Re-Cycle if you can

Sometimes it really irks me when I think about the 'Consumer' society that we live in today and about the amount of stuff that is tossed out into the trash simply because it is easier to buy a new item than to repair and re-cycle the old one.

I have been wanting to set up a small 'Stand-alone' engine and water pump to act as a fire fighting unit for my house and workshop as I live in a highly fire prone area. I could easily buy a Chinese engine and pump unit for a mere $150, ....probably use it a couple of times and then throw it away!

However, after doing a spot of browsing on the net, I discovered a local second hand machinery place that were selling an 8hp Briggs & Stratton and Finsbury water pump (combined unit) for $20 as a non runner. It looked like too good an opportunity to be missed and there could not be much that would stop such a simple unit from working again.

I had a good look over the whole unit and found that the engine would turn over but the pull start mechanism was not working. The fuel tank was also rusted through so obviously water had found its way into the tank and probably the carburettor.

I de-coupled the engine and pump and concentrated on getting the engine going first. I repaired the pull start dog-clutch by using appropriate sized balls from an old ball race that I ratted. Next, I stripped, cleaned and re-set the points and lastly stripped and cleaned out the carburettor of all debris and deposits. Connected a temporary fuel supply, a couple of pulls later and away it went! Marvellously simple old engines are the B&S.

The water pump was another story all together! It appears to have been sitting for many years but full of salt water which had really taken a liking to the aluminium casing, especially in the area where the cast iron pump stator seats up against the housing inlet. The stator spigot is supposed to fit into the smaller recess with an 'O' ring seal up against the larger flat face. A quick glance would tell anyone that this was not going to happen!

I took it down to the local sand blaster and paid $10 to have it cleaned up ready for some epoxy putty re-modelling.

The top outlet face was not looking too well either.

Drawing upon dim and distant memories from doing pottery and clay modelling at school, I set about reworking the seal area.

The main difference being that at school, the clay did not set hard after only 3 minutes!  I had to mix up several small portions in succession and add them, a section at a time.

The following day, I set up the housing on the milling machine and re-produced the original spigot and seal areas in the now hardened epoxy putty.

The stator spigot fits into the smaller diameter and the 'O' ring seals against the larger flat face.

I set up the top outlet face and milled off  enough to just clean up. This face is sealed with a rubber gasket so I was not too worried about a bit of porosity.

All that remains is to repair 2 broken studs, re-assemble the pump, couple it back up to the engine and find a small fuel tank to strap to the engine. All up costs so far, are about $43 and it should be good for another 20 years or more!

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Lister CS 3.5 - 1

This is an ongoing story on bringing this great old Lister back to life again.

It must have been about 2002 that I managed to pick up this old 1937 Lister CS 3.5 up from a farm that was being sold off down at Waroona, south of Perth in Western Australia.  It had not run for many years but had fortunately been stored under cover. Although all the linkages were rusted solid, the crank still turned and there were no cracks or breakages. Overall, it looked as though it would be a good project for me to begin my first vintage engine restoration on.

The actual proper strip down of the engine started in November 2010 when I removed the rocker assembly, pushrods and the fuel pump. Following that, I removed the injector and the cylinder head.

Very pleased with what I've seen so far. The head will clean up nicely although both valves are fairly deeply seated. I may have to fit new valve seats to bring them back up to spec.

The piston crown and cylinder block face although dirty, have no corrosion or other nasties.

The original chrome plated bore is good and there are no signs of the plating having worn through in any areas. The vertical streaks in the photo are not score marks, they are simply oil marks left by the piston and it's rings and can be wiped off.

Well, there it is, looking a bit more bare than before. Next, I will tackle removing both flywheels.

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FLYWHEEL REMOVAL

As can be seen, the heads of the tapered keys were looking a bit worse for wear and there was quite an amount of corrosion to the crank shaft on the pump side of the engine. I had applied WD40 to the flywheel hub, keyway and crankshaft over the preceding weeks.

I butted a length of M16 high tensile threaded rod up to the head of the key.

Next, butt welded the threaded bar to the head of the key and then strengthened either side with a short piece of 10mm round bar just to be sure that I did not end up simply tearing the head off the key.

A good sized piece of round billet and 4 nuts threaded onto the end of the bar completed my crude slide hammer.

Crude it may have been but after only one or two attempts, the key easily slid out. This was on the exhaust side of the engine.

The inlet (pump) side of the engine was another story altogether. It took several full velocity slides on the slide hammer before the reluctant key finally moved!

Phew!...so far so good and no broken keys!

The next task was to pull the flywheels off. I tried using my large industrial sized 3 leg puller with hydraulic screw and piston but it was manufactured '...somewhere in the far East...' and as I applied pressure, the puller main frame proceeded to take on some new and interesting geometry! Disgusted, I threw it all back into it's box and made up my own puller from some steel plates and studs from my milling machine's clamp set.

This involved tightening the 3 nuts in succession and when I ran out of thread, I would have to dismantle the contraption and use the next shortest stud from the set.

I applied a really scary amount of load to the puller until I was in fear of breaking a stud or stripping a thread. The flywheel finally let go with a very loud bang and budged about 1mm. I thought something had broken but when looking behind the flywheel, I noticed the tiny gap. In the above picture, the flywheel has moved about 8mm or more.

I had previously emery taped the crankshaft and also checked the diameter of the corroded outer section to make sure that it was below 2" dia.  However, I still had to use the puller to get the flywheel all the way to the end of the crankshaft where I lifted it off.

The crankshaft on the exhaust side of the engine was in much better condition and I was able to slide the flywheel all the way to the end by hand.

The inlet side. Fairly pitted and corroded but fortunately not where the flywheel sits, ...although very dry, that part of the shaft is in good condition.

The exhaust side. This end of the crankshaft is in good condition over it's whole length.

The next job is to remove the cylinder block, piston and conrod.

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NOW FOR THE BLOCK AND CRANK.

Now why on earth does the manufacturer rattle on about only using rain water or distilled water in the cooling system?

Same story on opposite side of the cylinder block. Fortunately it is mostly loose scale and debris and should clean up reasonably well.

The 'Black hole of Calcutta'.

Anyone refurbishing old diesel engines will know all about the attraction between this black ooze, himself and everything else in his workshop!

Some evidence of water, ....possibly a collection of condensation over the many years of sitting idle.

After lifting off the cylinder block and removing the piston, I supported the conrod in order to work at removing the big end cap.

Access to the CS Lister's big end is made easy by removing the crank case inspection cover

Drained the sump, ....first to come out was a quantity of water, followed by oil, followed by black ooze that took the rest of the afternoon to find it's way south!

After removal of the conrod and the main bearing carrier from the cam gear side of the engine, it is relatively simple to remove the whole crank shaft from the opposite (exhaust) side through the large openings left by the main bearing carriers.

Both main bearing journals look good and are only a maximum of 0.002" under size.

The big end journal was another story!  Although it measured up cylindrical and within limits, sadly it has suffered 'galvanic corrosion' and is severely pitted. Galvanic corrosion occurs when two dissimilar metals remain in close contact over a long period of time. I'm sure that a metallurgist could furnish a detailed technical explanation of the above phenomenon.

The big end shells are within tolerance and will be used again after the big end journal has been repaired.

The 'oil dipper' has been repaired with brazing so I will replace this with a new one. Everything inside the engine is splash fed with oil apart from the main bearings so one can not afford to have the oil dipper failing in service!

Next will be to start the big clean up.

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