IT LIVES!

[SB118]

Amazing what you can do with a few hours here and there

From this ...



to this ...


in under a month, LOADS quieter than Dave, just can't run it for long as the vibrations will destroy the trolley it's on (mate needed his hoist back for a job and i can't move the engine till i get it back )

Mucho happy bunny with this one, i won't get an ASBO running this one with neighbours!

Starting the bugger will keep me fit though, flywheels weigh in at a shade over 200kgs

 

[SB118]

ermmm what is it im looking at?

Do try and keep up old chap

 

[SB118]

So when this is up and running will it run the electricity for your entire house 24/7. Or is it more to ease your dependance instead?

It's going to run the flat during the day and charge a few batteries to run the essentials (kettle, telly & fridge) overnight.

... it's a lister engine ...

A 1954 Lister to be exact, this thing is nearly as old as my dad

 

[SB118]

It's a 6/1 diesel engine, but by upping the revs from 650 to 850 rpm and changing from an iron to an ally piston it turns into an 8/1 meaning i can pull 4kW from my alternator.

Not a clue what it's going to use fuel wise, but they use very little. And they run on ANYTHING, diesel, veg oil, even filtered used engine oil.

 

[SB118]

If you painted it in mustard would it run better?

It could probably burn that as fuel too

Just found a reference from a guy with a similar engine, he's using "255 grammes of fuel per kWh", so i would be looking at 1 litre an hour at flat out full load. heh, i drained 5 hours of fuel from the sump on the van last month

 

[SB118]

Dont laugh...but does it have an ECU of some sort to sort out the timings?

Or do you crank it to start?

Look like an amazingly fun project! And a 200kg fly wheel, how on earth did you move it? Or did you do squats at the same time?!

There is a definate lack of any electrics whatsoever on this engine.

It's hand started, and it's a bit tricky to move

 

[SB118]

When you say it runs on veg oil, surely it would first have to be processed into biodiesel?

Hell no!

No need to involve methanol or sodium hydroxide here.

People often forget Rudolf Diesel designed his engine to run on vegetable oils, he famously ran an engine on peanut oil at the Worlds Fair in 1900.

 

[SB118]

So will it be cheaper per watt than your electricity company? I suppose it will depend on the fuel? Or is that not the point?

The fuel is free and pretty much unlimited, so it will pay for itself in electricity and once i've fitted the exhaust heat exchanger, it will provide basic central heating too, which will save us £15/week in gas too.

 

[SB118]

So youll be a regular sight at the local fish and chip shops and garages then?

I picked up 180l of used oil from one takeaway today

Hmmm, its going to be a good workout for you then to turn those flywheels to get the compression to get the first ingnition of the oil then!

That why they invented the blowtorch

 

[SB118]

It's a bit barky right now (still quiet compared to Dave), but that's due to the interior of the pepperpot silencer rusting to bits and falling out when i shook it

Once i've got a proper exhaust box on it and tied it to a big lump of concrete it should settle down nicely.

 

[SB118]

How reliable? It's a 52 year old engine that still starts on the first try.....

w1nnar

 

[SB118]

Oh, and SB118. Here's one for you....

Too new & too fast! 3600rpm There's a guy buying every slwo speed engine he can find on ebay and importing them to the US. New EPA regs mean that it tricky getting new listeroid engine in to the country now, whereas the 30-50 year old original listers are grandfathered in.

 

[SB118]

Mickey D, would this one suit you?

Check out www.utterpower.com for a great set of articles about the engines, alternators and common mods.

 

[SB118]

There's a load of batteries in there too but basically, yes.

The outlay for 300 rechargeable PP9s was a killer

 

[SB118]

Mickey D, you might need some Kleenex m8

 

[SB118]

Out of interest, what were you doing with all those levers, etc?

Can we have some sort of "I'm pressed the 'more noise' button then...." guide?

I'm not usually into this sort of thing, but this is one project I have been keeping a little eye on.

The rod i'm pushing by the flywheel is the "rack", it controls the amount of fuel being pumped to the injector, as the load increases that rack pumps more fuel to keep the speed constant.

The big srewy thing on the back of the head of the compression change valve, you start on high compression, then once it's up to temperature you screw the valve out, lowering the compression, to keep the engine under less load.

The piece that i used to shut the engine down in the decompression lever, it holds the exhaust valve open letting you crank the engine without having a hernia.

 

[SB118]

So this is like, from dead rusted to fully functioning...can you do that with every lister?

Pretty much, they were built to last (this one is 52 years old), you can get pattern parts for them too, so even if something is dead you can replace the neccessary parts.

 

[SB118]

am i wrong in saying that instead of using abtteries for overnight storage you could have just fed your surplus back into the grid, for which you are payed, and then drawn from the grid overnight, possibly even making a net profit?

In a perfect world, yes. But net metering (i think it's called) is expensive to set up, i'd need to run 24/7 for a year or so just to break even. IF it was cheaper to get into i'd go for it, as it would make running big stuff like the electric shower a bit easier, as it is, i'm looking at the lowest power shower there is and then preheating some water too. ANYTHING to make it work

 

[SB118]

So you gonna use a watercooled head and use that water to preheat the water for the radiators? Are you sure the head is hot enought for that?

I've going to use the coolant loop from the head/barrel to lightly preheat the vegoil fuel (they use the exhaust to full heat it). I've going to run a heat exchanger on the exhaust to run a couple of radiators, and this circuit will include the shower preheater. eventually

 

[SB118]

Very interesting I am really temped into getting that one working and installing it in the house in the island

They're a billiant project, once you start on renewable fuel/off grid stuff you find out all sorts of stuff. One guy has 3 smalls wind generators dumping into his battery bank, so even overnight he is storing juice. Which he uses for the electric start on his engine (i've got a while before i reach that stage!)