Diesel Engines and Conversions

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twowheeledfox

twowheeledfox

New Member
Oct 21, 2009
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Houston TX
Has anyone thought of making a diesel motorbike? It would seem that an aircooled, single-cylinder diesel motor on a husky steel frame with a sprung seat and headlamp would make the ultimate "reliable" build.

It could be done with an HF motor, they seem to sell 2 and 4-stroke diesels, but another possibility could be a conversion of a two or four-stroke made for gasoline. Of course for many of us this would mean the Chinese 2-stroke kits (or HTs). I am familiar with how diesels work, and a cold diesel would be impossible to use or even start on one of these bikes, but a hot diesel could possibly be feasible. On the slanthead or higher compression 60cc HTs, the compression seems to be somewhere between 6:1 and 8:1, and a hot diesel with a glow plug could possibly skimp by on 7 or 8:1 compression. I've seen it done on older cars before.

Anybody have interest of experience with this? I'm fairly intrigued by it, and think of the benefits it would have- high reliablity, immense (well, relatively) torque, the ability to run on any fuel- important things to the survival-type builds and builders all over this community. It would be great if someone had already gotten into the idea stage on this at least.

PS- Purpose-built motorcycles have already been modded to run on diesel. See www.dieselbike.net
 
NunyaBidness

NunyaBidness

Active Member
Jun 29, 2008
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memphis tn
That would be really nice converted to run on bio fuel. Nobody could complain about your exhaust fumes, unless they're saying it's making them crave french fries.
 
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palmclub

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Feb 17, 2010
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Los Olivos Ca.
civil,, hey look in E-bay someone from mich has those same diesels for sale at 373 free shipping look under antique moters or hit and miss moters
 
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palmclub

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Feb 17, 2010
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Los Olivos Ca.
heres the sitehttp://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-4-5HP-Diesel-Engine-E-Start-GO-KART-MINI-BIKE-/180499501638?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a069bd246
 
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meowy84

Member
Jul 18, 2009
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Canada
I like the idea of the diesel myself. But diesels are usually heavier than comparable gas engines due to the necessary bulkiness of the engine parts. Just not sure if the converted china engines would be feasable without heavier duty parts, at least the con rod.
 
twowheeledfox

twowheeledfox

New Member
Oct 21, 2009
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Houston TX
I was thinking that the HT would need a new head, cylinder, piston, conrod, and maybe crank. The electrical system would have to be modified as well. I don't know enough to tell whether or not the other HT parts would be too stressed by the conversion.

What would be nice is if, while we are modding these motors one of us could do a belt drive conversion, ie place a similarly-sized belt drive sprocket (is that what belt drive wheels are called?) on the output shaft of the HT and have a cheap belt-driven motor with a clutch, another thing to think about.
 
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Ted

New Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Leavenworth Wa.
Something to find out about, CVT like to work at a given RPM and can be adjusted to work within that RPM, if you can find out where that little diesel had it's torque peak and find out if the CVT can be adjusted to that RPM, I had a Honda 250 Elite scooter and it would hit a preset RPM on take off and stay there, that thing was quick, it would leave most bikes and all cars setting there woubndering what's going on.
 
ferball

ferball

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Apr 8, 2010
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NH
As far as converting a chinese two stroke to diesel, I doubt it is possible, none of the compnents are heavy duty enough to handle it, I believe GM tried retrofitting gas to diesel engines back in the seventies, and that involved attaching copious amounts of steel to the existing engine, and still did not work safe and reliable. So I realy doubt the little china doll could handle it. However it is common to see diesels converted to gas in for high performance applications, couple of my buddies did an old VW rabbit to race it. But I would love a diesel bike engine that would be sweet, the electrical would be simplified, no need for a spark, but you would need to address the issue of pressurizing the fuel i believe.
 
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palmclub

New Member
Feb 17, 2010
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Los Olivos Ca.
you know,, this mornin my kid hit the nail on the head ,, do a rear mount with your homemade mount nice and strong, one reason its very wide so you can offset the moter to work out with alinment and who knows what kind of gearin is going to work might need a countershaft or addapt a Q - matic
 
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palmclub

New Member
Feb 17, 2010
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Los Olivos Ca.
Civlized,, well we did it what a hoot i think it,ll work for my kid cause hes a big strong boy but maybe trkes are were this big diesel well work the best,, its very top heavy but my kids got a smile ear to ear,, did i say hes a diesel mc. so hes in diesel pig heaven check the pic out
 
john_the_great

john_the_great

New Member
Oct 24, 2009
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California
I think it would be a good experiment, get a high comp head and then run the fuel through right next to the exhaust pipe, and then run glow plugs for starting.... Diesel has lubrication quality so you might not have to even mix oil... If it didn't blast the con rod in half it would prolly work.
 
civlized

civlized

New Member
Apr 28, 2009
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Alabama
palmclub said:
Civlized,, well we did it what a hoot i think it,ll work for my kid cause hes a big strong boy but maybe trkes are were this big diesel well work the best,, its very top heavy but my kids got a smile ear to ear,, did i say hes a diesel mc. so hes in diesel pig heaven check the pic out
Click to expand...
That's cool. I love the big smoke stack. How does it run? I've been thinking of a small bike car with 4 wheels and seats two. Do you think it would pull it ok? Thanks for doing that and sharing, palmclub.
 
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palmclub

New Member
Feb 17, 2010
58
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Los Olivos Ca.
ya it,ll do good, for anything its a well made diesel very powerful ,, i cant believe how much moter it is for the buck,, ele. start, glow plug, all the bells and whistles for 373 del. what a deal i got a vidio of it i could send it to your cell phone its a crack up i cant figure out how to put a vidio on this forum but give me a pm if you want and i,llsend u a qick vid Poul
 
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