Diesel motorcycles. Me want, me shall have.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Christ

The 1.5's are considerably less potent, but they also drove a 2500lb car to 60+ via the 4 speed, so they're not at all 'terrible' on the list of engines out there.

Plus it's one of the easiest engines to use WVO as an alternative fuel

the Street Fighter project I mentioned above may actually BECOME the diesel Katana... I'm just not as interested in putting the 750 motor and trans back into the bike as I was when I started on it in December last year, and would rather have something more 'evil' and 'dirty' and 'mechanical' looking. Mad Max style, if you will.

I'm also interested in building a Diesel motorcycle with a steampunk-ish style.

[alvaro84]

I've read a series of articles where a Hungarian guy built a chopper from scratch, around a Daihatsu diesel and a Ural gearbox. I don't remember the numbers, but it's definitely lighter than those 700-1000 pounds you keep mentioning. And there are no FE figures. It can't even be made street legal here, so I guess it won't be used under real circumstances ever

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by alvaro84

I've read a series of articles where a Hungarian guy built a chopper from scratch, around a Daihatsu diesel and a Ural gearbox.

I knew there was a Taiwanese-born guy, son of Christian American missionaries, repowering an Ural with a Robin Diesel engine in Mongolia, intending to use WVO as fuel.

[Honda100]

We have little diesel powered 3 wheelers here (418 cc Yanmar powered) that do 90 mpg in pure city traffic. They only make 9 bhp though so it might not be that interesting and fun, seems how my Cub 100 makes 9 bhp.

[renault_megane_dci]

there are all kind of funky conversions on dieselbikes.net but there are two mainstream :

- car engines for a a very heavy yet adequately powered bike

- smaller industrial engines with marginal performance.

Had I kept on the idea of running a diesel bike, I would have split a car engine in a parralel twin at 360° using a cut off crank and cam to save on weight and still keep around 30hp (in N/A form).
But I abandonned the idea because I didn't figure out what fuel pump to use and was not to confident I could simply block off two injectors pipe.

Also, in the recent years, diesel engines have improve so much it was kind of a waste not to get the latest technology, leading to more headache as to how to adapt things on the cheap.

As of today I would go for a VW SDi engine split in half matted to a RWD car gearbox used in transverse form, say a BMW item but is bad and I'd rather focus on EV !

[Curtis in Texas]

Originally Posted by renault_megane_dci

there are all kind of funky conversions on dieselbikes.net but there are two mainstream :

- car engines for a a very heavy yet adequately powered bike

- smaller industrial engines with marginal performance.

Had I kept on the idea of running a diesel bike, I would have split a car engine in a parralel twin at 360° using a cut off crank and cam to save on weight and still keep around 30hp (in N/A form).
But I abandonned the idea because I didn't figure out what fuel pump to use and was not to confident I could simply block off two injectors pipe.

Also, in the recent years, diesel engines have improve so much it was kind of a waste not to get the latest technology, leading to more headache as to how to adapt things on the cheap.

As of today I would go for a VW SDi engine split in half matted to a RWD car gearbox used in transverse form, say a BMW item but is bad and I'd rather focus on EV !

I would love to see one of the Subaru 2.0L Boxer diesel engines mated to a BMW gearbox in a motorcycle. Man, talk about a sweet highway bike!

That enginetranny combo in a 2 wheel drive side car rig would really wake a Ural up.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Honda100

We have little diesel powered 3 wheelers here (418 cc Yanmar powered) that do 90 mpg in pure city traffic.

Might be similar to those licensed versions of the post-war Piaggio Ape still made by Bajaj Auto in India.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by renault_megane_dci

there are all kind of funky conversions on dieselbikes.net but there are two mainstream :

- car engines for a a very heavy yet adequately powered bike

- smaller industrial engines with marginal performance.

Had I kept on the idea of running a diesel bike, I would have split a car engine in a parralel twin at 360° using a cut off crank and cam to save on weight and still keep around 30hp (in N/A form).
But I abandonned the idea because I didn't figure out what fuel pump to use and was not to confident I could simply block off two injectors pipe.

Also, in the recent years, diesel engines have improve so much it was kind of a waste not to get the latest technology, leading to more headache as to how to adapt things on the cheap.

As of today I would go for a VW SDi engine split in half matted to a RWD car gearbox used in transverse form, say a BMW item but is bad and I'd rather focus on EV !

I believe you can do this with rotary pumps, but not inlines. I'm not sure on the specifics of why one may work and the other doesn't, but that's what I've been told while trying to come up with an idea to build a 300CI diesel from a Ford gasser.

[mechman600]

With either injection pump, you cannot simply block off the injector line. Since the injector is a positive displacement pump, this will cause something to break.

In an inline pump you can simply disable pump elements by welding them into the fully extended position or grinding each cam lobe down.

Rotary pump? I am not sure how you could disable a single cylinder as there is only one pumping element on a swash plate.

EDIT: duh...it's easier than that. Instead of disabling the pump element, simply take the unused injection line and plumb it to the fuel return line (tank).

[renault_megane_dci]

Originally Posted by mechman600

EDIT: duh...it's easier than that. Instead of disabling the pump element, simply take the unused injection line and plumb it to the fuel return line (tank).

Thinking out loud about this, there would be some item still worrying me :

- Injection line would inject at 300 bars. How to manage this ?

- Injection pump is build to have some kind of resistance from the injector for timing build up.
Would the lack of injector compromise the reliability of the pump ?

Obviously I am starting this hypothetical project on an older generation engine with indirect injection because they are cheaper and available in N/A form which makes adaptation more straight forward.