engineers & engine enthusiasts

You’ve decided you need a generator, for occasional emergency use, but you don’t want a boring steel box​ with no soul or a cuboid cage. You want something you can customise to your needs; perhaps modify and tweak over time. You want a slow-running diesel that sounds good while chugging away doing its job. 

The engineers among us will appreciate the beauty and simplicity of ​the old Lister engines. These are a 1930’s design from the sunset days of the British Empire. Designed in Britain (and originally built there), the stationary diesel variant engines are either one or two cylinders, with massive flywheels, and typically chug away at about 650 to 1000 PM. They are almost entirely constructed of cast iron, have a relatively low compression ratio (for a diesel) and can last a lifetime. They are typically connected to machinery (eg generator, pump etc) by means of a belt drive. This provides for flexibility in terms of rotational speed, because you can change pulley sizes to change the speed of the load device while keeping the engine at it’s optimal speed. 

When the British left India, they left behind hundreds of Lister engines. The Indians found that importing spares from England was costly and slow, so they started making their own replica components. This expanded to become fairly large-scale operation. It is still carried out by dozens of small factories and workshops all over India. These new Lister copies are generally referred to in the United States as ‘Listeroids’ and there are several internet forums dedicated to these engines and their fanatics.

Those of us who love slow-running single-cylinder Diesel engines, will also appreciate the ChangFa Chinese engines for the same reason. These share many of the same charming characteristics. While the Lister engines have vertically arranged cylinders, the ChangFa are horizontal. They tend to operate at slightly higher RPM range (1500 – 2200).

These ChangFa style engines are manufactured by many companies with brand names like Dongfeng, JiangDong, Xingdong, Changchai, Changxing etc. Like the Lister engines, they have oil lubrication by splash (sometimes a pump) and they are water cooled. 

Below is an abbreviated family tree of manufacturers who were/are involved in building hopper-cooled diesel engines. In the 1930s the German and Japanese engines were typically horizontal, while the British ones were arranged vertically.

In some cases the design was officially licensed to an offshore company (eg Petter to Kirloskar, Royal Enfield, Eicher). In other cases the basic design was just copied and maybe modified a little. The modern engines are of high mechanical quality and don’t require any electronics to manage them.

Both the Lister and ChangFa engine water cooling is usually by means of a ‘hopper’. The water circulates by gravity feed (hot water rises) and the evaporative coolant loss from the top of the hopper cools the system. It’s simple, it works well and the system has been around for almost 100 years. You do need to check and top up the water coolant level before each run and at regular intervals. If you wish, there are ways you can modify the system to convert it to a sealed, pressurised cooling system with a water pump, like the common car engine internal combustion engine (ICE). Another common way to increase the run-time between top-ups is to extend the hopper coolant pipes to a nearby large water drum, again with an open top, to allow evaporation.

When you look at one of these ChangFa-type engines you will see two tanks on top. The closed, capped one is for diesel fuel, the other (vented one) is for water.

The ChangFa style engines are incredibly tough and versatile. They are very popular in South-East Asia; in places like Indonesia, Philippines, China, and also thoughout Africa and South America. Changfa single-cylinder diesel engines are widely used in tractors, small and medium-sized machinery, water pump units, irrigation, construction machinery, generator sets, air compressors, construction machinery, etc. Like the Lister, they have a heavy flywheel and tend to be used with a pulley for belt drive. They can also have direct drive applications for things like generators and pumps.

There is a huge amount of information available online in various forums – some starting points are below: