Is the LR manual still available?

Hi,

I bought the lot off Dave, they're currently sitting in a box under my desk waiting for me to get A Round Tuit (scanning them). The aim is to make scans of them available to members FoC, once I've figured out how to put them on the website & restrict them to forum members...

I can look for an LR manual in the collection if you need something specific?

Hey folks,

Really sorry about the downtime for the last 24 hours or thereabouts - but the server was under what appears to be a continuous DDOS/Scraper attack (18,000 concurrent users online is not a normal number for this forum!). In fact, if you look at the 2026 stats vs 2025, you'll see that the Bots have really been hammering us all year...

I've been adding any networks which seem suspicious to the firewall - around 2000 added today when we were at 18,000 guests online despite the forum being in maintenance mode(!). Hopefully I've not kicked any real users, but I'm working on a way of letting people who do fall into the trap accidentally to at least let me know.

In the meantime, I see we're down to a more sensible number of visitors now, so I'll hopefully be able to leave the site on for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Ade.

Hello and thank you for your help and advice.
 Stuck, not locked. That is, I turn the handle but it gets stuck somewhere and doesn't move. Of course it goes backwards. I also feel like it's a physical collision. And of course it's caused by temperature. Another thing is that when it turns off, a lot of black smoke comes out. My guess is that the fuel settings are messed up. Also, it burns about 10 liters of diesel every 4 hours under load. Of course, I don't know if this is a standard amount or a lot!

Black smoke is suggestive of over-fuelling - you would typically get black smoke when increasing throttle under load. But it's also burning - unburnt (or partially burnt) is light grey smoke (and often lots of it). I think you're going to need to whip the heads off immediately after it's failed to determine the cause. It kind of sounds like it might be hydro-locked, i.e. enough raw diesel has built up in one of the cylinder heads to prevent the piston from completing a stroke - except if you operated the decompression lever, that should let it roll all the way over.

With respect to the fuel consumption - I don't know... but if you can tell me roughly what RPM you run it at under load (assume when it's working OK!), then it should be possible to calculate an efficiency, which should tell us if it's in the ballpark or not.

If you're pretty sure it's overheating, then the things to look at are the fan on the flywheel (make sure it's not clogged up with stuff), and also the fins on the cylinders (also need to be clean and clear). Although if it's any consolation, I have a lawnmower engine which overheats for no apparent reason... and despite cleaning it thoroughly, it still refuses to behave.

Hmm, that's pretty weird.

My immediate thought is it's over-fuelling on one cylinder leading to a hydraulic lock when there's too much diesel in there; but honestly that seems like a stretch - and you'd be able to discount it by opening the decompression levers, at which point the engine should turn all the way around.

As it's happening at higher speeds (and, presumably, load?), it could be temperature related. When you say it "gets stuck somewhere", do you mean like a hard-stop? e.g. turn the engine by hand in it's normal direction - does it stick like it hit something, or does it get stuck like it walked into wet asphalt, sort of soggy but persistent? Once it's stuck, can you rotate it backwards, or is it now stuck in both directions?

If it's a sort of "sticky" stuck, my gut feel would be it's got too hot, the pistons/rings have expanded, and it's sticking with one piston up at top or bottom dead centre where it's most likely to have the least wear in the barrel. Given that it frees up again later, this is my best idea. Another possibility would be a bad bearing, although AIUI if a bearing seizes, it rarely works again without an overhaul.

If it's a hard stop that you can reverse away from, then something physical is interfering. I can't imagine what - if it were a stuck valve you'd know about it already, because it'd be bent all to hell having been hit by the piston - if that's even possible with an ST engine.

Personally, I'd buy an infra red temperature gauge (one of those you point at something to get a temperature): Run the engine at 1500 for a while to get it up to temperature - record the temperature of both cylinder heads (just below the valve covers). Now run it up to working speed & watch the temperatures. If they start rising significantly; you're headed for a seize, so shut it down. But at least you'd have confirmed it's getting hot: Next challenge is to find out why...

How do I share videos? I have 2 video of just under 3 min each that I'd like to post; one of a walk around, the other of the first startup described above.

The simplest way to share videos is to upload them to YouTube, then post the links in a message here. If you don't want to make them "general release" (i.e. anyone on YT can find them), mark them as "unlisted" - people you share the link with can still see them.

Looks like the base casting has failed to me. Was it the entire top end of the engine above the crank bearings that flew? I guess with an 8hp explosion behind it, 5ft is probably about right for a launch.

Damn shame, it looks pretty irreprable; although you might get lucky & be able to salvage certain parts - the flywheels, maybe even the head/barrel if it didn't take impact damage.

Given what's happening to the EPA right now, this might not be a problem for much longer.... 

Hi all,
I got a second cs , only this time a 8hp.

The number on it is 13138118.

Is it right if i read it as:
1313 engine number
81 (8/1)
18  1968

Or is it something completely different?😅

Hi Rob,

You're exactly right! The year of manufacture is 1950 + the number on your serial plate.