Cooling tank for Lister 3/1.

[kmanison]

I live in Jamaica and have a Lister 3/1 and an 8/1 SOM.

The 3/1 needed some TLC when I got it as one of the governor linkage bell cranks was broken and the fuel pump rack seized solid.
Also it appeared that at some time the head had been taken off and one of the studs was not fully screwed into the crankcase. It was the one right under the rocker shaft greaser, and when they reassembled the engine they just screwed the rocker bearings back down on the head and bent the greaser fitting up. Then they screwed the rocker cover back on and bent the end of the greaser back down, so it was S shaped! The fuel filter had no element and was full of rust.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I replaced the greaser, replaced the linkage, cleaned the filter and put in a new element and took off the pump. After a month of soaking in penetrating oil, dismantling what would come off, soaking again, taking more off etc. I finally got the rack to move. The pump element looked surprisingly good.

Then, reassembly, priming and after a lot of cranking it finally fired. Erratically at first, a bit of smoke, but then it settled down and starts and runs quite well now.

Now for my question. I need to find or make a cooling tank, as I intend to use the engine for electricity and hot (well, warm) water generation. What size/capacity do you recommend? I can get 55 gallon drums, but that seems a little big (and ugly) to me.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Keith

[Tom]

I use a salvaged 40 gal water heater tank. Just cut top off and the 1" pipe thread feed throughs are already in place. Just adequate for a 6/1 here in sunny CA.

[ronmar]

The most important part of a 55 gallon drum as a cooler, is the surface area of the water in an open top drum.  Most of the cooling capacity in a tank type cooler comes from evaporation off of that large surface area.  You could always cut one down so it is not as tall, but I think in a warm climate like jamaica, you are going to want at least that much open surface area for evaporation... 

[listerdiesel]

http://www.stationary-engine.co.uk/ListerData/cooltech.htm

Peter

[kmanison]

Thanks, all , for your input. It looks like 40 to 50 gals is about the size I need, and I appreciate the point about surface area. So maybe a cut down 55 gal drum may be the best bet. I have been looking for discarded water heaters, but we have a voracious scrap metal industry here that sucks up just about everything.

I noticed that the stationary engine site that peter referred to shows the same size tank for the 3/1 and the 6/1, which surprised me a bit.

Cheers

Keith