In the middle of the boat lurks a many cylindered beast. A genuine 1950s Gardner engine. Now, I am no petrol head nor AT ALL familiar with engines, machinery nor pretty much anything with moving parts. But I have it on very good authority that this is (perhaps a rather in appropriate phrase here) the Rolls Royce of big engines.

Visually it is quite impressive and does have a certain beauty. More so once it gets polished up. BEST OF ALL IT STILL WORKS. I am astounded that something that was made around 60 years ago, with multiple finely tuned moving parts and so many different elements that could go wrong is still able to fire to life. Albeit with a lot of tinkering and prepping by Carl.

Gardner ceased operating in the 1990s but there is quite a lot of info about the company and the engines it produced. I am not sure exactly what type of engine this is. As a diesel engine from the 1950s, it is possible it is LW or LX… will have to do some more research to find out. There are tonnes of Gardner Geeks (and I use that with utmost respect) so think I need to make some engine friends…

UPDATE: see below. Now the only questions left to answer are a) wtf is a tappett? And b) how can I change my surname to McCool?

On Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 7:33 PM, Helen Symonds wrote:

Hi

I was hoping you could help.
We will do our best Helen. We only get involved with Gardners. Gardners are our passion. They were the best marine engine ever made: simple, reliable and very easy on fuel.

I have a 1926 thames fire boat which I understand has a large Gardner engine aboard. It is still working but I am keen to find out what type of engine it is
It is a 6L3 and it delivers 150bhp at 1200 rpm. Parts for 6L3’s can be hard to find, but if it is not broke, then you won’t need any.
and what I need to do in terms of servicing and keeping it in good order.
Nothing special really. Change the oil often and both the oil and fuel filters. Set the tappets if they are noisey and that is it. The best oil to use is classic SAE30, nothing complicated.
Are you the people to help?
Yes, we will delighted to help you in any way we can. Just let me know.

—
Thanks.
____________________________
Joe McCool CEng, MIMarEST, SMIEEE
http://www.tangent-engineering.co.uk
(44)7802572441