Engine conversion

[Guest]

Is it possible to have petrols converted to diesels?.....or am I talking rubbish? Costs?

I have also been looking at the YBW boats for sale, and notice that you can get a lot more footage for your £ in the states the UK. Is it possible to have them shipped to UK, and is it expensive? Is there VAT to pay on these boats. I was thinking that a say 34ft boat could be packed into a container, which is relativly cheap to ship.

Any ideas/comments/abuse/laughs on the subject?

 

[longjohnsilver]

RCD

Do a search for recreational craft directive, any import must comply with these fairly new regs, this will almost certainly soon disuade you from the second hand import route.

 

[hlb]

Re: RCD

Also. You cannot convert petrol engines to diesel. You can change them for diesel though at fairly masive cost.

No one can force me to come here-----------
----- I'm a Volunteer!!!

Haydn

 

[kghowe]

We investigated charter vessel ownership in the Virgin Is. One factor was that after the boat had passed its usful charter life we would want to bring it back from the Carrib. 42ft Trader, cost, one way, £25,000. TOOOOO expensive! Probably cheaper from US but not loose change i would guess. Look closer to home, ie France, RCD exempt.

KGH

 

[Guest]

Forget US boats, for the reasons posted here. Also, a shipping container is cheap (a few hundred quid from the US), but remember that a container is either 20' or 40' long, and 8' x 8'. A 34' boat will likely be 11/12' in the beam, and have an air draft of 10' plus. Even 23 footers are built with 8.5' beam, as this is the maximum trailable width, so gives maximum interior space.

 

[aztec]

depends what engine/drive setup you have. most of the smaller petrols are derived from car/van units, so if a diesel version is offered the fitting would be fairly easy. however, the price for marinising these units is fairly high. check out my old wreck, bought for peanuts, all i have to do is slave away for the next twenty years to get it seaworthy enough to scrap!

honestly i would go for the same type/priced boat again, and if/when it all goes wrong...you've got enough cash left to become an alchoholic!

interested in stuff that needs mendin'

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.amos/index.html

 

[jfm]

No you cannot convert. Diesel needs a massively higher compression ratio to set light to the fuel, and that needs a stronger blockhead, as well as different geometry to create the higher comp ratio. You would need to change the block, crankshaft, head, cam profile, starter motor, add a fuel injection system and scrap the ignition. Praps the oil filler cap might survive the transition, if you're lucky.....

Recently I saw someone on a BP forecourt who tried this with an old Citroen BX. It was in his wife's car, which was petrol, and thort he was in his own car, which was diesel. So he put diesel fuel in a petrol car. It didn't work.

 

[pistonbroke]

Yes, a diesel can be swapped for a petrol, the GM diesel has the same bolt patterns as a GM small & big block petrol V8. Cost is normally around £7k per motor, if you can sell the old units.

Depending on the type of boat you are looking for, prices can be low in the States.
Most cruisers up to around 32 ft seem to be petrol powered, and would be ideal for conversion.

As for the Recreational Craft Directive, good luck, it's a minefield. You could try talking to the RYA etc, but they don't seem to know all the answers.

I've been to numerous seminars, lectures etc and have ammassed a consideral amount of paperwork, graphs, modules etc. I find I am having to conform to rules and regulations that Brussels havenn't managed to finalise yet, 4 years after the regulations came into force.

On the positive side, nothing is impossible. Importing a current model as available from a European dealer could be the way.

 

[Jcorstorphine]

The old BMC Navigator was a 1498 cc petrol engine and the same block is the basis for the BMC Captain which was a diesel version of the same engine. If you can find an old Navigator engine and a van BMC 1500 you should be able to cobble the lot together alternative is to just spend about £1500 on a conversion kit and get hold of a ford 1.8 Mondeo/escort/Fiesta engine.

J

 

[DepSol]

I recently had my Engine converted from a diesel to errr well you can guess!!

Dom


I just want my boat back in the water ;-(