Oil pressure and maintenance advice

[itheemonk]

Hi, I was recently given a Lister generator by my father, I believe it is a 1957 LD2.
It has been sitting unused in a (dry) garage for 20 plus years. I'm told it originally came out of a gas station where it was used for backup power, then it went into storage, then it was given to my father who just had it sitting in his workshop for 20+ years. So quite possible that it has not been used much for its age.

It was pretty easy to get it running, I flushed out the old diesel, cleaned the fuel filter and filled it up with fresh diesel and bleed the fuel lines, it turned over but wouldn't start. Then I noticed the fuel cut-off which was seized, once that was freed up it roared into life and sounds lovely. Now that I've got it working I'd like to keep it in good shape.

My main question is how can I verify the oil pump is working? I've read about LD2s having an oil pressure indicator that pops out when it is running, but this one doesn't appear to (or I can't find it). I've also read there should be a plug you can remove to fit an oil pressure gauge, but again this one doesn't appear to have that. Is there some other way I can verify the pump is working? Is it practical to fit a gauge or sender?

My other question is, is there any other checks or maintenance I should do on it giving how long it has been sitting? I checked the air cleaner and that looked good. I'm planning on giving it an oil change, it doesn't have a visible oil filter.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[AdeV]

Apologies, I can't help with the oil pressure question, I don't know the LD2s well enough. A change of oil wouldn't hurt it, but if the existing oil isn't a black sludgy mess, you probably won't do it any harm either, if it's low hours. Don't worry too much about what oil to use (the perennial "old engine" argument) - pretty much any decent weight diesel motor oil will be significantly better than what was around when it was built - which, in your engine's case, was 1957.

[itheemonk]

Thanks for your input, should I be putting an additive in the diesel?

[AdeV]

Thanks for your input, should I be putting an additive in the diesel?

Again - I personally wouldn't bother - as long as your filter is good, modern day diesel with its various additives will be a lot kinder to the engine than 1950s diesel. You could always add some injector cleaner if you wanted, that couldn't do any harm.

I believe that one thing these engines do benefit from is an occasional de-coking. This can either be done by taking the heads off and mechanically cleaning up the pistons & valves; a slightly more "bush" way of doing it is to spray a fine mist of water into the intake whilst the engine is loaded up - the water flashing to steam will help break up any deposits and, with luck, blow them out of the exhaust. Some people even swear by water injection to boost power, but I think it's more to do with keeping the engine clean than anything else.