1957 Petter AVA1 Diesel Engine

Another project followed me home recently. And I fully admit I'm a sucker for small (a somewhat relative term in this case), older hand-crank diesel engines. This particular engine is a British Petter model AVA1 single cylinder diesel engine, and dates to approximately 1957. Maybe 1956. Without further ado, here's a photo:

The above photo is from several years ago, and the engine/trailer has been sitting outside under a tarp at the previous owner's home for quite some time it appears, so things have deteriorated a bit since the photo was taken.

This 412-pound engine came mounted on a home-built trailer with a centrifugal irrigation pump also mounted to the trailer. I bought the setup from a married couple I'll call D and W. W's dad used this engine and pump for irrigation on the family farm in Bow, WA. When the farm was liquidated, the engine and pump were obtained by D and W as a memento of the farm. D proceeded to refurbish the engine and mounted it and the irrigation pump on a trailer. D said in his Craigslist for-sale ad that the engine was "currently not running". I asked if he knew of any issues and he said he thought the injector pump timing was off and that oil pressure needed adjusting, as the engine smoked profusely when he tried starting it after the refurb.

I set about timing the injector pump according to a Petter AVA manual that I was able to find online. I also noticed the oil pressure adjusting screw was threaded all the way in, so I backed out the screw several turns. Hopefully it is OK.

I proceeded to bleed the fuel system, then cranked the engine over to see if it would run. To my delight, the engine fired up fairly quickly. The smoke, however, was horrendous.

After 40 seconds of bucking and belching black smoke, the engine finally settled down. When I bought the engine, I really had no idea of its internal condition, but now it is running and I feel much better. It's always a gamble buying a non-running engine, unless of course the price is either free or too good to pass up. This was neither, but the price was doable, so it was just somewhat of a gamble. So far I'm happy with my purchase. The air shroud is rubbing on the flywheel, which creates quite a racket, so I need to rectify that (see next blog post), and I also need to somehow hook up an oil pressure gauge to see if it needs further adjusting. And I also need to work on the governor to slow the RPM down some. And find a better air cleaner (it's currently a vacuum cleaner filter). And get some belts for the water pump. And work on the trailer. And the list goes on....

Here's a link to the first-start video I put on YouTube: