Lister engine recovery part 3 UPDATE 

Thanks Stuart, glad you liked it! How's Darwin at the moment? Not too hot I hope.

Ah its hot and humid nuff said really.

Thanks Alan, its a mystery the cause of the con rod failures, maybe over tightening of the big end bearing bolts causing them to break while running or maybe a problem with the governor causing the engine to over rev. I have heard of bush mechanics wanting the engines to run faster to pump water quickly will tie the fuel pump rack with wire and if the engine throws the drive belt it will speed up to destruction.

TheFurriestOne I think that that engine might not have survived for much longer as it appeared the oil flow was restricted by a misplaced rag blocking the oil pickup filter, I suppose it would be worthwhile pulling the heads off the 3.5 HP engines, I am not sure if they used smaller inlet/exhaust valves to the 6 HP Engines. There would be enough parts to get another running, the property owner told me that yet another 6 HP engine is sitting on an isolated water bore that would be virtually unused. It was originally a brand new engine that did little work, the mechanic had borrowed a big end bearing to use in another engine and a replacement bearing was never installed. The engine was simply abandoned after that, I will hopefully will be able to retrieve that engine soon.

***** It certainly doesn't take much in just the right worst place to spell doom for machinery, but it's nice when you can save one and read a bit of its history at the same time. Sounds like if you can locate another NOS or good condition mildly-used bearing you'll have a second runner with a bit of work! Sounds like a good plan, thanks for the info!