Opinions of this Lister diesel, please?

[Daric J]

Greetings!
The latest road trip netted a Lister diesel generator! It is a two cylinder air cooled direct injected engine with an output shaft driven at half engine speed.The tag reads:
No 8852ST2A27
HP 14.6
RPM 1800
B.S. 649 Basic engine less accessories
Made in England
The generator tag is unreadable except for the stamped numbers:
SA51792XA 3022-0078
1.0 1800 60 1
120/240 7.5 63/31
The engine is in pieces- heads and cylinders off, but all the parts are there. It looks like one cylinder swallowed a nut at one time, but the damage seems light. Pistons and cylinders seem worn. Supposedly it ran when disassembled, but poorly.
Opinions, and observations? Is it worth rebuilding? Are parts, gaskets, manuals available? Are these good engines?
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I very much welcome your comments and insight!

[Gunny]

7.5kW 120/240 single phase generator. Good engines, parts avalible, sounds like a nice summer project. Do a google for Lister.

[BTPost]

Nothing like a good English Lister Genset. I just sold a 3 cyl. 12Kw with
140K hours total time, and it was still going strong after NFrame@ each 40K
hour period. Put good oil in them and 40K hours is an easy run between
NFrame rebuilds. Parts are expensive, but you really don't need them often,
so it all balances out.

Bruce in alaska

[ListerDiesel]

8852ST2A27

Serial Number is 8852

Engine type is ST

Number of Cylinders is 2

'A' means reverse rotation (compared with the English spec)

27 is the year of manufacture = 1977 (1950 + 27)

Information is available, we probably have a manual that we can quote you from but cannot offer copying I'm afraid.

Look on the internet, these come up quite frequently on ebay.

The alternator may be one of three makers, but most likely is a Brush unit.

I may have the control/wiring book for it, I'll have to see what we have in the genny books.

Peter

[Daric J]

Thank you very much for the information! Decoding the number is a tremendous help- now I know what I'm messing with! Very much appreciate the replies!

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Daric J

Greetings!
The latest road trip netted a Lister diesel generator! It is a two cylinder air cooled direct injected engine with an output shaft driven at half engine speed.

Forgot to add that both Lister and Petters offered full-power output at half engine speed from the camshaft end which was reinforced and extended for the purpose.

Peter

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Daric J

Thank you very much for the information! Decoding the number is a tremendous help- now I know what I'm messing with! Very much appreciate the replies!

There is a cross-over on the interpretation of the engine numbers, and having found the ST parts book I may as well give you the later interpretation as well.

This only works if the numbers are grouped as follows:

88 52 ST2 A 27

1988 production year
Serial No 52
ST2 type & No of Cyls
A is reverse rotation
27 is a build code - basically ACW rotation parts and generator flywheel etc.

If they are a solid block thus:

8852ST2A27

then the earlier interpretation applies.

Peter

[Billy J Shafer]

From my short time working on LISTER I can say they are a very good engine well built.Strong blocks and cranks and a very long life engine if taken proper care of.

[Daric J]

thanks for the additional info, Peter! The numbers are grouped all together, so it must be the older production date. The fasteners that hold this engine together, are they a british thread or american? I fear some nuts and bolts are missing...
Thanks again for your replies!

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Daric J

thanks for the additional info, Peter! The numbers are grouped all together, so it must be the older production date. The fasteners that hold this engine together, are they a british thread or american? I fear some nuts and bolts are missing...
Thanks again for your replies!

They would be UNF for nuts on studs, or UNC for studs into blocks, but note that all the fuel pipes and injector connections are metric threads. You might be unlucky and have BSP threads on the fuel connections, but the injection side is always metric.

We can get standard unified threads over here no problem, let me have a list and I'll see what we can do.

Peter

[Robt.]

Forgot to add that both Lister and Petters offered full-power output at half engine speed from the camshaft end which was reinforced and extended for the purpose.

Do you mean full power could be taken off the camshaft itself? So an 1800rpm engine could produce full power off the end of the camshaft at 900rpm??

If so, that's very useful info.

Can you suggest sources for liners & pistons?

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Robt.

Do you mean full power could be taken off the camshaft itself? So an 1800rpm engine could produce full power off the end of the camshaft at 900rpm??

If so, that's very useful info.

Can you suggest sources for liners & pistons?

Yes, full power at half engine speed from the end of the camshaft, which is pretty meaty compared with most. I have an AV1 camshaft downstairs and it is pretty massive compared with a Lister 5/1 for example, much heavier and larger drive gear.

