Engine - Lister JP3M
Misterton is powered by a Lister JP3M Marine engine. As far as I know the engine is the same one that was installed in 1948. Update - I had a chat with Dave Hill, son on Les Hill, the last commercial owner of Misterton. They replaced the original engine with another JP3M in 1986 after the crankshaft went. The 'new' engine was a reconditioned one from Waddingtons of Swinton.
Its a three cylinder diesel of about 4.3 litres capacity. Its hand start only, so should be good exercise....
Lovely....... Here is a short video of the engine just after it started (on the trip from Stainforth to Goole). I'm winding out the compression valves to put it into 'low' compression, ready to work.
Lister into low compression from Simon Sparrow on Vimeo.
Mike Askin has made this video about hand starting a Lister JP2 (one cylinder less than Misterton's JP3).
These are Mike's notes:
Starting a 1953 Lister JP2 in royalty class motor boat Victoria. The sequence goes like this:
- Check the oil (it's a bit low at the moment!)
- Grease the water pump
- Set the throttle (it's actually overriding the governor)
- Move the valve lifters to open
- Put on the "Patented one man auto start string"
- Place the starting handle
- Make sure your thumbs aren't crossed over the bar (in case of back fire)
- Turn like hell (especially if it's cold)
- Once firing on one cylinder drop the valve lifter on the other cylinder
- Once running up to speed take the throttle over ride off, ensuring that the alternator is charging (light goes off).
The next bit, not normally done unless running under high load (like pulling a loaded butty, or high speed river running), but for the video:
- With enough throttle turn the change-over valves quickly and smartly to the "run" position. This puts a second chamber in communication with the main chamber thus lowering the compression ratio. This reduces stress on the engine, but needs extra heat in the engine to run cleanly. Note that during the change over the cylinder vents outside (hence the need for some throttle).
Note: The engine was hot during this start - in fact I started the engine over 10 times - hence the heavy breathing at times :-)
Starting a Lister JP2 from Michael Askin on Vimeo.