Petrol to Diesel?

[m chappelow]

An Italian company called Ruggarini brought out a couple of Diesel outboards in the early 1980 s think they did a 27 hp and a larger version , I was tempted to buy one for a fishing boat but high weight and lack of portability plus price dictated otherwise .
I also had a 15 hp Kerosene Yamaha outboard , start it on normal petrol/oil mix then when it was warmed up it could be run on kerosine/oil mix down side was I had to have 2 fuel tanks and it finished up kerosine was getting hard to obtain it would run on parafin with a slosh of petrol mixed in but the exhaust coated the stern of the boat in a oily sooty film
Only difference was the engine had 2 float chambers mounted on the carb and a double fuel pump back to back , also has a rubber water pipe that came out of the engine block up to the carb and back to warm the kerosine up , don't know if the compression was a bit lower than the standard petrol yammy engine .

[CJL]

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[Tim M]

The PLA have just changed their Ruggarini diesel outboards for Mercury 4 strokes, despite the lack of fuelling facilities on the Thames. I think that must be testament to their capabilities (or lack of!)!

[spartacus]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

I do recall in the dim & distant past seeing diesel outboards, afaik, they were poo, huge, heavy, noisy, underpowered.

You can add 'expensive' too. Quite a good link to the same discussion on another forum:
Diesel outboard motors - Boat Design Forums

Couple of Yanmar diesel outboards here: North West Trading Co. | Yanmar Diesel Outboards

[Poly]

Diesel outboards have of course been discussed on Ribnet before: http://www.rib.net/forum/f36/big-die...ed-8417-3.html This also includes comments from Turbodiesel who I believe was involved in the development/testing of the 'multi fuel' etecs...

To go back to the original question:

Also, in the perfect world of course I would like to do this for no cost, i.e. I find someone who wants to switch from diesel to petrol. Of course I realise this is not necessarily realistic, so what sort of cost implications are likely if we were to switch to say a 50HP 7 year old Diesel engine (I plucked that age/HP out of thin air, the RIB is a HUMBER 5.5m, happy to listen to suggestions)?

as others have said nobody makes a diesel outboard above 35HP (and even those are very rare). Diesel ribs are essentially all inboard engines. Typically the amount of deck space lost to the engine means you will be 6m+ for an inboard diesel (although if you hunt you will find some SR5.4's etc). As a result you will also usually be looking at at least 120HP engines as well.

Of course when the boat is that big the ease of fuelling becomes more important. I'd have thought for a 60HP devising some sort of trolley system for moving fuel tanks would be easier than changing the engine...

[vjmehra]

It sounds like a trolley could well be the way forward...

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Dunno, I know kerosene's not a million miles away from diesel, our heating oil delivery docket always says "MUST NOT BE USED AS ROAD FUEL" across it

Isn't that due to the taxes collected on it (or not, as the case may be), rather than how it burns?

That would be my first suspicion on this side of the pond.

jky

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by wellhouse

unfortunately it will vary region by region depending on which refinery/company has supplied it. marine gas oil can be upto 1000ppm sulphur which helps alleviate the problem but this is no longer supplied as dyed gas oil 10ppm.

Reg\rdless of the ppm Sulphur content we have refuelled around the country which would imply the the worst fuel is adequate for our Yanmars - how about using that as a starting point!

The point is can that rude be used with marine diesel!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wellhouse]

Originally Posted by Cookee

Reg\rdless of the ppm Sulphur content we have refuelled around the country which would imply the the worst fuel is adequate for our Yanmars - how about using that as a starting point!

The point is can that rude be used with marine diesel!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you pm me your number, i'll have a chat. It's not as straight forward as you might think. Cheers.