My Ozlisteroids JKSON Diesel 8/1 generator/compressor project Pt 1.

This is a detailed walkaround showing the progress to date of my "Daisy the Diesel Project". It was named by my 5 year old Julian who loves watching "Thomas the tank engine"
I bought this wonderful engine in Australia from a company called "Ozlisteroids." Their website address is www.ozlisteroids.com
Buying this engine was the beginning of a project that just kept growing and growing. The engine is an indian clone of the famous Lister CS "cold starting" 8/1 diesel engine. This particular one was made by the folks at JKSON diesel. It is an 8 hp model, making its power at 850 rpm. Here is a bit of a rundown of what has been done so far in this project.
* Stripped down to every last nut and bolt to permit proper cleaning out of the casting sand that we always seem to find in the indian made engines.
* All paint and indian body filler removed, then repainted in colours of our own preference instead.
* Built a frame to mount it all on, then set about finding and building on a number of interesting things for it to actually drive. There's nothing more boring than looking at videos of all these beautifully restored engines on youtube, which are doing nothing but turning themselves over and looking pretty! Diesels love to work, don't they? ! Well this one gets to work hard, and regularly. No glazed bores here...
The two major objects driven by my engine are a heavy duty 240 volt alternator and an air compressor.
The air compressor is a brand new 1950's made Bendix-Westinghouse truck compressor. It's about 8 cfm and air cooled twin cylinder design. It has an internal oil pump and white metal bearings, even featuring oil squirters under each piston crown! They don't make them like this anymore. We were lucky enough to find this brand new on ebay. The fellow had about 10 of them all still wrapped in wax paper in a wooden crate. It even came with the proper bowden type governor valve which you can see and hear working in these videos.
The alternator came from China, and is a copy of some old design. Heavy cast housing and most suitable for the slow running engine. It is four pole, only requiring 1500 rpm to produce 50 hz. The rated output is 15KVA or roughly 55amps, at 240volts ac, but it is not able to make this much when being driven by this engine. The engine is undersized for the alternator, which means the alternator is very understressed, so much so, it barely gets warm most of the time. So far the most we have loaded it down to successfully is about 27 amps, which is still quite a useful output. It will hold this output while still maintaining 50hz quite readily. It has an electronic voltage regulator rather than the old shunt type, which gives a nice clean, stable output voltage.
I have converted the mechanical governor to an electronic one, using parts from an Onan lighting plant. It uses a pulse sensor, which can be seen mounted on the end of the generator shaft. There is a flywheel/flexplate borrowed from a car providing the signal with its ring gear teeth. The pulses feed a processor which drives a solenoid. This controls the position of the injector rack and gives very stable engine speed control, which translates into excellent frequency control in the alternator's output.
I also ditched the original oil pump in favour of an external gear type pump to provide enough pressure to allow full flow filtration and the use of a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger allows me to get the bottom end up to running temperature quickly even on short runs, by using some heat from the cooling system. The radiator used here is from a Ford Falcon V8 and works well using thermosiphon only. There is no water pump needed at all in this system. The two fans seen on the radiator are 12 volt and are thermostatically controlled.
I set up a home made "oil alert" using a standard low oil pressure indicator switch and a relay. If oil pressure is lost any time, power to the electronics controlling the injector rack is cut, stopping the engine. There are lots of other odds and ends in this setup, including a home made gauge panel for both the mains voltage side and the 12 volt side. I am also experimenting with an invertor and deep cycle battery setup. This whole project has been about fun and learning. We do have mains power here, and it's quite reliable, so we didn't really need a generator.
We did have a power outage for three days recently though, and it made us very glad to have Daisy the Diesel! I hope you enjoy this video. Feel free to leave your comments.

[@narendraballyan4660]

Amazing ....I've never seen like this Lister having so crazy tone...

[@adgecutlerofthewest]

Very impressive, well done. My Dad would have loved to see this, he was a highly knowledgable electrical engineer and loved stationary engines (cs' being a bit of an addiction). He worked on several start o matic plants that were in use in areas without national grid. Sadly he's no longer with us but his engines are, when I run them he is with me.

[@georgeutterpower]

This is a first class effort, made by craftsmen! Congrats on selecting the JKson brand, I have found this brand to arrive with the more consistent quality, The errector even uses the right size drill and changes to a new tap whe required in order to make the fasteners fit properly! I have seen hole drilled oversize, so a worn out tap can be used and not break off in the hole.. You will never do two installs the same, there is always something you will do differently on the next.

[@mayukhsgarage7286]

Great setup mate.......just loved it. Awesome sound and a brilliant project brother. Love from India

[@BennyAu-00]

Thank you too for your compliments. My Dad and my son and I all worked together on this project and we are having a lot of fun with it. Learning plenty at the same time. I wish my grandpa were here to see it too. I know he would have loved it.

[@thefirstmissinglink]

Love your entire setup!

[@billrok]

I had a dream about a generator/compressor system just like this. Incredible. I wish for one like it.

[@Aussie50]

Magnificent project!, I can see a lot of hours went into that one!, and worth every bit!

[@keithbrier4397]

Nice setup! The sound of music to my ears!!

[@Sohave]

Nice control panel! I like the old school aesthetics with the round moving needle meters and the odd frequency meter, I saw a similar one at an old preserved power station i visited. Nice engine.

