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bigman1 · 10-01-2011, 12:35

Hi Folks,i have been offered a lister/petter air cooled diesel,a brand new engine for a very good price,however one thing puzzles me it has a radiator as in a water cooled engine,if anyone can explain why an air cooled engine should have a rad.i would be grateful.Thanks.Ronnie.

Bergovoy · 10-01-2011, 12:51

my understanding is that 'air cooled' engines have radiators.. the air, cools the water inside the radiotor.

a water cooled engine is one that uses cool fresh water, and doesnt need air blowing over anything...

kinda making me rethink this as i type it though... hmmm

both are water cooled... but one doesnt have a fan or access to fresh air running past it...

**David M** · 10-01-2011, 12:58

If you do accept this diesel with a water jacket...right? You then have to figure out where to put the radiator and then where all the waste heat is going to be blown? For a boat, I don't see any advantage to this over having a conventional coolant to sea water heat exchanger which would be much more compact and send your waste heat into the ocean rather than into the air around your boat.

Of course you could take the engine for free and then add a conventional heat exchanger intended for a boat engine.

**Jim Cate** · 10-01-2011, 13:36

G'Day,

Years ago I was helping a friend establish a vineyard in the foothills of the Sierras. He hired a gen set which was powered by an air cooled Lister. Seemed bullet proof, for we ran it with zero maintenance 24/7 for three months (and I mean zero... just added fuel when required... no oil change, didn't even check the level) and it just kept on keeping on. The down side was that it was very noisy, both exhaust and direct engine noise. I don't remember if it had a radiator and water jackets or was truly air cooled, but I do remember trying to sleep in a tent nearby while it bellowed away.

This was long before I had any experience with boats or diesels, and now I cringe to think of it! I think that anything that survives the equipment hire life is truly sturdy!

So, if you do decide to power a boat with such an engine, getting rid of the noise should be added to getting rid of the heat!

Cheers,

Jim

morgsteven · 15-02-2011, 15:03

Did you get rid of your 4.107 , what are you doing with the remains of it.
regards
Edward

**roverhi** · 15-02-2011, 15:45

We were off the grid for the first 10 years we lived in our house. The neighbor had an aircooled Lister powered generator that he thoughtlessly placed as close to our house as he possibly could. It almost came to war as the damn was the noisiest generator we ever experienced. It would stop conversation within a 100' of it. Fortunately it had been well used before he bought it and blew up after a year or so. He bought a low speed, low noise gasoline generator to replace it so I didn't have to shoot him.