Gardner marine engine & gearbox on ebay

[Peter A Forbes]

Noticed this on ebay, it's at the end of its time with no bids the last time I
looked:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=69832&item=2485460375

Two things caught my eye, one was that the starting price looked pretty high,
even in view of the restoration that the engine had had, the other was the fact
that the engine has a reserve price that is even higher than the starting price!

I don't want to open a book on engine prices in general, but would this engine
sell if the starting price was either lower, or the reserve was removed?

Psychology is a wonderful thing, and a prospective buyer would surely be put off
by the very high start AND reserve?

Peter

--
Peter & Rita Forbes
die...@easynet.co.uk
Engine pages for preservation info:
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel

[Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton]

> Psychology is a wonderful thing, and a prospective buyer would surely be put off
> by the very high start AND reserve?
>
> Peter
>

Hi Peter,

a very appealing and fairly unusual engine. If I had that sort of cash to throw at an engine, I certainly wouldn't
promise it to someone I'd never heard of, with no feedback score for an unseen engine. It seems like other punters
thought the same.

I agree with your point on the starting price, though I couldn't claim to be able to value it. Its not worth £9.5K to
me, that's for sure.

Regards,
Arthur G

[J K Siddorn]

Ouch! Having set a reserve, as I understand it he'll have to pay through the
nose now, even though it didn't sell.

It doesn't appeal to me at all and just moving 15cwt about in order to
exhibit it must have been a daunting task in itself.

I wonder what it would have fetched if advertised sensibly? I'd have thought
£2,500 was nearer the mark myself - but what do I know. £9,500? You could
buy a whole lot of interesting old aero engine for that, including a Merlin.

Regards,

Kim

[timleech]

I had a similar 3-cylinder engine which I sold about 15 years ago,
can't remember how much for but around the 2K mark.This was after full
crank grind, +.030 Gardner pistons, fuel equipment all done, valves &
guides etc. I'm sure I could have got double that since then, but 10K
for a 4-cylinder sounds way over the top to me. Mine did have the
original Gardner 'type 2' (not 2UC) gearbox which is very rare now. I
would want to look very closely at how that Parsons box is attached,
as they have an aluminium casing which is designed for bolting to a
cylindrical flywheel housing. They are a good box, but spares are
probably harder to find than for the engine!

No sign of any raised hand start provision, it would originally have
been on the gearbox. One of the great things about these engines is
that hand starting is so easy!

The bit about 'first diesel marine engine from Gardners after the
steam engine' is utter bo**ocks. They made plenty of semi-diesels and
I think full diesels also.

I think the only market they would have any hope of getting that sort
of money is the Narrow boat enthusiats, but I get the feeling that
that market has passed its peak (I'm not really in touch with it these
days, though). The 4-cylinder is really too big for a narrow boat,
though there is one former working tug with a 5-cylinder. The
3-cylinder came back to me after 10 years or so for some attention
with badly glazed bores, as it hadn't been working hard enough.

Cheers
Tim
Tim Leech
Dutton Dry-Dock

Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs