British Container Shipment

[38ac]

Sorry - I didn't mean to offend anyone. 

 All is well here,

 I in fact am the one who owes an apology to the forum for blowing off steam in public

Butch

[deeiche]

I think you need to establish a storage fee for folks.  What you did was over and beyond what anyone else had accomplished.

If this was part of your regular business what would you?  When I owned my business you bring in equipment for repair and if you haven't picked it up within 7 days of notification  of completion a daily storage fee began to accrue.

Besides, I am a vulture too.   

[dieselgman]

All in moderation and good taste Butch! ... no worries!  

If you take a look at the history of this project and the promises made in the beginning, it is easy to understand that after 4 years plus, (and also the greatly escalating costs), why the enthusiasm might have worn off a bit. I just meant to stir the pot a little here but not ignite any kind of firestorm. In the grand scheme I do not mind "holding the bag" for awhile if it helps people out - and in some way furthers self-reliance and independence on the home front.

I am personally far more pissed off about the engines sold and paid for in England but never delivered! There were at least two other people I know of who completely lost their investments. I purchased several machines myself that became a total loss because of the time delay involved with getting them collected and the unscrupulous people taking advantage of far-away buyers. That kind of thing always gets me furious.  

This has been a learning process for everyone involved... I do have a very long history in business, as well as many failures mixed with some success. If something sounds too good to be true, you can bet - it aint!

dieselgman

[listerdiesel]

I sold a CE to one of the guys over in the USA (Dr Death?)  but he went awol after payment. Adev collected the engine from me and as far as I know it made the shipment.

I beat your four years handsomely, I have 6 Lister engines here that have been paid for with the buyer to arrange shipping, 12 YEARS ago!  I last heard from his daughter 2 years ago, and before that there were a few emails from shippers asking for details, weights and sizes etc.

It is getting very close to sending him the money back and selling up on ebay.

16/2, FR1 FR2, CE, SOM Set and a 5/1.

Peter

[dieselgman]

You are a very honorable and patient man Peter!

Rare in this day and age!

dieselgman

[mike90045]

... M.A.S.H. episode where Hawkeye wants to have some ribs shipped from "Adams Ribs" in Chicago over to Korea....

Mmmm  Real Listers....    I'll take mine with 30wt.    What are the bids for orphans ?  I still have 1 kidney left, I can exchange for British iron.

[contaucreek]

... M.A.S.H. episode where Hawkeye wants to have some ribs shipped from "Adams Ribs" in Chicago over to Korea....

Mmmm  Real Listers....    I'll take mine with 30wt.    What are the bids for orphans ?  I still have 1 kidney left, I can exchange for British iron.

Im surprised at the reply given your avitar Mike 

[dieselgman]

No orphans from this shipment available yet... If that does happen, I will make it known here.

It may turn out that one of the owners would like to parlay a portion of their investment to help cover their costs... that would seem to be the most likely outcome I could predict.

dieselgman

[listerdiesel]

Mike Lisenby, he was the guy that bought the CE twin from me, back in 2010.

Peter

[dieselgman]

No CE made the shipment... to my knowledge there is a CE remaining with Mark W. that belongs to Mike.

dieselgman

[bschwartz]

For anyone who missed the boat on this........... Let me tell you how my "buy a cheap Lister and get it shipped with a bunch of others" has gone so far.

Four years ago, I gave Dr. Death (Mike Lisenby) $1000.  That was $500 for a REAL Lister CS, and $500 which was my share of the shipping costs.
My engine was collected, and I recieved a serial number, and was told by the seller (Mark LeRiche) through Mile Lisenby "Tell Brett he has a good engine. Apparently it had a service by Lister in '06, new piston, liner, bearings, mains and whatever else they could charge for! "

Then there was $150 here and there for pickup/delivery to Blackpool etc.

Well....... 4 years later, and more moving/storage charges, another $500 shipping (my share of the container) but wait, I thought you already paid that......
Who knows what happened to that money, so I paid it again (this time to Gary)  ******All hale Gary for pulling this off!!!******

Last week I drove 1800 miles round trip (2897 Kilometers for the rest of the world) to finally go pick up my REAL Lister.  The trip was made on WVO, so I didn't have to pay for fuel.  i would have had it shipped, but I couldn't afford to put more money into this.

..........
..........

It's gonna take a lot more money 

My 8/1 is crap.
I've started pulling everything apart, and so far have discovered the following parts in need of repair or replacement.
The beautiful SOM flywheels are loose.  Looks like they were ran with loose keys, and the center is buggered.  These will probably need to be bored out to accept QD bushings in the future.  Gary pointed this out upon pickup, and was kind enough to sell me 2 Indian 8/1 flywheels (several hundred more into this engine).
OK, I can live with that .............it's only a little more in the scheme of things.
BUT, now I take it apart and find the crank is a bit worn where the flywheels were.  I hope I can clean things up enough to get the indian flywheels to fit properly.
One side of the crank had felt, but not the other... I've been able to remove one bushing, but the other is stuck.  It is held in place by the oil thrower ring which someone was kind enough to hammer into place with a screwdriver.  This peaned the thrower onto the crank.  I guess I'll have to cut it off.
OH, by the way.... can someone tell me exactly how much rust is OK to have INSIDE the engine?........ That's what I thought... CRAP.