Not outside the dealerships, Lister spares are not good at present, especially for the older engines.

I don't think that the ST2 has liners anyway?

Peter

[Daric J]

It is a 1 1/2" dia shaft almost 6 inches long coming out of the back of the engine. Not the sort of thing I want grabbing a pant leg! Before it is running, a guard will be constructed!
No liners like a water cooled engine- but similar to motorcycle engines- the cylinder and fins are cast as one piece-all in iron it seems. I may need these too. We'll see when the manual arrives!

[Robt.]

Ah, so this camshaft feature is a Petter thing, carried over to Lister-Petters?

PS: I'm still looking for some FR spares if you have any Peter?

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Robt.

Ah, so this camshaft feature is a Petter thing, carried over to Lister-Petters?

PS: I'm still looking for some FR spares if you have any Peter?

I think that Petters were certainly the first of the two companies to do it as a standard item, but there were others who had it as an option.

I don't think Lister ever got into that sort of PTO until they were amalgamated with Petters under Hawker-Siddeley ownership.

I probably already asked you about the spares, but refresh my memory as to what you are looking for please?

Peter

[Robt.]

Thank you Peter, the spares I am looking for are:

Lister CD 8hp:

Cylinder head (valve) cover
Compression relief valve cover
Oil pressure gauge

Lister FR 1 & 2 cylinder:

Gasket set x 2 for 2 cylinder
Gasket set for 1 cylinder
Fuel filter x 3
Possibly bearing sets and valve pairs - to be determined after the engines are stripped down.

Piston & liner sets would be nice to find, but probably too expensive to ship...

Sorry to hijack the thread!

I did see some Lister HA parts on eBay the other day...

Could anyone comment on the noise levels of the CD 16hp and the FR2 12hp; which is likely to be quieter?

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Robt.

Thank you Peter, the spares I am looking for are:
Lister CD 8hp:
Cylinder head (valve) cover
Compression relief valve cover
Oil pressure gauge
Lister FR 1 & 2 cylinder:
Gasket set x 2 for 2 cylinder
Gasket set for 1 cylinder
Fuel filter x 3
Possibly bearing sets and valve pairs - to be determined after the engines are stripped down.
Piston & liner sets would be nice to find, but probably too expensive to ship...
Sorry to hijack the thread!
I did see some Lister HA parts on eBay the other day...
Could anyone comment on the noise levels of the CD 16hp and the FR2 12hp; which is likely to be quieter?

Ah yes, I remember these parts from last year?

These engines are over 60 years old now, and spares are getting a bit few and far between. We sold some CD/CE main bearings recently, they went for $225 for the 5 bearings.

Gasket sets are equally hard to come across, although I do have some CE head gaskets in my cache of bits.

As far as noise levels go, the CE would be quieter than the FR as it uses older injection technology and lower firing pressures. Both are not noisy per se, but the CE would definitely be quieter.

Peter

[Robt.]

Originally Posted by ListerDiesel

Ah yes, I remember these parts from last year?

These engines are over 60 years old now, and spares are getting a bit few and far between. We sold some CD/CE main bearings recently, they went for $225 for the 5 bearings.

Gasket sets are equally hard to come across, although I do have some CE head gaskets in my cache of bits.

As far as noise levels go, the CE would be quieter than the FR as it uses older injection technology and lower firing pressures. Both are not noisy per se, but the CE would definitely be quieter.

Peter

I've lost my mailboxes since the New Year so am not sure who I've asked

I see you call it a "CE" not a "CD". Am I using the wrong terminology?

I'm sure most of these parts must be made in India somewhere, I just haven't found where yet.

Many thanks.

[ListerDiesel]

Originally Posted by Robt.

I've lost my mailboxes since the New Year so am not sure who I've asked

I see you call it a "CE" not a "CD". Am I using the wrong terminology?

I'm sure most of these parts must be made in India somewhere, I just haven't found where yet.

Many thanks.

Sorry, CE is the twin, CD is the single, my error. Parts like pistons, liners, valves, springs, injectors, bearings are common. We do have some new big end bearings.

None of these engines were produced in India, so spares are not coming from there to my knowledge. The only countries that produced any pattern stuff for the CD/CE were Turkey/Cyprus/Malta.

Peter

[Robt.]

Thanks again Peter,
Can you tell us more about this Turkey/Cyprus etc. production?

I did see FR bearings were being made in India, but it is hard to tell who is a manufacturer and who is just a reseller over there.

May I ask if the clutch unit from a FR would bolt up to the CE? The basic housing bolt pattern looks the same but would the crank shaft have to be reduced in length?