Author Topic: The evolution of the Lister CS engine, MARS engine made in Australia in 1942.  (Read 4091 times)

listard-jp2

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Anyone who has had any significant dealings with the venerable Lister CS diesel engine will appreciate it has number of well known and understood weaknesses, which continue to this day with the supply of Lister clone and Listeriod engine versions of the Lister CS engine.

It now transpires that the MARS Machine Tool Manufacturing Co. Pty. Ltd. of Bridge Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia also recognised these weaknesses.

So way back in 1942 (at the height of Lister CS diesel engine production, and possibly due to war shortages) they decided to build their own range of diesel engines to compete in the Australian market with the Lister CS diesel engine, the 5 H.P. engine they produced clearly had a striking resemblance to the single cylinder version of the Lister CS diesel engine, however coming from a company that already had a well deserved reputation for a range of well established high quality machine tools their engines were superior to the Lister CS diesel engine in a number of respects, such as larger crankshaft, counter balance weight (CBW) crankshaft, wet liner cylinder block, fully enclosed valve gear, proper engine oil dipstick, conventional lip type oil seals, the absence of a reed valve crankcase breather (possibly using a connection to the inlet port to create a crankcase vacuum as per later aircooled Lister diesel engines).

In addition the fuel injection equipment (FIE) was also made in Australia by the PYROX company, again the striking resemblance to the CAV FIE used on Lister CS engines can clearly be seen, the injector even was fitted with a feeler pin (something which CAV dispensed with in later years)

Even after nearly 70 years of continuous Lister clone and latterly Listeriod engine manufacture in India, with the exception of direct injection, wet liner cylinder block, dipstick, and CBW crankshafts. No Indian product can come close to the innovative and quality features found in the 5HP MARS diesel engine.

MARS also built a larger 8HP engine which appears to have being based upon an amalgamation of a Lister JP1 and CS engines with elements of both engine versions clearly visible in the design features, as per the smaller 5HP version it also used the same PYROX FIE, but otherwise less is known about this version of the MARS diesel engine.

Unfortunately neither of these projects were a success for the MARS machine Tool company with only 32 known examples produced of the 5HP engine, and which only 4 engines of this type are known to still exist in the hands of preservationists. Reasons for the failure of this project are unknown, hence the few MARS diesel engines that are preserved remain an interesting footnote in the history of Lister CS engine development, and the rival competitor products that sprang up to compete against the Lister CS diesel engine (in this case unsuccessfully).

http://cobahcastiron.weebly.com/mars-engines.html

http://www.nocarnofun.com/mars-5hp-diesel-engine-completely-restored-and-shows-muscles/#ixzz4kLD50PaW

Note in the background of a rather grainy picture in this link, both versions of the MARS diesel engine are displayed at a machine tool exhibition stand in the 1950's: http://www.lathes.co.uk/mars/

Edited for content, and punctuation
« Last Edit: June 18, 2017, 08:25:01 PM by listard-jp2 »

BruceM

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Marvelous engine and very interesting history. Thanks!
« Last Edit: June 18, 2017, 06:38:33 PM by BruceM »

mike90045

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I wonder about the feasibility of using a hodgepodge of "off shelf parts" and steel plates, bolted together, to make a new engine?
Like a Piston and Liner from brand X, head & valves from Y, crank from Z,  using parts that were never intended to fit, but just happen to, and building a crankcase out of half inch steel plate instead of cast?  Using the best from the best and coming up with a winner ?

dieselspanner

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Some years back I was involved in hovercraft that were running Deutz V12's, there was a load of spares and I toyed with the idea of knocking off enough kit to build a bloody great V twin, much like the aero engined 20/30's racing cars that used a couple of cylinders from a radial engine.

Never got round to it.................

Cheers
Stef
Tighten 'til it strips, weld nut to chassis, peen stud, adjust with angle grinder.

listard-jp2

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/\ you obviously mean something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4EA0dnAM8



I wonder about the feasibility of using a hodgepodge of "off shelf parts" and steel plates, bolted together, to make a new engine?
Like a Piston and Liner from brand X, head & valves from Y, crank from Z,  using parts that were never intended to fit, but just happen to, and building a crankcase out of half inch steel plate

That idea has been discussed on this forum previously, IIRC this was first suggested by mobile_bob, and consisted of using plasma cut steel blanks for the crankcase and all parts being MIG welded together in a fixture, combined with a cylinder head, piston, liner, connecting rod, and injector from a Cummins 6BT engine, plus other mix and match parts as required (a kind of kit car version of the Lister CS engine). As far as I know and unless the forum members here know any different, nothing ever came of this idea for a variety of reasons. Which was a real shame as it had the potential to overcome all of the known Listeriod shortfalls.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2017, 08:22:13 PM by listard-jp2 »

listard-jp2

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Deleted: Duplicate post.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2017, 08:26:59 PM by listard-jp2 »

dieselspanner

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Well sort of, mine would have owed more to agriculture multiplied by steampunk..........

Stef
Tighten 'til it strips, weld nut to chassis, peen stud, adjust with angle grinder.