Slow diesel

I was kinda curious about a diesel that would kinda idle along and be good on fuel.Ive been reading about the lister diesel,real old engine,600 rpm,read storys of them running for many years,ancient easy to fix if needed,real heavy though.thought of what it would be like to use one with a big slow turning prop.Ive been reading some powerboat cruising type magazines,they have big realatively slow boats and talk about taking on thousands of gallons of fuel,i guess if your swimming in money its ok,but im not.thoughts on this kinda diesel for a ship?

 

What size engine are you loking for?

Search on Lister, Gardner, Blackstone, Sabb... and you will find loads of stuff on old slow revving engines from 6 to 1000hp.

But they are all big and heavy. In the states I know John Deer has well regarded units which are slower running, if not of these glacial proportions.

I did the design for a large displacement cruiser where the owner was emphatic he wanted to use a Garder 6LX, but when he saw the space he had to sacrifice to fit it in, he went with a Perkins. They are also not cheap. Real good second hand ones are more expensive than some new engines. You also have to use a proportionally bigger gearbox because of their torque.

But stories of their longevity are impressive. All the buses in Hong Kong used to be engined with Gardners. Each engine would last the life of two bus bodies, and then the engine was sold at auction for loads of money and went off to power a fishing junk for years. And the generators on the Isle of Wight ferries were power by Gardners with the oil change system that meant they never had to stop. After about 11 years (100 000 hours) one was stopped and stripped down. No decernable wear could be found.

 

Whatever happened to that kind of engineering, eh? Way too much disposable equipment these days.
Deere has some pretty solid, efficient slow diesels, http://www.deere.com/en_US/rg/productsequipment/productcatalog/marine/propulsion/index.html For instance, their 8.1L in the M1 continuous rating can idle at 600rpm and puts out peak torque st only 1500rpm.

 

Listers I recall had bloody big flywheels on them. Very slow turning and were crank started with a decompression lever. You crank like crap until you picked up enough speed then you let go the decompression lever. Hopefully the flywheel would keep her turning until she fired. Sometimes the ******* would fire up and start running backwards.

But as stated they are heavy.

 

A wickman AC is what I would recomend. Good response and last for ever, but I think you will have a hard time finding one.

I don't think engineering is that bad this days, but the demand for smaler space, more power and less weigh do reduce engine life.

I hear a old burmeister in a boat that where running 23 hours a day 350 days a year did not have a cylinder liner replaced for 17 yeas and was still within the limits.

 

AH, guys, glad I found this thread & hopefully one of you can tell me if ;
Just spent a few hours fitting up a 12v starter to a JP4 Lister engine I obtained. It has decompresion buttons [ not levers in my case] and will turn over no problem with the starter WITH the decompresions engaged .
I can "drop" one decompresor and with the inertia of the now spinning engine/flywheel it will continue to crank.
I should point out that at this stage I'm not trying to start her, just evaluate the starters ability to crank it.
1; It will not turn over with the decompresion DIS- engaged --- just bounces off the compresion !.
2; Are these engines designed to turn over , with the electric starter, under full compression ?
3; If not, is one expected to grovell down in the engine room while second person hits the starter at the helm , so as to be able to push in the decom- button at max cranking speed !! ??? , Surely not !!.

I expect, and believe I need to be able to start my boats engine from the bridge , single handed.
Does anyone agree ?.
If this engine cannot be started remotely !!!!, I think it's no good to me.
Pretty upseting really as I'd believed it to have certain atributes suitable for the cruising yacht I'm building. Namley , reliability, heaps of tourque, and given the low revs , economy -- although I've had many people with differing opinions on that. [ I don't know ]
pissed off !

 

use a 12v shut down solenoid to pull the compression relese levers to start