After talking to some people in Thailand they tell me nobdy there has even heard of the ability to rebore the liner and regrind the crank. Those parts are not listed anywhere and means the parts are disposable even in countries where labour costs are reasonable.
I posted this for a guy who owns three Changfa's in South Africa and asked if I knew anyone dealing in parts. I think the guy has gone to the factory now after his email to two US parts people went unanswered. He has an 195, 1115 and a 10HP air cooled, not sure of its model no. Its the higher speed engine and gets very hot in their climate, probably too hot. He tells me the 195 and 1115 have about 8500 hours on them and the air cooled unknown. He did run a little low on oil a few times, but not run dry. I guess that didnt help their life span. The bearings all still feel good according to the guy, could be Japanese I guess.
It seems a guy could expect 10,000 hours on these engines based on what this guy has seen and they are his only source of power. He uses big tractor radiators and water pumps on the engines. He also replaced the silencer (can we call it that?) with the rear silencer from a 2.5 Litre diesel 4x4.
A few of his neighbours run these Changfa's too and no problems reported.
I run 4 Lister CS's, all genuine Lister engines. I worked on a lot of oid's and some Changfa's. The Changfa's are a far better engineered engine and the QC is very good. No bad castings have been seen to date. They look like they will have a better life span over the Oid's without the drama of having to machine parts when you buy one. The cheap bits that I dont like on them are the silencer, fuel tank and cooling tank. The fuel pipes are best replaced too.
I will buy a few Changfa's this year to try out here long term. One will drive a genset for my workshop and I will put another in the back of my Landrover for portable use.
