Diesel Animals...

BrendanFitz #73

New member
Anyone ever wondered if we could convert an animal over to a diesel. I know it wouldn't be very smart but I think it'd be fun.

I've had the idea for awhile but I'd have no clue where to start. I never see diesels with carburetors only injectors. And would it need different crank, piston, connecting rod, and cam? Or would it be a simple conversion?

Anybody ever tried it?
 
we have a big bad boy diesel engine on a pump at work . i looked at it the last couple of days and cant help but to wounder what if...................................
 
Actually, I see no way the block would be anywhere strong enough to operate as a diesel. Besides, diesels are torquey, yes. High RPM's, no. I actually tried one of the little Yanmar diesels from a pump on a kart and it was a slug. It would do great if I wanted to pull a stump out of the ground but on a track...... nah. JMHO -Alan-
 
Yeah but that's when the entire engine is designed to withstand the stress risers of a diesel. But thats still a few grand shy any rpm's you could be competitive with.
 
Diesels generally have compression ratios near 20:1, needing heavier rotating parts to handle that stress. The air is superheated by that compression ratio then fuel is injected at just the right moment to self combust.
 
Maybe on a momentum track? Idk I'm just thinkin about engine ideas to see what would work and what wouldn't.
Thanks for the input though
 
Diesels generally have compression ratios near 20:1, needing heavier rotating parts to handle that stress. The air is superheated by that compression ratio then fuel is injected at just the right moment to self combust.

Thanks so it would most likely to be better to get a block ment for a diesel and maybe some custom pieces?
 
a lot of the flashing road signs have a diesel engine. might find a dead one at the construction sign rental company.
 
As far as a home grown conversion goes, a two stroke engine is a lot easier to make into a diesel. Business was a little slow over the winter at the motorcycle shop I worked at when I was in high school, so we used to pass the time by working on the shop race bikes and building crazy projects. One winter we took a used bike with a 125cc Sachs two stroke and coverted it to a diesel. We'd hook up the plug and turn on the ignition to start it, then remove the plugwire and turn the ignition off and ride off. Low side of decent horsepower, lots of torque - if it had a 6 speed transmission with overdrive 5th and 6th gears instead of a 4 speed, it would have been a bear, lol. Here's the shopping list of modifications to convert it to run on #2 fuel oil:

1. Weld up the combustion chamber in the aluminum head and regrind it to yield 18:1 compression ratio.
2. Weld 4 disks to the 2 crankshaft throws and weld straps around the disks so that they became round flywheels - this is one method of "stuffing" the
crankcase on a two stroke to increase the compression ratio in the crankcase to improve flow through the transfer ports.
3. Re-balance the crankshaft back to factory percentages.
4. Drain the fuel tank and fill from our heating oil supply (same lube oil ratio as with gasoline).
5. play with the jetting in the Bing carburetor until it ran right.

Sachs apparently built a really sturdy engine; we played with it and had a great time showing it off until mid spring, then took it apart again, opened the combustion chamber to about 12.5-13:1, didn't touch the modified crank and sold it along with several other used bikes. Spring a year later a young man showed up on my doorstep and told me he wasn't complaining, since he could beat all the other 125 cc bikes in town, but he wondered why it would only run properly on high test gas. I explained what was different about the insides of his, especially about how the crankcase was not just stuffed, but severly stuffed..... :)
 
+1 on the Sachs being a rugged engine. As a kid in my father's kart shop, Broncco was one of the brands he was a dealer for. They made a "mini-cycle" which had a 50cc Minarelli engine. When my father noticed I had outgrown the 50cc, he installed a 100cc Sachs it. I then went hillclimbing with it in the local gravel pit. Unreal things I did with that Sachs and couldn't kill it.
 
If we could build a common rail EFI system and drive a CP3 pump with an animal and graft in a turbocharger, we could just build a map for it using EFI Live and not worry about rolling coal. These days, except for wannabe diesel types that think drastic over-fueling is cool, it's possible to make huge HP and torque with a diesel without overfuelling enough to blow copious quantities of black smoke. And you can get away with more on the street that way, because you don't attract as much attention as long as you also avoid the half block burnouts......
 
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