Outboard to Motorbike?

[donncha]

Hi as you can see i'm new here. I was trawling through the internet and found the Weed eater engine conversion thread. This is something I was looking for for years. So there are people out there as mad as me when it comes to boats.

A bit different to your standard marine conversion as you usually want to acomplish the opisite. But would it be possible to converte a 2 stroke outboard to run in a motorbike. The reason I would want to do this is so that you could then run the bike off bio diesal. There dosn't seem to be many diseal motorbikes out there so I thought where else do you see a small diseal engine? Outboards. I don't have much experience in engine construction or conversion put I am familiar with outboards not so much with motorbike engines.

[marshmat]

There are very few diesel outboards in existence, at least in North America. Almost all run on petrol/gasoline. Do you have a diesel outboard already?

In motorbikes, light weight and high power density are very important. Almost all diesels really suck on both counts. (The unit in the Smart car is one of the few exceptions.)

Perhaps the biggest difficulty is that an outboard is a vertical-shaft engine, a bike is horizontal-shaft. Turning a vert.shaft motor 90 degrees and running it like that is not good for it.

[moTthediesel]

In motorbikes, light weight and high power density are very important. Almost all diesels really suck on both counts.

There's a German company building diesel sport bikes using the 3 cyl TDI engine from the VW Polo car. They are very quick and get stupid crazy fuel mileage (like 90 mpg) too.

moT

[SeaSpark]

http://www.m1030.com/

With a world class rolling chassis, the proven performance and durability of the M1030M1 Military Motorcycle engine, the spectacular patriotic graphics, and over 102 mpg, the Diesel fueled D650A1Bulldog is a true "triple threat", winner for sport touring, on/off road riding, and everyday commuting. Production is scheduled for March of 2006.

[donncha]

Sorry I forgot that outboards were petrol. That was a stupid. Does anyone know of another small diesel engines? I was thinking of mabey getting a small car engine.

I heard that thoes military bikes won't be available to the public though.

If anyone wants to find a diesel motorbike there seems to be lots of info at:
http://forums.biodieselnow.com/post.asp?method=ReplyQuote&REPLY_ID=65144&TOPIC_ID=9219&FORUM_ID=4

Thanks for the help.

[blderby]

Here is a link to a small diesel engine I found some time ago. They do offer a vertical shaft version. It is 20 hp and air cooled. I have tried to get one, but I need to contact a friend of mine that knows more abour dealing with China.

Please let me know if you try the conversion. I would be something that I would like to try also.

http://www.diytrade.com/directory/global/buy/products/1766404.html?ebcfwd=55f3c5e9d26768d09becb69af3f55c44

[Frosty]

At 22-1 compression ratio a single cylinder diesel would shake your teeth out along with other small bits. But it sounds like a bit of fun. What about a single lister off an old concrete mixer?. You would need to belt drive it to a gearbox like the Harleys ( cool) and chain it to the rear wheel. Oh it will need a helova flywheel as well. Oh wait a minute though you would have no clutch!! Darn--I thought I cracked it then.