[@BennyAu-00]

Thank you for your kind words! You're right, the hours that go into projects like this are too many to think about! It's very worthwhile in the end though! Cheers, Ben.

[@BennyAu-00]

@MrFrogmobile. Hi, and thanks for your kind comments. I love every minute I spend working on my old engines! Cheers, from Australia.

[@krawlr]

WOW, outstanding work man! The compressor setup is very cool. Like you, I like my old engines but I still expect them to work.

[@BennyAu-00]

Hi George. Thanks for your compliment! I have been very pleased with my Jkson. It is a fine listeroid indeed. Apart from needing the mandatory cleanout on the inside, and a complete repaint from bare metal, this engine was of a very high standard when I bought it new from OzlisteroidsDotCom. The machining work was excellent and most of the fasteners were fine too. The clearances had all be set up properly. I fell in love with it during the stripdown and rebuild!! Cheers.

[@BennyAu-00]

@MrJimsonweed Thanks very much! Glad you like it. I'll keep working on my other generator set and get some videos of it up one day too. Its a very old Lister JP3, which is getting an ST25 alternator fitted up. This one will make some decent amps one day soon.

[@mzthebest]

It's amazing! Beautiful work! I cant say any more words! Greeting from Hungary.

[@BennyAu-00]

Thanks mate. They're so much more interesting when they can be useful as well as nice to look at. This one provides all the compressed air I need for the workshop and the power too. Did you see the latest one I put up showing the new air starter I have rigged up?

[@douro20]

A couple of people in a forum covering this project are a bit concerned about the constant movement of the fuel rack, and accelerated wear which may be caused by it. I personally don't think it would be much of an issue, considering the make of the injection parts (Bosch/Mico).

[@shackwrrr]

This is a nice setup, I am looking into doing something the same with its own building and have it provide all the air for a shop and power during outages.

[@learning41230]

It's a beautiful work of (working) art!! I love it.

[@BennyAu-00]

Hi Audio Labguy. Congratulations on getting your own Jkson! I know what you mean about feeling like a kid before christmas. My frame is pretty straightforward, heavy channel iron around all four sides, and really heavy 12mm angle iron crossmembers. There is a piece of 25mm marine ply between the engine and the crossmembers. But the key to lack of vibration is the balance. Jkson engines have counterweights on the crank, not the flywheels. I M O this is the better way for it to be done. Cheers.

[@BennyAu-00]

Thanks for your compliments mate. That filter housing was a one off I found on Ebay ages ago, never seen them since. I recommend you get in touch with Steve again at OzlisteroidsDotCom as he now sells a version of these add-on oil filters which is just what you need. Cheers.

[@BennyAu-00]

Hi there. I was slightly concerned too, but over 200 hours running like that has not caused any noticeable wear. I am trialling a different controller at the moment which certainly keeps the actuator at a more stable position. See my other videos, one called testing woodward governor 01 shows a view of how smooth it is. Cheers.

[@soleilinox]

Hello The sound of your engine is very regular and nice ! how many kilowatts your alternator is ? how many Kw the whole set can continuously produce if you don't use air compressed ? I need to make something like this, but it is hard to choose the right motor/generator. thanks from France !

[@timmywazzup]

that is beautiful

[@krawlr]

@bendy2000 I had two of those air motors on mine and it still didn't have enough to make that first pop. That JKSON sounds so much sweeter than my big old 25hp.

[@grandpaseed]

a master piece! all ship shape and made to last a life time the only thought i might have is a clutch system to disengage the compressor to lengthen the life of the pump but WOW the pluming and wiring are engineer porn!

[@PaulHigginbothamSr]

he needs a snubber valve on the actuator for the governor drive, the constant pulsations from the big cylinder will destroy the governor with the constant pulsations.

[@BennyAu-00]

Thanks Paul. There is over 800 hours on this engine and governor arrangement now, and still no wear on the governor and injector pump rack. I would rather it didn't pulsate too, but it has not caused any problems so far.

[@souprchrgd]

This makes my generator project look like I got it out of a crackerjack box

[@audiolabguy]

Thanks for posting this vid, my own JKSON 6/1 will be arriving in 2 weeks and I'm like a kid before Christmas with anticipation. Very impressed by the lack of vibration, do you have any details on your frame mount setup? Thanks!

[@Dauntless244]

I want to do something similar to this with a JKson 20/2 and a generator big enough to run the whole house and sheds etc when there is no power available, and possibly to sell some electricity back to the grid if I have excess filtered waste oil, etc. Where did you get the electronic governor parts, etc?

[@krawlr]

@enginecoot He has air start, It's just cooler to hand crank it. Haha My shoulder will never let that happen for me.

[@BennyAu-00]

@grandpaseed Thanks a lot for your kind words. Much appreciated. I love the term engineer porn !!

[@BennyAu-00]

@Dauntless244 Hi. Have a look at the OzlisteroidsDotCom website. Send a quick message to Steve from there. He is certainly the right fellow to supply the right bits for the job. Cheers.

[@BennyAu-00]

@Hetman1974, Hi there. Good pickup about the oil pump! It's something that worried me too when I set up the external oil pump. So I rigged up an oil pressure switch that has ultimate control over the power to the governor circuit. If oil pressure is lost, the injector pump rack slams shut and she stops. Have a look at this vid, kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXPWnoaXaLx0fpI My 5 year old gives a good run down on the project, and demonstrates a clear understanding of the protection circuit. Cheers.