New Small Car Diesels - Convert For Marine Use?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Hi folks, there are some photos of a marinization of a Kubotu V2203 at:

Cruisers & Sailing Forums > Cruisers & Sailing Photo Gallery > Sailing & Cruising > Yacht Maintainance & Boat Building

I tried to post some detailed comments but they appear to have become lost in the ether somewhere.

I did two of those myself for a non-boat project, but now I cant find a source of marinization parts anymore for that engine ( should have got loads at the time as the supplier was going out of business and was selling engines and parts at a knockdown price)

anyone know of third party marinization parts ( dont say contact Beta!)


dave

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

anyone know of third party marinization parts ( dont say contact Beta!)

dave

Orca marine

http://www.orcamarine.com/index.html

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by charliehows

was looking through old threads on converting auto/tractor engs for boat use - anyone thought about/tried converting any of the new small car engines now popping up on the market - last time i asked i was quoted $10000 for a new yanmar 30hp 3 cyl eng and trans, gotta be able to do a conversion for half that...

The short answer to this question is that you can pretty well convert any engine, petrol or diesel, to work in a boat and because of their lightness recycled auto engines are a good choice.

The requirements are being able to safely supply the engine with fuel, keep it cool and transmit the output power to the propeller or other drive system.

The fuel is the easy bit but can get a little complex if you want high reliability.

I have a cleaning (polishing) system consisting of a gear pump, paralleled by a priming pump with a check valve bypass which feeds to a filter made out of a spaghetti storage jar and then returns to the fuel tank. The spaghetti jar contains a felt bag filter element I sewed up on the boat with my sail repair sewing machine. I built it this way because I could not find a suitable off the shelf item. It cleans the fuel very effectively. The fuel feed to my engine includes two series connected paper fuel filters one of which is upside down so that it acts as a bleed-able air trap. I cannot see that supplying clean fuel to any diesel engine aboard a boat should be a problem.

Whilst I would not particularly want a modern common rail electronically controlled fuel injection system (primarily because of the complication) I cannot see any reason why one should not be used on a boat particularly a power cruiser where the lower fuel consumption these provide would result in a significant fuel saving.

How one would keep it cool depends on whether it is air or water cooled. I'm sure someone out there has built an air cooled system for marine use but I have never seen one. I found there is nothing to difficult or complex about making the parts to implement either the first exchanger-in-manifold arrangement or the extant raw water cooled system.

On connecting the engine to the prop. After I had made the decision to bin the cast iron bell housing and techno plate I found this to be one of the easiest parts of the project. The two starter motors I installed will allow me to implement two entirely separate starting systems, I was able to use the existing motor beds, and the hand made alloy bell housing is about 1/4 the weight of the cast iron ones. I had no problems adapting the marine gearbox I chose and even managed significant improvements whilst doing so.

Having done a conversion using nothing but a drill press and hand tools I am now confident that I could pretty well adapt any diesel to marine use and am fairly confident that in doing so improve on many of the commercial offerings.

[s/v Beth]

Kubota IMHO makes the best small engine for conversion. Need to go bigger- My Cummins has not missed a beat in 13 years.

[charliehows]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Kubota IMHO makes the best small engine for conversion. Need to go bigger- My Cummins has not missed a beat in 13 years.

yeah i think most of the motors on longboats in thailand are small kubotas - wish i could figure a way of using that type of mounting in a sailboat, no more worries about thru-hulls. Bit high ctr of gravity wise though...

[s/v Beth]

I would just reverse engineer Beta. I have theirs in my V-40 and the Kubota starts first time every time. Go to the tractor shop for filters and spare parts. Life is good.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Orca marine

http://www.orcamarine.com/index.html

Great thanks

Dave

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by charliehows

yeah i think most of the motors on longboats in thailand are small kubotas - wish i could figure a way of using that type of mounting in a sailboat, no more worries about thru-hulls. Bit high ctr of gravity wise though...

Hang it of the side on a cantilever perhaps?

I did see a multihull where the builder had put the engine in a hinged box under the bridge deck with an alloy long tail tube and prop on the end. The owner said it worked well and since man eating crocodiles are prevalent along that coast looks like a good thing to have. Also zero drag whilst sailing and no leaking gland problems. It made so much sense, one engine, maintenance access, keeping fouling off, no drag, no rubber diaphragms to fail, no folding prop etc that one wonders why they are not all built like that.

[RaymondR]

I am waiting for the turbine unit that puts out 100hp and consumes 1/2 gallon per hour of diesel with a seawater evaporator and inbuilt condenser and which only costs $2000 complete with gearbox, prop shaft and prop, with all taxes paid and installation included myself.