air filter

Its a gauze air filter out of a marinised bmc diesel out of a circa 1974 sherpa the engine been sitting in a boat for about 10 years and is now out and getting a re con
 
Right, I have since read your other post, yes it should be OK to clean it. Good engine that Prima, made by Perkins, first large production DI engine.

Peter
 
you mentioned oil in the filter box and level markers that listing has gone now, any more thoughts on that, cheers
 
If its anything like the older Perkins engines they had a circular filter housing with about 1/4" of oil in the bottom which caused any solids to be trapped, if yours is like that it should have an oil level line near the bottom of the housing, if it doesn't it isn't.

Peter
 
If its anything like the older Perkins engines they had a circular filter housing with about 1/4" of oil in the bottom which caused any solids to be trapped, if yours is like that it should have an oil level line near the bottom of the housing, if it doesn't it isn't.

Peter
These were known as Coopers air cleaners and very efficient they were too, provided you kept the oil at the right level, cleaned them out regularly, washing the gauze in petrol or paraffin, they would last forever.

Wotan
 
Having just re read your initial post and seen that the engine is from a '74 vehicle it probably isn't a Perkins Prima engine as that was 2.0L. I have never seen a BMC 1800 diesel the only one I know of from that period is a 1500 and that probably would have an oil bath filter. They used them in the J2 and J4 vans and the Austin A60 car.

Peter
 
Did Sherpa's go back that far? I'll have to look at "The Sweeney" again. J4's all had 1500 BMC over here, well so dad said ..... :)

I think that 2.0L DI Perkins was more the Austin Montego (80's) era?

Keep in mind that the air box could be out of anything, as its a marine application

Yes, 25mm was a bit deep for the oil level in the filter, 5-10mm would be more like it
 
I think you are right, it was the 1800cc that threw me. I had a manual for the BMC 1.5 diesel but I can't find it The oil depth would be about 5mm, at 25mm it would get sucked into the engine :shock: I think it must be the 1.5 he has, I know they made a marinised version of the Perkins 4/99 - 4/108 engine of the time - I do have a manual for that and even a few spares I think.

Peter
 
This chap was looking for inlet valves for a 1.8 Diesel BMC and we found them on E-Bay, so they do exist.

But the 4.108 Perkins dropped into a MK1 Granada, now you're talking comfort and style. Tied to the 4 speed Transit van gearbox and petrol differential. Move over VW/Audi.

At the rate we're going, we'll have no oil in the bottom of the filter at all .... :)
 
Well I have never come across an 1800 and I was well into diesels in those days, any idea what they used it in?

I fitted a 4/108 into a Mk1 Granada estate but used a vauxhall overdrive box fitted with the commercial box gears otherwise first gear was to high to pull away. The power wasn't really enough so I experimented with an Allard turbocharger but the gas flow wasn't sufficient, didn't come on boost until about 3500 rpm and ran out at 4000. I subsequently fitted a Transit York engine with the turbo and a Scimitar overdrive box, that went quite well.

Peter
 
Found this, if you skip down to the 1.8 Diesel, it is listed for Sherpa and marine application

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_B-Series_engine


The overdrive box was way over budget in those days. Pity the york was so hard to start.......
There's a lot to be said for direst injection
 
Apologies to all concerned :oops: I have also found this engine in reference to the Sherpa van, thinking back my aerial rigger always had Sherpa's and his early one must have been a 1.8 but I always remember them as being DI Prima engines. The 1500 engine went well into the '70s so the 1800 couldn't have been made for very long before the 2.0L came out.

I used to trawl the breakers yards for Vauxhall overdrive boxes. I would buy scrap Bedford CA or CF vans for the 108 engines because the bell housing also fitted the vauxhall box, I used the gears from the original box to give wider ratios in the overdrive box. I must have done around 10 conversions in total from a Viva to the Granada estate - then I drove a Citroen CX diesel and there was no more need for conversions.

Peter
 
I guess any excess oil would be sucked into the engine anyway - with interesting results!
Bloomin' good filters in their day - the Vokes was another.
John :)
 
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