The governor is rusted stuck.  The cam wouldn't come out without drilling the end tapered pin first.  The rocker bushings and shaft are worn out.
The piston rings are glued to the piston with crud.... That doesn't really matter, because the piston is scored up, and has a hollow burned in the top.  These aluminum pistons are flat top (or it used to be), so it needs to be replaced.
Oh, did I mention that the cylinder (which looks scored too) is labeled as .030 so standard parts wont fit.  That's if I can salvage it anyway.
The injection pump is gummed up, but may be servicable with a good soak.
I haven't really looked at the cylinder head yet, but assume the worst with it too.
The inside of the engine is filled with some rust, and the thickest gooiest sludge I've ever seen.  It is like a combination of gear oil, bearing grease, water, and glue.

On the bright side, I finally have a real Lister crank case to start an engine build with, and it only cost me 4 years and about $2000 so far 

What is that?  You missed out on the shipping container?  You may be the lucky one.

[listard-jp2]

I am sorry to hear of your misfortune with this engine, for what it is worth, here are my thoughts:

The beautiful SOM flywheels are loose.  Looks like they were ran with loose keys, and the center is buggered.  BUT, now I take it apart and find the crank is a bit worn where the flywheels were.  I hope I can clean things up enough to get the indian flywheels to fit properly.

This has always been a well known problem with SOM flywheels, and as you have already identified loose flywheels quickly lead to crankshaft damage. Also due to the design of the crank (no undersize regrind possible on the main bearings) you may be better off, starting with a new Indian crank, than trying to reclaim what you presently have.

Also are the new flywheels you have bought, compatible with an original Lister engine (as the original flywheels have 'cast in' out of balance holes, to counter act the Lister CS crankshaft not having internal balance weights). Indian listeroid CS clone engines are usually fitted with internally balanced crankshafts with counter balance weights fitted to the crankshaft webs.

Oh, did I mention that the cylinder (which looks scored too) is labeled as .030 so standard parts wont fit.

You should be able to sleeve back to STD without too much drama, see this link: http://listerengine.com/smf/index.php?topic=7109.0

If you prefer to retain chrome plated cylinder bore I can refer you to an Indian supplier of chromium plated press fit liners. PM me if this sounds interesting.

[dieselgman]

Brett,

Sorry to hear about the additional problems with your 8/1 when you were hoping for a good runner. You might be able to mount the new wheels slightly outboard of the worn spots on your crankshaft (if needing to absolutely contain your costs), and yes they are correctly matched to your engine for external balancing. A lot of the rest of the issues sound about like a normal field-run machine needing an overhaul, and your unit looked a lot nicer than the bulk of what was shipped to us in that particular container!  
I think there were also some absolute boat anchors included and certainly not worth the collection costs. I was not involved with any of that process, but I would have insisted on someone accepting responsibility in England for checking out what was being traded and making certain the pricing was commensurate. Perhaps that is the case? Up till now, no one has really spelled out all the gory details of what was paid to whom and for what...

Personally, I would not normally expect to get a good running original Lister CS purchased in North America for anything less than $3500. There may be some rare exceptions. We routinely sell reconditioned modern Listers in the $6,000 to $8,000 USD range here while the dead cores are typically $500 a copy. Perhaps this illustrates why the Indian clones are so popular in the $2,000 price range!

Brett, although sadly not meeting your expectations as a real bargain, I think your purchase is right in line with the market conditions and is still a good investment to have made.

dieselgman

[dieselgman]

I will add here my own previous experience with bringing in British Listers... I will keep this as brief as possible.  

I run a Lister/Petter dealership in Kansas and also operate an Alaskan generator servicing entity. I am always on the prowl for old iron to purchase because the worldwide stocks are definitely on the decline and I have grown to love and favor the old Lister equipment. About 5 years ago, I made a number of supposedly cheap Lister purchases in England and arranged a container shipment with a friend who was moving to the US West coast from there. I paid between $300 and $1500 for a number of old SOM sets and some bare engines. Sounds pretty good so far, right? As it turned out, that was really the least of the expenses involved. My friend Phil agreed to do the collections basically at cost, but boy did that turn into trouble! The equipment was located in various far fetched and difficult locations and required considerable time and expense to collect. Way, way more than Phil thought he was in for. I hope is not still angry with me over that...    Everything was collected except for 3 units that could not be located timely and off to Tacoma Washington. Once hitting the port and struggling with the authorities over the contents of that container - paying a little extra $$$ - and getting it released, it was found to be something like 10,000 lbs. over weight limits. Phil pulled the rabbit out of the hat on that one by hiring a gypsy trucker who would move it (for a price) and got it safely off-loaded at his place near Olympia. I actually took a road trip to collect the resulting booty but decided on collection that it was a better choice to hand the shipping off to the professionals - and thus another $1800 bill to move it to the Midwest. The long and the short of it - I ended up with only 3 CS core engines, 2 of which were SOM sets, (in quite rough condition) and paid out $8,121 USD. Not even close to the intended financial outcome, but a learning process indeed, and we are dealing with antique stuff that could have a priceless future if things unfold as many pessimists would predict!

The LEF container had all of its own twists and turns, but for the most part - somewhat better outcomes.

dieselgman

[Thomas]

Now that it is winding down I will post what happened when I tried to get in on this at the start. I contacted the contact in England and we talked back and forth and I decided to get in so I asked about payment  and was told I could do it one of several   ways I know some one who lives there so had them set it up to meet the man sent them the money to pay him and inspect the unit they went to  the  address no one there after a few tries to find him they gave up we decided it was a scam they sent my money back looking back was for the best. It cost me to transfer the money but a lot less than if I had just sent the money like he wonted. I thought maybe  my people had just missed making contact. Thomas