Here at Arun Fasteners some of our customers have been restoring Gardner Diesel Engines with BSF Fasteners.

BSF meaning British Standard Fine, an old-style British thread. Often used on vintage British automobiles and machinery as its fine thread is preferred. Available in steel and stainless steel although stainless can now be difficult to source.

Gardner Diesel Engines

L. Gardner and Sons Ltd was a British builder of diesel engines for stationary, marine, road and rail applications. The company was founded in Manchester in 1868. It started building engines around 1895. The firm ceased engine production in the mid-1990s.

Automotive engines

In 1929 a Gardner “4L2” marine engine was fitted into a bus. This conversion was successful and prompted Gardner to introduce the “LW” series of diesel engines, designed especially for road vehicles but later modified and supplied as a marine engine. The LW engine was a modular design, with separate cast iron cylinder blocks and cylinder heads comprising either 2 – 3 cylinders.

During the 1930s a number of LW-series were installed in large luxury cars including Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. The Gardner engine’s reliability and economy coupled to its remarkable refinement and smooth-running abilities, made it the only suitable compression-ignition engine at the time.

During The second world War Gardner’s war work consisted mainly of building diesel engines of their own design. Their 4LK bus engines were also used as the main powerplant in the Royal Navy’s midget submarines.

Post-war diesels

After the war the ‘LW’ diesel engine continued to be built in large numbers for lorries and buses and was later supplemented by the more modern ‘LX’. The larger ‘6L3’ and ‘8L3’ engines were used in railway locomotives.