Old Engines talk (or sing!) to you...

TiggerToo

TiggerToo

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Last Saturday, I met up with a mate to have a go at sailing his "new" Sadler 26. The boat is fantastic, and sails beautifully. But this is not about the boat.

When we got to starting the engine, there was a bit of trepidation (months of sitting there in the cold). The batteries and the starter motor did their job, and they set the old Volvo turning. The minutes passed (seemed like ages -nailbiting), but the sound of the motor turning slowly changed, probably as the oil got to lubricate all the right bits. The old diesel was waking, slowing altering its tune, until ...

one or two thuds... and then it got going.

I am not used to old (one cylinder) engines. This one was literally telling us: " a few more turns and I will start"....

Funny sensation.

(after that, once warm, it started immediately)
:cool:
 
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You certainly need to listen to older engines and feel for the sweet spots, but I am surprised that a Sadler29 should have a single-cylinder motor. My 1987 model had a Volvo 2002 and that was about right. A friend with the slightly smaller Trapper 501 had a 9hp single which was much improved when he fitted a 15.
 
johnalison said:
You certainly need to listen to older engines and feel for the sweet spots, but I am surprised that a Sadler29 should have a single-cylinder motor. My 1987 model had a Volvo 2002 and that was about right. A friend with the slightly smaller Trapper 501 had a 9hp single which was much improved when he fitted a 15.
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it was a Sadler 26!!!
(I have edited that now)
Really lovely little ship
 
VP 2002 a lovely wee unit.

Last sail of the season two summers ago and there was a tiny change on pitch as we left the Exe, in a single bound I was at the bottom of the companionway steps to witness the over temperature light go on! Stopped the engine, undid the inlet hose and wiggled a thin blade down the through hull, cleared the obstruction and off we went.
 
TQA said:
Been shown on this site before but it is the exact sound of a one lunger diesel starting

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A coaster I worked on the motor that powered the windlass sounded just like that and we where relieved every time it started as it meant we didn’t have to wind up the anchour by hand.One dark night the starting handle ende up still on the motor and was hurled up into space........luckily not landing on our heads or in the sea,
 
I used to work on a lighship(decommissioned) and I used to have to start the single cylinder Gardner every morning for power, sounds just like the video. A sailing boat I once owned had a single sabb. I could slow the revs right down.
 
In the dim and distant past I assisted in casting an aluminium replacement piston for a Bolinders two stroke semi diesel. The OE one was made from cast iron and was badly cracked and had a bit of the thrust side skirt missing.

It had a hit and miss govenor. When it reached the correct RPM the ball type revolving govenor caused the injector not to inject.

In the early seventies you could sometimes hear a motor and butty on the Grand Union loaded with coal sounding something like:-

" Bonk-bonk-bonk-bonk--------------ber bonk-bonk---------------bonk-bonk-bonk----------ber-bonk-bonk ----------bonk-----"

Dont hear that much these days..................................
 
My old MD1 used to sound lovely. When you were off watch, laying in the quarter berth beside it, it felt like being back in the womb. It powered my old boat from 1966 to 2006 and never missed a beat.
 
chrishelen said:
I used to work on a lighship(decommissioned) and I used to have to start the single cylinder Gardner every morning for power, sounds just like the video. A sailing boat I once owned had a single sabb. I could slow the revs right down.
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Gardner made some beautiful engines. Friends had a 36 foot Dutch motor sailer fitted with a four cylinder Gardner. It was a tall slow revving long stroke diesel, and to start it you first used a hand pump to build up the oil pressure, thus ensuring that all bearings had oil in them before it even turned. The result was an engine that will still be running long after most others have worn out.
 
Had a single cylinder air cooled Ducati that sound like a cracked bell at each stroke. Vertical tractor exhaust. Although externally rusted to the point that one could not undo a thing it continued to give very good service until someone actually bought it...
 
wombat88 said:
Had a single cylinder air cooled Ducati that sound like a cracked bell at each stroke. Vertical tractor exhaust. Although externally rusted to the point that one could not undo a thing it continued to give very good service until someone actually bought it...
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I had a boat that was originally powered by an air-cooled Ducati. The original owner, who had fitted the boat out himself, said he had gone for the Ducati because it was on a special offer at the time, and the first time he started it he realised it was a mistake. (Fortunately it had been replaced by the time the boat came into my possession.)
 
LittleSister said:
I had a boat that was originally powered by an air-cooled Ducati. The original owner, who had fitted the boat out himself, said he had gone for the Ducati because it was on a special offer at the time, and the first time he started it he realised it was a mistake. (Fortunately it had been replaced by the time the boat came into my possession.)
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Yes it was truly awful. I am half deaf and even without my hearing aid it was intolerably noisy. I think it was a dumper truck engine. Am I right in thinking that in the '60s there were plenty of small Italian diesels on the market, Arona, Lombardini, Ducati etc, all much cheaper than the British offerings of the time?
 
Sam Springer, a man who built steel canal boats from old gasometers-the curved steel pieces were flattened by having a Land Rover repeatedly drive over them-often supplied a bare hull for customer fit out.

The Ducati single cylinder diesel was often fitted to these craft.

As has been suggested, they were truly awful.

A cynic once stated that a 500cc Vincent Comet motorbike sounded like a gas stove being dragged up a cobbled street. A 1000cc Rapide or Shadow like two gas stoves being dragged up the same street.

Well, the Ducati single cylinder diesel sounded like four gas stoves being dragged up the cobbled street, with a piercing exhaust note to boot.

Not pleasant. And the vibration-did I mention the vibration..................................
 
Back in the day, I was thumbing a lift to Chichester on the 'old' A27, when a Ducati 450 pulled up, the guy handled me a helmet, and we set off to Chi. I really thought the only reason he'd offered me a lift, was to have a spare person to push it when blew up! Awful.
 
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