OK, thanks for that valuable insight, that was pretty much as I expected
The reason for my inquiry? Well having just returned from holiday, from the land where genuine Lister CS engines can be found with minimal effort, and Indian clone engines even more so. I have decided that after procrastinating about it for many years I am going to start accumulating the parts required to build a Lister VA2 engine.
As there are some significant differences between the cylinder block and cylinder head retaining stud pattern, stud size, and location when comparing a VA and CS crankcase, this would mean some major modification to a Lister CS twin cylinder crankcase. As this would be an irreversible modification, combined with the casting being a lot thinner on the CS crankcase where the 5/8" BSW tapped holes would be required to be placed. Hence there was a real chance I could have easily wrecked a genuine CS crankcase if this venture was not successful.
Because of this problem, I thought this project was dead in the water until I started looking at Indian Listeriod crankcases, and because of the crude nature of the castings the crankcase casting is significantly thicker on the top face, presumably to compensate for the many stiffening ribs the Indians chose not to reproduce.
So I went out and bought a nearly bare crankcase from one of my local contacts, for little more than scrap metal money, they thought that the intense heat and humidity had effected my judgement
As they had always known that I avoided buying Indian parts like the plague, but they were unaware of my grand scheme, and were easily persuaded to sell this item to me once money was mentioned, hence there smiling in the photo below. At this point it occurred to me how ironic this was, as I was going to use an Indian crankcase to build an engine that Listers could of easily done so but chose not too do so!
Collecting the near bare crankcase from the scrapyard owners:
Apart from a few internal components this was nearly a bare crankcase, and apart from the crankcase the only other part I intend to retain was the centre main bearing cap
Just a mock up in this photo to see what a VA cylinder head and barrel looks like when compared to the CS cylinder block and cylinder head
Notice the strategically place Sandvik Coromant inserted tip flat scraper, I have given this scraper so much abuse, and the edge of the insert is still as keen as it was when first fitted
Finally some local wildlife photographs:
The preying mantis is quite harmless to humans, but its a ruthless killing machine of insects its own size and bigger.
The giant Centipede can give you a really nasty bite, which would ruin your day, interestingly Kerosene is lethal for these insects.
Now back to the original purpose of this post, having thought about it in more detail, I have discovered a significant problem that I had not anticipated.
When using the unique air cooled VA flywheel on a twin cylinder application, the out of balance mass will be precisely 180 degrees out from its desired location. Hence without having to resort to carrying out permanent modification to an original item (cutting another keyway). I started this post, to see if an Indian equivalent item was available.
The only other options I can think of is modifying a Lister HA or HB flywheel as this is nearly the same item with the exception of the mounting arrangements (and dynamic balance) Or obtaining a VA flywheel that has worked loose on a crankshaft and could be reclaimed with a QD bushing or similar, and apart from having a profile cut blank I cannot think of any other alternative options.