A lot of the problem with the heavy throttle, especially on a Foden, was that the linkages were never set right from new. If you made sure that all the levers between the pedal and pump were set at 90 degrees to each other then it made quite a difference, though of course those trucks fitted with either a cable or a hydraulic throttle couldnt be altered really. Overtightening the advance/■■■■■■ friction disc also made them stiffer as well.
Pete.
I hated the things with a vengeance, had three go pop on me, 2 x 6 pot LXB’s, and a partial seizure of a 300. the second LXB cost me about 6 hours on the M1 in the wee small hours at about -6’, never been so cold in me life, when running right freezing bloody cold all winter and prone to fuel waxing even when you’d been running for hours.
The most vivid memories are of winter mornings in the yard (or at the Crawford Arms) and a row of Gardners ticking over and the whole area disappearing in a white stinking fog, whilst the drivers of said motors stood upwind for half an hour or so till they could search for their own truck.
The best day with a Gardner was when it when bang for the last time and you got issued with a ■■■■■■■■
Running backwards? a mate with an LXC semi stalled it with the far too high geared Rolonoff’s PTO and when he released the clutch the bloody thing fired up backwards, amusing watching puffs of smoke exiting the air intake…not his fault, the PTO was so high geared that once when he allowed the revs to rise over 1000 rpm the extra load split the gearbox casing.
Did anyone ever drive a 240 8 cyl gardner fitted to a guy big j
just wondering like
Juddian:
The best day with a Gardner was when it when bang for the last time
Then it could be used for it’s intended design purpose as a boat anchor or melted down for scrap to make something better. 
I worked in the workshop for Taylors of Martley,they ran some 8lxbs and 8lxcts day and night. The night trunk was Worcester to Carlisle and the day run would be perhaps down to Devon. They would like a gallon of oil each shift.When you finally got the engine to bits the bores,rings and pistons were about knacked. If you just tried to put just rings on them the piston would drop down the bore without tapping it.
If it got really cold the only way to start them was to remove the air filter element and get a fire going.
Valve guide wear was bad too, leave them and the valve would drop and really spoil the fun.
But having said all that I loved driving them especially the 300hp 8lxct the torque was pretty flat from 1000 to 1500 rpm and that was when everthing else wouldnt pull below 1400 rpm.
Funny thing was when you poured oil in them and they were worn out they still went the same and were excellent on fuel
pursy:
I worked in the workshop for Taylors of Martley,they ran some 8lxbs and 8lxcts day and night. The night trunk was Worcester to Carlisle and the day run would be perhaps down to Devon. They would like a gallon of oil each shift.When you finally got the engine to bits the bores,rings and pistons were about knacked. If you just tried to put just rings on them the piston would drop down the bore without tapping it.
If it got really cold the only way to start them was to remove the air filter element and get a fire going.
Valve guide wear was bad too, leave them and the valve would drop and really spoil the fun.
But having said all that I loved driving them especially the 300hp 8lxct the torque was pretty flat from 1000 to 1500 rpm and that was when everthing else wouldnt pull below 1400 rpm.
Funny thing was when you poured oil in them and they were worn out they still went the same and were excellent on fuel
Sounds like you could have been using Engine oil of too higher spec (Turbo engine oil!) IIRC you only needed to use a basic lube oil,I’m a bit hazy on this point but IIRC Gardners didn’t recommend the use of the high quality oil.Maybe some of the Gardner experts could confirm or otherwise ! Cheers Bewick.
ND888 BIGJ:
Did anyone ever drive a 240 8 cyl gardner fitted to a guy big jjust wondering like
“Trev H” did ! Anon1.
Carryfast:
Juddian:
The best day with a Gardner was when it when bang for the last timeThen it could be used for it’s intended design purpose as a boat anchor or melted down for scrap to make something better.
I thought you were fighting Al Queda in Syria CF ? What are you doing back here,obviously the Border Agency were not awake when you “ducked back” into the country,who did you bribe ? Cheers Bewick.
Well that remark from C/F is a bloody insult to Lewis Gardner, he should go back to his hiddey hole where he belongs, Now I wonder where that is ? Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Well that remark from C/F is a bloody insult to Lewis Gardner, he should go back to his hiddey hole where he belongs, Now I wonder where that is ? Regards Larry.
Under a stone 'darn 'sarf Larry !! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Lawrence Dunbar:
Well that remark from C/F is a bloody insult to Lewis Gardner, he should go back to his hiddey hole where he belongs, Now I wonder where that is ? Regards Larry.Under a stone 'darn 'sarf Larry !! Cheers Dennis.
Or up his own ■■■ hole
Bewick:
ND888 BIGJ:
Did anyone ever drive a 240 8 cyl gardner fitted to a guy big jjust wondering like
“Trev H” did ! Anon1.
We couldn’t afford 8cyl Gardners at BRS! for 32t we had to suffer 280 rolls or 290 ■■■■■■■ with real heaters in the cab!
We did at one time at Wolverhampton run 20, 180 powered big j’s on lighter work, most of them started at 6 am, it was nearly 7 am before the fog lifted but the foremans roses outside the office never suffered from greenfly.
