Mark, I will do my best to keep the E4 from being melted down by our mid eastern buddies. This one has just had major repairs done to it with less than 200 hours. When they were digging through a large crate trying to find my crank handle ( a two arm load!) I saw a box with a new connecting rod for the E4 and it is a hunk of iron in itself. This set is a " Hawker Siddeley Mirrlees Blackstone" according to my manuals.
Yes do the right thing, I was thinking more of the far east rice area... I would like to meet the team who could start one of these by hand !!!! mine is barred round using holes in the flywheel.
Strangely enough I bought an E range parts list/ manual for mine and it was originally supplied with a Lister Blackstone ER5 280 hp @ 750 rpm 24 hour rated, supplied to Pelapone Ltd for power station equipment, Pelaspone whose works were no more than 9 miles up the road from where I live, in fact there is a guy in our village who served his apprenticeship with them. These engines were fitted to our 79`150 ton displacement Royal Navy fleet auxillary vessels and if I remember correctly I read somewhere that they use 8 US galls an hour @ 8 knots.
Mark.