Gardner 6L3 Running

ive always heard it is the normal for older style injection systems. discrepancies in injector pump pressure and injector pop pressure are much more pronounced at low load scenarios, meaning some cylinders are getting fractions of the fuel as other cylinders. this difference in fueling stays the same , but as total fueling increases under load, the difference is much less visible

Pump timing needs advancing

Worn out - smokes badly at idle due to low compression but sounds like it has one strong cylinder. By the way - nice video of your feet.

Lovely low rev sound. I remember gardner generators on a museum ship I worked on.

I had one of these engines in a trawler yacht NORDIC STAR fantastic engine 18.2 litre 112 hp at 900 rpm

114 bhp  at 900 rpm for fishing/work boats. 250 rpm idle, but would run slower and still go into gear at that speed and not stall.

trackhoe23 45,000 hours would be a low hours motor, about 6 years running time in many boats. I'd say Magicsdesigner was probably closer with 450,000 hours though obviously exaggerated (rounded up) some what if his dates are accurate and it did power the ferry from 1956 until 2003

what a beast of an engine so sweet to the ears

excuse my spelling mistake!! i'm not sure.i'll have to look on the internet. the engine that i saw i didn't see the start up so don't know.

I think the 2 stroke gardners were the old hot bulb engines?

In america too! There are a few in switchers at a heritage railway near where I live, sound good.

Had one in our 56ft trawler 35 years of fishing no problems great engine

Music!

Just throw that in a truck :D

A race horse is good for a mile a cart horse is good for all day!

'Low speed marine diesels', like this one, tried to supplant the earlier low speed steam and semi-diesel power plants ideal for propellers, without today's reliable reduction gear ratios. High speed diesels exploit the steam turbine approach, many trawlers even diesel-electric, engines running at constant speed with battery powered propellers like submarines!. The popular long production run Bergius Kelvin K4 is superbly fuel efficient and quiet compared to lighter motor vehicle power plants.

nice to see the old engines are still appreciated I woked there from 1969 t0 1986 and worked on the dept that built the L3's then worked as a skilled fitter assembling the cambox and fuel pump assemblys for about eight years so I taught many apprentices and visiting engineers/mechanics how to build and maintian the cambox assembly any way good work and keep them running jim stansfield

@douro20 they used to make a bigger one for marine use I saw the cylinder liners for a J type{ about 18 in in dia} once as an apprentice when a J type was in for rebuild in the early 70's it had supposedly been on the bottom of hong kong harbour for over 20 years and when they washed it down and connected it up at the factory it started first time that was before they stripped and rebuilt it I think it went back to HK to go into one of the ferries that are still running to this day

@Magicsdesigner ??? Are you sure about 450,000 hours? 47 years is 411,720 hours long. Did you mean 45,000 hours? Love the sound.

I used to engine driver on a ferry we had here in Bermuda with this engine. Great sound and sipped fuel.

Fantastic! I'm helping out at my local historic railway rebuillding one of these that is in a small shunter. we had the head off No.1 cylinder as the carbon has built up to half an inch coating (I'm not exagerating!) and has jamed both valves, breaking one pushrod and bending another. we are therefore rebulding the top end and I have spend today chiseling carbon! I will try and video the first start. Many thanks, Phill.

3 litres per cylinder hence 6L3 =18 litres

does anyone have a video of an 8L3 running?

Did Gardner ever make 'V' types engines?

They made engines even bigger than the L3s. There were a few HF13 horizontal twins which made 90hp at 240rpm.

Lawrence Gardner knew what he was doing! Facinating how different it is to a 6LXB

Amazing how slow, they can run, a friend had an 8L3 in an ex Brunner coaster (the Davenham) (UK Boat built for Brunner Mond ltd. in the 60's) and we could decompress 6 of the cylinders and start and run it on 2 cylinders. amazing engines! I used to love standing in the engine room and just watching and listening! :-)

that is the most sweetest of tickovers i have ever heard on a gardner nice one!

Does that have seperate cylinder heads? Friend had gardner in boat, inline 6, about 11 litres, 2 cylinder heads. Is the 6L3 a bigger engine/ the biggest gardner make? I didnt think they made that many different sizes apart from number of cylinders.