To be fair our problems only really started when we changed from Silkolene oil to BP which was like gnats pi** in comparison, but the quarry obviously obtained a good deal from BP! I did actually have a Gardner engineer watch me rebuild a 6LXB as they were a little concerned about the amount of parts we were buying from them. He said that he would have reused the old compression rings as they had taken years to get mated to the bore (I fitted new) but only replace the oil rings, he also would have refitted the original crank bearings even though a lot of the copper backing was showing through as he reckoned that they would still outlive the life of the truck whereas I replaced them. He also said that instead of renewing the cylinder block he would get the old liners pressed out and refit them upside down so that they had a fresh surface for the pistons to run in, I also commented on the fact that even with a new block and piston etc the piston/conrod assembly dropped down the bore under its own weight but his comment was that they were made like that to avoid having to run the engine in as, quite rightly, he said that every road from our quarry was uphill so you couldn’t nurse the engine. I guess that what he said was correct, but when I had an engine in pieces I tended to replace anything that I thought worn so that I didn’t have to repeat the task! Basically they had an answer to everything! What was true was that you should never nurse a Gardner, give it plenty of welly from day one but dont over rev it, something that was very easy to do with the Foden 12 speed gearbox I’m afraid!
Laid in the yard at Patricroft were crankshaft’s all covered in rust, they were being ‘age hardened’ and spent a full year outside before getting machined, that was the only tempering they had yet bottom end problems were very rare and we certainly never experienced any.
Pete.
pursy:
I worked in the workshop for Taylors of Martley,they ran some 8lxbs and 8lxcts day and night. The night trunk was Worcester to Carlisle and the day run would be perhaps down to Devon. They would like a gallon of oil each shift.When you finally got the engine to bits the bores,rings and pistons were about knacked. If you just tried to put just rings on them the piston would drop down the bore without tapping it.
If it got really cold the only way to start them was to remove the air filter element and get a fire going.
Valve guide wear was bad too, leave them and the valve would drop and really spoil the fun.
So they used a gallon of oil a shift, wouldn’t start unless you set them on fire and used to suffer from dropped valves 
And people look back on them with fond memories and spout crap like legendary reliability 
They were crap, plain and simple, that is why they went out of business 
We used to run a lot of lorries with gardner engines, we still have a few classics that have them fitted. In my opinion they are still a fantastic piece of british engineering. I have just rebuilt a 180 from a 1970 Foden which had stood for the best part of 30 years. It started with a jump start and some fresh fuel- the rack wasnt even seized. how many of todays electronic engines would start after 30 years outside? We have a 6LW in a 1955 Foden that (as far as we know) has never been toutched, with a 12speed box and 5.2 diffs- she’ll sit a 50+MPH easily. Obviously they are underpowered compared to todays high BHP engines but atleast if they did break down you could fix them on the side of the road 
Judging by the experiences of Windrush, there’s a good reason they don’t ever seize up…
Nothing ever fits tight enough to come into contact with anything else
I think they were a good engine when you started them with a handle, all that slop around the pistons would’ve made for less work than a tight engine, maybe that’s what all you old codgers are seeing through your rose coloured spectacles
AshleyP:
We used to run a lot of lorries with gardner engines, we still have a few classics that have them fitted. In my opinion they are still a fantastic piece of british engineering. I have just rebuilt a 180 from a 1970 Foden which had stood for the best part of 30 years. It started with a jump start and some fresh fuel- the rack wasnt even seized. how many of todays electronic engines would start after 30 years outside? We have a 6LW in a 1955 Foden that (as far as we know) has never been toutched, with a 12speed box and 5.2 diffs- she’ll sit a 50+MPH easily. Obviously they are underpowered compared to todays high BHP engines but atleast if they did break down you could fix them on the side of the road
But can it do this and sound like this doing it.
Leave the British engineers to what they do best making big V12’s the rest is best left to the yanks and sometimes even the Swiss. 
newmercman:
Judging by the experiences of Windrush, there’s a good reason they don’t ever seize up…Nothing ever fits tight enough to come into contact with anything else
I think they were a good engine when you started them with a handle, all that slop around the pistons would’ve made for less work than a tight engine, maybe that’s what all you old codgers are seeing through your rose coloured spectacles
Rose tinted specs. Don’t you mean through the fog of smoke.
Trev_H:
Bewick:
ND888 BIGJ:
Did anyone ever drive a 240 8 cyl gardner fitted to a guy big jjust wondering like
“Trev H” did ! Anon1.
We couldn’t afford 8cyl Gardners at BRS! for 32t we had to suffer 280 rolls or 290 ■■■■■■■ with real heaters in the cab!
We did at one time at Wolverhampton run 20, 180 powered big j’s on lighter work, most of them started at 6 am, it was nearly 7 am before the fog lifted but the foremans roses outside the office never suffered from greenfly.
I had one of of BRS,s first B seies ERFs with a 240 Gardner in BRS Wrexham 1976 and tramped with it for 8 years freezing in the winter even with cardboard over the rad. In the summer it used to overheat going up Birdlip by the Air Baloon but it always got me home. The reg was RFM259P
Dave Higgins Wrexham
Saviem:
Some would say the finest oil engine ever, economic , light, ultra reliable. Were they? Were the products as good as the image? Why did they loose their captive market? Did their inability to satisfy demand lead to the demise of the UK assemblers, ERF, Atkinson, Guy? What were they like to “live with”, every day ? Over to you Gentlemen…
Lorry drivers mate was the GARDNER never let you down pushed a few around ERF, SCAMMEL,GUY BIG J,Atki,FODEN, driven quite a few different motors in my time The Gardner always got ya home never had the privalige to have a 240 the first i saw was EVANS,S in SOUTH WALES( 1973)