fitted but the manual start was rope from the factory.  Maybe that's some of the Italian engineering/ mentality my mate direly warned me of?  :0)
I looked at my engine and there is no provision in the blower housing for a starter to bolt to so I'm guessing, like my China engines, the flywheel won't have any teeth on it as well.

I'd like to make myself a top Fuel type starter with a pair of handles on a starter motor with a socket on the end to fit to the crank bolt.  For many years when the lawn more pull starter broke I used to fire the thing with an old drill with a socket on the end but it would take one hell if a drill to turn this baby over. Thinking I'd have to have a support arm on the starter for this thing so it hit the ground as it torqued and leveraged off that not break your arms as it twisted.  :0)  I was thinking about a similar thing for the Lister but having a decompressor, you are only fighting the inertia of the dead weight of the flywheels not the screaming halt of compression.
At 18:1, this thing is a bit on the high side for my other engines as well which are mainly around 16:1

I cobbled up an array of fittings to allow me to connect the 1.5" water pump  to a bit of 3/4" hose I put in the swimming pool. I primed the pump with the hose shooting in the end of the hose underwater and gave the thing a good flow from the hose to bleed it but as soon as I took the hose away the water stopped. Could have been my mish mash of fittings leaking ( although they seemed pretty well sealed) or that the 3/4 hose is too restrictive or just that the large pump is stuffed. I Might just pull it off and strip it down and have a look at it although it doesn't drip at the seals at all so not sure what could be wrong. There are just usually an impeller spinning round and unless it has something like weeds or grass wrapped around it, Can't see why it wouldn't work.  I'll have to invest in some hose and fittings for it anyway.

I'm not worried about the pump, (although a friend has asked me about emptying her pool) as I'd really like to couple the engine to my induction motor and use the thing as a generator.
I have a solar inverter and made a rectifier and capacitor bank to back feed the power from the motor to the household mains.  This works really well on the induction motor because the load is pretty much constant.
Given the speed of this engine and the induction motor, I can down gear the setup so the engine is turning about 3000 RPM at double the torque to the 1500 or so required by the induction motor so I can get the full 4 KW or so it should be capable of.  The thing I'll have to watch is the household wiring which here is only rated to 3600W on a standard 240V circuit. I don't think I have any heavy Duty circuits up the back, only the AC, Stove and water heater in the house.  I'm trying to get out of here so not going to run a special HD circuit now.  Maybe on the next house So I can pump 5 or 10 KW though the system.  :0)

Anyway, I'm very pleased with my almost passed on purchase.  A fuel filter and I feel confident the thing will be perfect.  Now If I could find another Horizontal China diesel at the right price, I'd be a very happy man indeed!








38ac

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Re: New Engine ( AKA, More Blasphemy!)
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2016, 11:25:50 AM »
I think you will like that one, they are a decent engine.  The Amish have a few of them mostly badged as "ACME" , New ones are pretty spendy.
Collector and horder of about anything diesel

guest23837

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Re: New Engine ( AKA, More Blasphemy!)
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2016, 12:50:50 PM »
Thank you thats a nice looking engine

Thob

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Re: New Engine ( AKA, More Blasphemy!)
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2016, 02:13:01 AM »
Nice find - don't forget a new air cleaner element while you at it.
Witte 98RC Gas burner - Kubota D600 w/ST7.5KW head.
I'm not afraid to take anything apart.
I am sometimes afraid I'm not going to get it back together.