Older Boat Engines: Snog, marry, avoid?
When you are looking for a canal boat for sale there is a huge variety of engine choices, of varying ages. While some are quite modern others have been reliably chugging away for years.
Petrol engines are started by a spark which ignites the gasoline, but for running an engine in a damp environment we boaters can be thankful to Rudolf Diesel, who developed the compression-ignition engine in 1893. They began to be used in narrowboats in the 1920s. The extra power allowed a butty to be towed meaning a boat crew could carry more cargo and earn more pay in one trip. A diesel engine uses the heat of compression to start ignition to burn the fuel injected into the combustion chamber.
A two-stroke engine completes a power cycle in one crankshaft revolution and with two up and down movements of the piston, compared to a four-stroke engine, which uses four movements. Having no high voltage electrical ignition system makes them more reliable than petrol engines and perfect for damp environments. They tend to last much longer than petrol engines and diesel is a better lubricant than petrol.
Popular vintage engines for enthusiasts of traditional narrowboats are Gardner, Lister or Russell Newbury. The air cooled Lister SR2 and SR3 became popular in the 1970’s. In the 70’s and 80’s the water cooled BMC1.5 and 1.8 became a common choice. As diesel engines have become more complex some are now marinised ready for boating and there are now many different makes of engine available.
Some boats even used to have the old taxi engines in 2.2 and 2.5 BMC but if you still have one of these make sure you maintain it well as they are quite old!
I asked a friend of mine who is a marine engineer what are his favourite older engines and he mentioned (in the following order)
1) Lister SR3
2) Perkins 4108
3) BMC 1.5
He was interested to note that these are all English engines.
My friend says,
“My favourite for grunt and problem free would be the Lister SR3 one up from the ever popular SR2. Both are noisy air cooled old engines but went on and on and on. And there are still a few knocking around. They’re easy to work on and you can still get the parts pretty easily.”
I then asked for a second opinion from another marine engineer who also said,
“Lister SR series: air cooled and (almost) indestructible. The parts and information are widely available.”
What is your favourite engine? Are there any you would avoid?
Next time: Modern engines.
You may also like:
Living on a Boat: The Boatshed Guide (free) / Castle Marinas Welcome Liveaboards / Top 6 Benefits of Owning a Boat / A slideshow of our boat of the moment./More articles.
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