The Kelvin J3 running

The J3 that we bought was in reasonable running order rather than being a complete basket base, and in the Youtube video here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC2x9pT3GnY] you can see the engine being started before the overhaul begins.

Starting the J3 is wonderful, with a many point plan which you need to follow ... there's a marvellous video on Youtube of the starting of a [much bigger] K2, which explains things really well, and is the procedure that we have tried to follow as well as following the points from the Kelvin handbook ... the "How to start ..." video can be found here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEaS097_tww].

Now I explained that I am no engineer, and I needed therefore to find someone who knows the Kelvin engines well who can advise accordingly on the extent of the overhaul, and carry out the work as necessary.  There are some names (but not many) which are mentioned within the industry, but none equal (in my opinion) to that of Dick Goble, and Dick kindly agreed to look at my engine and help me to bring it back to full working order.  What Dick doesn't know about Kelvin engines simply isn't worth knowing, and over the last few months he has undertaken quite a bit of work to improve the J3.  Dick's name was provided to me by Dave Moore, the narrowboat signwriter and decorator.  Dave, who has helped us enormously for many years, has a Kelvin J3 in the Norton Canes tug 'Resolute', and our new boat plans are very much modelled on 'Ressie' ... and incredibly we have sourced a J3 engine which [hopefully] can be reliable and suitable for our new boat. 

The Kelvin J3

Choosing the right engine for a traditional narrowboat is not an easy task ... there are so many things to take into account when deciding, and also you have to look at availability of viable engines in the first instance as there are fewer and fewer good examples.  You need to decide on the amount of power that you would like from your engine, remembering that the horse power from vintage engines are designed to be delivered at much lower revs than a modern engine.  We knew that we wanted a vintage engine, which we wanted to sound good and which would also command pride of place in the engine room, and which was able to be maintained fairly easily as I'm certainly no engineer.

After a lot of thought and reading ... particularly on the fabulous Canalworld forum [http://www.canalworld.net/forums] which has loads of information and opinion ... we decided that a Kelvin would be a fabulous engine for the boat, or perhaps a Gardner.

After much consideration, and with some fortune with a suitable engine becoming available (they appear for sale very infrequently), we settled on a Kelvin J3, pictured above on the day we bought it, number 23423.  It's a full petrol hand-start engine with electric start also. Whilst the Gardner 2LW is a lovely engine, and there are lots of other lovely choices, we think that the Kelvins have such a lot of history and character.  There are much larger Kelvin engines in narrowboats., notably the massive K3s fitted in many of the RW Davis and Son boats named 'Northwich Traders',  the Kelvin J3 delivers 33hp at 1,000 rpm which we believe is ideal for the 60 or so feet boat which we plan, and the Kelvin company ... and indeed this particular engine ... have got lots of history (more of which to follow).  We bought the engine in good working order, albeit it required an overhaul of the key components, which we will detail and record on these pages.          

Opening Post

Welcome to this blog which is for a hull build, vintage engine source and renovation, and eventually a fit-out of a new traditional narrowboat which will be named 'Alice'.  This blog is an attempt to put on record - and to showcase - the wonderful craftmanship of the people involved in the creation of our narrowboat.  I hope that this blog is helpful and interesting to others who might embark upon a similar journey, or those who are simply interested in vintage engines and traditional narrowboats.