zyewdall Posted September 7, 2005 Share Posted September 7, 2005 Completely wacko question here. What's the chance of running an EA82 on biodiesel? I'm thinking some pretty major changes, like new pistons to boost compression (to 16 or so?), adding an injector pump, putting injectors where the spark plugs are now, etc... I just thought of this idea, so I'll probably think of more things that could go wrong in a while. So far I've thought of -- head gaskets are already a little weak, so higher compression wouldn't be good, block might just split open, where the heck does the injection pump drive from, Crankshaft and rods would probably break, or maybe melt, etc... Remember GM's ill fated 350ci diesel that was just a 350 gas with different heads... But in my experience, the suby engines are way more durable than the old GM's to start with. Here's the motivation. I love my old subaru (I wake up to 19" of new powdery snow last April 20th, shovel the windshield off, and go... past all the upside down SUV's). But I can't really justify buying imported petroleum products any more so a gasoline engine is out. I've been driving a mitsubishi diesel pickup recently and I'm working on getting a rabbit diesel going. But I really want to keep the old GL suby. Better handling. Easier to work on. No gol darned transvers engine that you can't get to the back of. I was thinking that some of you who do super performance mods -- high compression engines with turboes - might know just how strong a subaru engine is and what the first thing to give is... Or the other option is to put an old VW diesel into a subaru -- but I really like the suby engine better.... Plus replacing an H4 with and I4 is a pain..... Just wondering if it might be easier to take all the parts off a VW diesel and use the long block from the EA82... (especially since I have an extra just sitting around....). The VW guys say to just get a quantum synchro.... Am I as nuts as I suspect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstSubaruGLwagon Posted September 7, 2005 Share Posted September 7, 2005 Yes completely nuts But thats how good ideas start. Actually a propane conversion is very doable and is exilant for cold starts. But the diesel,,,, well,I emagin with the right CAM ,ECU , glowplug setup, intake, injectors and pistons it would work out,, but your talking about custom machined parts and hit and miss expeirminting . the cost would be amazing You might find one in Japan check out this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34141&page=1&pp=10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subie94 Posted September 7, 2005 Share Posted September 7, 2005 Actually a propane conversion is very doable and is exilant for cold starts. what parts would be needed,do you know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted September 7, 2005 Share Posted September 7, 2005 THe aluminium block/heads and small bottom end wouldn't be anything like stong enough for the kind of compression you need for diesel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zyewdall Posted September 7, 2005 Author Share Posted September 7, 2005 Actually, I forgot about needing secondary combustion chambers, and glow plugs too. In addition to physically blowing the engine apart. Designing an engine almost from scratch could be pretty expensive..... But I was just reading through all the old posts on the possibility of diesel leones existing in japan, with Nissan engines in them. Did you find out any more about them Ross? Also, I saw mention of the kennedy adaptors to put EA82's or EJ22's in VW busses -- but woudl that work to put a diesel engine to the tranny from a GL? Seems like it's going the wrong direction.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbunting Posted September 7, 2005 Share Posted September 7, 2005 Rumour has it that Subaru will be coming out with diesels in Impreza's and Legacy's, or in the Tribeca (yuck!) in 2006 or 2007 in Europe where over 50% of cars sold are diesels. Subaru has been slow making inroads in the european market because they don't offer diesel, so supply vs demand may just bring this about. We can hope that they will offer them soon in North America, but that will depend on their manufacturing capacity vs demand in europe. It's not like they can just hang out the diesel shingle here either as North American mechanics will have to be trained to work on diesels and the dealerships will have to retrofit to service them. We can only hope and keep our fingers crossed. The maybe someone will wreck one and you can buy the engine and drop it in your old suby!!! (I make it sound so simple!!!) Cheers!!! dbunting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted September 8, 2005 Share Posted September 8, 2005 Actually, I forgot about needing secondary combustion chambers, and glow plugs too. In addition to physically blowing the engine apart. Designing an engine almost from scratch could be pretty expensive..... Precombustion chambers are a thing of the past, and glow plugs are now being used only to reduce emissions (i.e. NOT required to start the engine). Toyota successfully converted the 22R engine to a diesel with a different head (and pistons too I think). That doesn't mean it's for sure possible with a Subaru engine, but there may be a glimmer of hope. However, I do think it would be MUCH easier to swap in an already existing diesel from a VW/Toyota/Isuzu, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted September 8, 2005 Share Posted September 8, 2005 A better idea that no one has mentioned yet is Gasoline direct injection. Lets you run diesel-like compression ratios (with corresponding efficiency increases) and also to create a stratified mixture (even larger increse in efficiency). I think Mitsubishi GDI engines only run around 12:1 CR, but much higher should be possible. It may also be possible to utilise a megasquirt engine management system to control it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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