Hello, I am Brian Baird. I am new to the forum and new to diesel engines, but I have lots of experience with gasoline engines. I recently bought a 1937 Lister Petter TR1 engine with a Stamford PCL164A generator head on it. After having ran it a few times, I have seen some things that I am concerned about, and was hoping someone with much more experience with this engine could point me in the right direction.
First, let me give the reader a bit of history and background. First, the man I bought it from had found it abandoned in an old barn, and the owner of the barn knew nothing about it. So, all I can do is tell you what I have observed myself.
My observations are as follows: Paint was in perfect condition when I got it. No oil or grease on the outside of the engine. The paint was in perfect condition on the cylinder fins. Paint was just a slight bit discolored on the exhaust “manifold”. It came with a bunch of exhaust pipe and a big muffler, which had a lot of soot inside. But neither was connected to the engine. I bled the air out of the fuel system and started the engine and it ran perfectly. The generator appeared to have been re-wound. The wiring in the 12-wire generator connection box was set up for 3-phase output. I re-wired it for 120-240 split-phase power and it worked great. I put 2500 watts of load on it and it handled it great. Next, I loaded it good and heavy with a 5300 watt clothes dryer. The engine lost RPMs after a few seconds and was obviously not putting out enough horsepower to run the gen-head at full load. According to what I read, in the 3-phase configuration, this unit is supposed to put out 8,000 watts. Due to this power loss, I figured the combustion chamber was not sealed as well as it should be. I also had noticed that the engine did not bounce back and forth like a typical diesel tractor engine does when it comes to a stop. I also found that if I put heavy pressure on the hand crank for a few seconds, even without the compression released, I could get it past the compression stroke, since the combustion chamber was poorly sealed. So, I investigated where the leak was. With heavy pressure applied to the crank, I listened in the intake and exhaust and heard air escaping. A check of the valves revealed absolutely zero clearance. How I ever got it started I do not know. I adjusted the valves to what the book says, 6-8 thousandths of an inch. The compression was better, but not great. I could hear through the passages leading from the crankcase up to the rocker arm area, a very small amount of air leaking past the rings. This did not sound like a large enough leak to account for the poor compression. So, I checked the head bolts, and they were only at 20 foot-pounds. The book says 50, so I used a torque wrench and tightened them up. The compression was much better. When I started it, the engine accelerated much faster and the exhaust was louder than before.
My main concern is raised by the poorly tightened head bolts and valves that were totally out of adjustment. I wonder if someone who didn’t know what they were doing rebuilt this engine. What if they didn’t get the rod-cap bolts tight enough? I know it will be really bad if that comes off. Or if they didn’t get parts of the governor tightened up right. That could be a run-away and destruction. Or, could this thing be new old stock? It doesn’t rattle or knock like a worn-out engine. I have listened to a video of a guy starting up a new old stock TR1 and it sounds exactly like mine, including the loud pinging. Do head bolts get loose after sitting in storage for over 80 years? Could the valves have “run-in” and lost all their clearance in such a short time that the exhaust manifold paint was not burned off? I only burned it off after running it with a 4500 watt water heater connected for over an hour. The engine was able to maintain RPM with this load and did not make any black smoke, but it was very close to it’s limit. I wonder about the timing of the injector pump. I think it may need to be adjusted. The book tells how to check it. But I wonder about this because at 1800 RPMs, this engine is only rated at 9 horspower. Normally, generators have two horsepower per KW output. So, maybe 4500 watts is max for this unit. Maybe that gen-head is built for a TR2, which would have twice the power.
What is your opinion on this engine? Other than checking the injector timing, what should I do next? I am hoping someone with enough experience can make an educated guess as to the history of this engine and it’s (possibly over-sized) gen head. And then hopefully tell me what I should do next.
Thanks for taking the time to read my long-winded post.
