MG Midget Forum

Anyone ever thought about a small diesel swap like a kabota 3 cylinder or something? Rear gear ratio would have to be changed out but I would think the engine would fit pretty well and wiring would be easy.

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Weber DGV
(idle/main/air) 55/160/165.
(secondary idle/main/air) 50/145/180.
1mm hole in primary throttle blade

Diesel + convertible? No thanks.

The drive train isn't noisy enough right now?

I think it would be quite novel especially if you set it up to run on fryer oil!

Kurt

IIRC BMC marketed an A Series diesel. Didn't make much power and very noisy. An issue with a diesel engine is the narrow power band and slow top speed of less than 3000rpm. The diff would need very high gears.

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CAUTION!!

Information in my journal may not be suitable for those who are sensitive. View at your own risk.

Know the rules well so you can break them effectively. Dalai Lama

That is why I always say, who cares how the factory did it, they did so many things so wrong, they were never the example to follow. Hap Waldrop

Nuffield orchard tractor from early 60s. nice. How about hydrostaic transmission?

This guy lives near me and I've spoken to him about his car a few times. He put a 3 cylinder kuboto engine in a fiberglass body he made himself from plans in a magazine, riding on a Triumph Spitfire chassis. Its different and weird and neat, but not for everyone. The car is substantially lighter than a Midget, and not much taller than a Midget with the windshield removed. Even then the 0-60 is something like 15 or 20 seconds. Wouldn't be much fun using that engine in a relatively standard Midget.

http://blog.suny.edu/2014/04/college-tech-analyst-builds-200-mpg-car-in-free-time/

I've done that.

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1969 MG Midget with Datsun A15/5 speed

I'm not sure about the Kubota engine, however, there are some lively automotive diesels out there that would give satisfying performance in a Spridget.

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CAUTION!!

Information in my journal may not be suitable for those who are sensitive. View at your own risk.

Know the rules well so you can break them effectively. Dalai Lama

That is why I always say, who cares how the factory did it, they did so many things so wrong, they were never the example to follow. Hap Waldrop

Please tell us more,Tom?

That Kubota 3-cyl with a 5-speed was done at San Diego State back in the '70's (the shop teacher's car)
It kept a bunch of students busy for an entire semester and ran "OK" and got over 50mpg
BillM

VW Caddy pickup. 1.6 liter diesel. I added a marine fuel tank, rigged up with coolant heating, a heated truck filter, and a hose-in-hose heated fuel line. Went to a six port fuel switch (switches both the supply and return hoses). I would gather used cooking oil from restaurants, filter through a triple filter of 30 microns, 10 microns, and 1 micron filters using a pump. Drive the truck until the fuel temp reached about 160 and flipped the switch. No difference in power when on veg. I had an on-board recovery pump and a poly 55 gallon drum for salvaging oil whenever it was available. I ran it for a few thousand miles but eventually the rings got coked up. I decided I needed to add an additional fuel heater, an electric one, before the injection pump. After I rebuilt the engine I didn't use it much. Sold the whole set-up to some nice folks from Canada. Lots of info on the web about this. Harder to get oil, restaurants have tighter regs on liquid wastes. Here are some pix while I was constructing it.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x

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1969 MG Midget with Datsun A15/5 speed



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-23 08:31 PM by 58custom.

I've considered such a set up. I could fuel all my driving and farm equipment too on 10 acres of Canola. Getting the oil out isn't difficult. If fuel prices get high again [when!] I'll do it. Of course it wouldn't be legal since no road taxes on it and I live in a considerable colder part of the country where veg oil gets awfully stiff when it gets cold.

Kurt.

The veg oil MUST be heated before injection. The glycerin in the oil is the problem. With raw veg systems you have to switch back to diesel a couple of miles before stopping to purge the veg from the injection pump. Otherwise, when the engine is cold, you ain't getting it started. I wish I had experimented with more heaters before the pump to get the oil very hot to see if that would stop the coking issue. Folks do run these systems without problems. But I could not justify risking the need for another engine rebuild. Eh, I had my fun.

Another way to do this is to process your veg oil to remove the glycerin. This results in biodiesel, which can be used with the stock fuel system. Folks rig up their own systems for this as well, and there is a lot of info on the net. Was a little complicated for me vs. straight veg. But I'm sure if I tackled it I could make it work.

Also, just don't tell anyone and there won't be no problems.

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1969 MG Midget with Datsun A15/5 speed

I'm in farming country and the DOT has been known to pull up where farmers go for coffee in the slack season's and start to sample fuel in their diesel pickups to make sure it isn't dyed. Farm fuel which isn't taxed is dyed red. Don't know if veg oil would be easy to tell or not.

Kurt.