Kicking over another project, I need a diesel engine available in the US that is smaller than a 1.5L, low weight and good power. Y’all have any thoughts?
On my short list:
1) Briggs Vangard/Diahatsu 34hp 3 cyl turbo diesel. It’s easily available but has the minimum power I need. Cheaper cost
2) VW 1.4 TDI imported from Europe. 75hp stock, 60-100lbs heavier than the Briggs, but can make a LOT more power. Not sure how long the PD cam will last, parts aren’t as easy to get as the Briggs, will have more electronics to deal with bypassing immobilizer, etc. But it has the power I need. Definitely cost more than Briggs.
Most everything else I can find weighs too much.
Thanks.
what are your plans? a diesel hydraulic setup would rock with a small diesel engine. very complex and expensive though... are you just after fuel economy?
i favour the 1.4TDI, but at the same time you can even find 1.2TDI's. the camshafts over in Germany are of very high quality and i don't think they experience the same catastrophic failures as we do here. its mostly from people using the wrong oil and not following the correct OCI. for a PD i would recommend a bypass filter and some amsoil european diesel 10w40, 5w40, or even 0w40 oil depending on where you live. i've heard of people running the same amsoil oil for 100,000km and getting good UOA's. just changing the full flow filter... there are many people who can delete the immobilizer system, and with the wiring harness you can run them with simplified electronics. meaning resistors in place of certain sensors, unless you want that little bit of extra efficiency
Airplane or heli? There's a guy at the Provo (UT) airport who was looking into doing this a couple of years ago.
Small personal vehicle with emphasis on fuel economy and able to do highway speeds, but would really like more than that just to see how fast it could go at a track. 1.5L being a class limit. I thought about the 1.2 TDI but at 220 lbs versus the 280lbs of the 1.4PD TDI, I could live with 60 more lbs for more power, and able to use the same T-belt pistons, injectors, as the USA 1.9PD TDI. Compact size is needed since it is to be a very, very small vehicle. The 1.4TDI would roast the tires with tweaks to tuning. I LIKE the thought of that.
Need to find out if the 1.4 harness is CANbus, and how much of the harness I'd get. if CANbus might be able to use some of the racing dash clusters for plug-n-play instruments. I'm and oldskool VW dude, not kept up with all the new stuff.
1.2TDI powered go cart would be wicked... lol or even a 1.0TDI
i believe the 1.4TDI will be canbus, but once you unlock the ecu i'm pretty sure you can just plug it in to any cluster... maybe talk to redrotors?
Kubota have a lot of small 2-3-4 cylinder diesels that are second to none. Worth a look.