Lol!! I need help!
I've been bitten by the listeroid bug badly and now I have 2 new engines, a gm-90 20/1 and an Ashwamegh 6/1. I've seen a number of people who've had problems with their Ashwamegh engines, but this one is SWEET. I don't have any significant number of hours on it yet, but the quality seems outstanding so far. Once we got the fuel system purged and got 'er running, we were quite surprised at how it ran. This engine has absolutely NO exhaust smoke at partial load and is the smoothest running lister type engine I've ever seen (out of 5 kinds). We had it running on the crate bottom only, and it just purrs along like it is already bolted down. It didn't vibrate, jump, twirl in circles, or walk around. It just sat there and putted away. Just to see what it would do at higher rpm, I sped it up as far as I dared and it still just sat there purring away with nothing visible in the exhaust. I was shocked. I'd guess I had it up to at least 1000 rpm or so. The 14/1 also wasn't bolted down for this comparison, and it started hopping and twirling around and having a fit at around 700 rpm. I'm only guessing on rpm because I don't have a tach. I'm getting better at it though after listening to some listers run at a known speed. At full rack the 6/1 did smoke quite a bit.
I've been really amazed with this engine so far. There was absolutely no sand or anything gritty anywhere in the crank case. Every casting looks good, the fuel filter has 2 really nice thumb screws on the top for bleeding, but there is still a small amount of fuel that can go around the filter media on the cartridge inside. It has a nice brass shutoff valve on the bottom of the tank. It has steel timing gears. It has a grease cup on the rocker shaft and I like that much better than the oil types because it should need less attention. The only issue I can see so far is that the tappets didn't rotate on the initial fire up.
I helped put another 6/1 together out of a kit ordered from India. Every part looked really good and once finished, it ran just as smooth as the first one, but had just a touch of exhaust smoke while running. The rings were installed with opposing gaps. These kit engines are going to be a nice option for those who want a listeroid that is assembled here in the good old USA by a professional engine builder. Mine was just assembled in India and it looks really good too. I don't know how much other dealers/importers were paying for engines from Ashwamegh, but I know this dealer paid A LOT more than the prices posted in the listeroid prices thread for JKSON and Lovson engines. Maybe that is why the quality is good, or maybe he just got lucky. I don't know. He has very little markup though, so his prices are still competitive. The 6/1 engine we uncrated (mine) also came with a yellow cricket bat that has an "Ashwamegh diesel engine" sticker on it and a rubber ball. I thought that was cool, but a bit odd. I don't know if they all come with those things. It did not come with any spare parts, but he wants to order the engines with spares on the next batch.
The 20/1 is an amazing beast just because of its size. It weighs at least one ton and has a displacement of exactly one gallon, or 3.85 liters. My cherry picker hates it. The height has been exaggerated a little on other posts I've read. The engine is 57 inches tall (measured to the top of the breather) when sitting on 6 inch blocks. It is 52 inches to the top of the valve cover. It must sit on a block of some sort because the flywheels hang below the bottom of the crank case by about 3.3 inches. It is a louder than the 6 because it has direct injection and it DOES have some diesel knock. I have the exhaust plumbed outside, and the knock is by far the loudest noise coming from the engine. You must shout to have a conversation while standing next to this engine running at 670 rpm, but it isn't deafening. The electric starter gears are also loud, but I like it. It sounds like a turbine engine coming up to speed. This engine smoked and slobbered oil at first, but the smoke cleared up almost completely after running under a 5 kw load for about an hour and all oil slobbering stopped. It is connected to a 12 kw head with a serpentine belt. I also added a bypass thermostat like Mike described so the temp stays uniform in the cylinder and head.
Both of these engine run smoother than the JKSON 14/1, especially the 6/1. The 20/1 is only slightly smoother and most of its vibration is torsional from the power pulses. Every time the injector fires, that engine tries to move. Once the rack is closed, almost all vibration stops. The 14/1 isn't like that and vibrates with or without the rack shut. The 20/1 is louder than the 14/1, and the 14/1 is louder than the 6/1 also because of its direct injection and diesel knock. The 20/1 also sends more noise through the ground than the 14/1 does. The crankcase on the 14/1 is the best of them all, with an oil pump and an extended sump that gives crap somewhere to settle. I wish the other two were like that. The Ashwameg has a plug to add oil without taking the door off. The other two don't and it's kinda nice. This has been my experience with these engines so far and I'm having fun and still learning.
One more thing. George says on his site that the mini Petters have a cast iron piston and they don't. I checked mine and it has an aluminum piston. I'm not saying aluminum is good or bad, but misinformation bugs me a lot. I also think George is a good guy, so don't take that the wrong way.