Hi Steve , yes my larger of the 2 diesel engines that is in my inverter generator is bigger than the first vertical air cooled engine in that video , but almost looks the same , the smaller 4.7 hp diesel engine i was using to swap over pump with the larger one , now has a car alternator on its shaft and is running on used veggie oil that my friend gets from the local cafe its putting out 30 amps @14 volts .
I like that small diesel engine in the second video i will have too keep an eye out and see if any are over here .
Dave
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Thatās only 420 watts Dave. What would someone do with that?
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Hey TomH. any of the fellows striving for TEGās; or on mini-PV solar systems; even mini-wind systems would be happy with 420 watts.
I figure the goal is to use up available waste oils for electrical watts. And so just for now using any lay-a-bout car alternator.
Slap on a been common for the last 15 years 100 amp car alternator would give up to 1200 watts. Many are actually 120 to 160 amps anymore. 1500 watts and 2000 watts.
I have the take off 120 amp made-in-France Velo alternator off of the Wifeās made-in-Korea Hyundai Tucson now re-brushed waiting for a project.
S.U.
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I early morning watched a lot of Harbor Freight Predator 2000 repairs videos still searching for an answer to cast iron cylinder bores on these; or aluminum cylinder bores.
One guy was replacing out on his two units both carburetors with new.
He sourced from a new to me small equipment parts supplier:
https://www.vpowerequipment.com/
Sure. Can buy E-Bay. But when not right; then often a hassle getting exchanged or refunded. With you often $$'s eating the failed attempt.
Here is the way shown by a work-for-results professional how to carb R&R on these types of small machines:
Watch and learn. Modern stuff best to NOT do a whole bunch of nuts and bolts removals in plastics; and harness wiring unplugging, re-plugging-in on was-working systems. You create problems. Those new problems then requiring repairs and diagnosis.
Steve Unruh
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Been about a year since I last used my saw mill. Has a 420cc preditor and I neglected to drain the gas so Iām pretty sure Iāll be ordering a new carb myself. Canāt remember if I ran Non-ethanol in it but probably not.
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Hi Tom , If i can explain a little , i may be so wrong but really i live and learn with everything i do .
The smaller of my diesel engines is just proof of concept for me while i am struggling to get my larger inverter generator engine working , the only alternator i had to hand that i could use straight away was a 50amp one and so as you say its only doing around 420 watts but that is 420 cost free watts that will help keep the batteryās charged up when i lose sunlight or cloudy days and while i keep messing with the inverter generator to get it running , also i have a advert out in the local marketplace asking for a small diesel generator for cheap so i may get lucky there . .
A couple of months ago i asked a friend if he could ask for some waste veggie oil from his local cafe he goes too , well since then he has delivered me over 13 @ 20 litres a drum of near perfectly clean oil as i wanted to try it out on my Chinese Diesel heater and guess where that lead too , yup free energy ! and just how i got started on wood and charcoal , so this is just another string to my bow , now i can make charcoal without having to worry if i will run out as i now have a back up .
Dave
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I guess I missed the part about the free oil Dave. Makes sense now. I guess SteveU would know how many HP it takes to power an auto alternator. Iām wondering it you couldnāt drive more than one with that size engine.
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Steve - You could plate the aluminum bore with Nikasil to prevent wear. Motorcycle tuners have experience running plated bores and report no wear. The rings wear instead but seemingly no worse than with iron sleeves.
Most guys would send their blocks out to get plated ($$$) but I see some people doing it themselves.
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YouTube says this was 14 yrs ago. The Yanmar is still going strong, still charging batteries, with free fuel, and free alternatorsā¦
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Even the clones are great. Iāve though about tapping in an oil filter for my 10hp clone. Do you think that would be worth it? Or is it a non-issue?
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Just change the oil every 100 hours. Oil is cheap! That lil 2.4kw Yanmar doesnāt take even a quart. I have never noticed the cost of the oil for this engine.
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14 years ago. I was still just about a puppy back then, Bruceā¦ The collapsed economy took care of that. Aged about 10 years in two and watched those fabled golden years float down the river. I"m glad your yanmar fared better. 
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Hi AnthonyB.
I feel sure that the small Chinese engines must be in some-way coating or plated thier aluminum cylinder bores if not having cast in iron bore sleeves.
Nikasil is now well know process so they are missing the advantage by not promoting doing this. āNickel Silicon cylinder bores to give wear and acids resistance and better coolingā
It is very hard to believe they are using the high silicon? silica? aluminum alloy, then acid etch-away method of the Vega car and M.B. cars bad results fames.
For all lower RPM small engine users the life life of the machine will be the bore and piston life. Rings can be replaced.
Only the expensive power sports and high end chainsaws are worth re-making a cylinder bore with matching fitted piston.
Some like me will insists as much as possible on cast iron bores as the best for environmental and operators abuses.
S.U.
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Thatās fantastic Bruce , What type of free oil are you using ? i did think that if my source of veggie oil dryās up i could just use the old sump oil we get in once filtered , like the black diesel guys use on YouTube .
Yes Tom i have also looked at getting a double pulley and mounting another alternator on the other side , but i think i will leave it as it is now and just see how it works out for me in the coming weeks , Autumn days are here and the clocks go forward in a week or so , time to get playing .
Dave
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The Yanmar has burned: vegetable oil, sump oil, hydraulic oil, fuel oil, gasoline/veg oil, turpentine/mineral spirits, transmission fluid, and light mystery oil (perhaps it was lamp grade kerosene, or jetA).
Oh, and several hundred gallons of Biodiesel. (1 quart at a time, LOL!!!)
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Have any of you had any experiences with this engine yet?
We couldnāt turn ours over with the recoil when we took it out of the crate. It had been smashed and the cowling was rubbing against the flywheel.
It was well packaged though when it came here. It was in a nice crate with packing, metal corners on the crate. It was the shipping gorillas, that smashed it.
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Iāve seen them, and Iāve been interested in getting one for a motorized bicycle maybe. Little veg oil putt putt bike. Not really sure what else Iād do with one that small. Air compressor maybe?
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Cody look at the videos of the pretty severe impulse shaking on these small single cylinder diesels.
Iād not want to experience that on a two wheeled bicycle.
Three-wheeler; four-wheeler; sure. Ha! With four point rubber isolation mounting like the generators use.
My solid mounted gasoline single engine on my tracked toter will vibration numb my hands in 45 minutes of usage.
Nobody talked about that.
Needs suspended mounting!!
Fellows this is exactly why I started this Having Fun With Small IC Engines topic.
And in my first post said for engines that did not have to be woodgasible.
Fun. Fun. Explorativly using the least pumps fuels. Using all types of alternative fuels.
My opinion has become that with alternative fuels a must maintain rigid 1500/1800 or 3000/3600 rpmās for synchouns electrical generator heads is futile-too-hard-to do.
Variable rpm DC generate.
Now variable RPM and power inverter-generate for AC power.
Steve Unruh
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Oh youāre right. On my 79cc motorized bike I used rubber cushions on the mounting points, though it wasnāt suspended motor mounts like my generator. It was enough for me. Direct mounted with no cushion youāre liable to shake the welds or brazing loose on some bicycles.
I have an engine driven mobile compressor thatās in need of a new engine. Old one is crusty and needs an overhaul. Small diesel power would certainly be neat. It uses a 6.5HP Predator right now.
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Hi Cody, that is a fun challenge to buil a diesel bike, you may look up on youtube, there is meetings in Germany i belive, for diesel motorcycles.
I remember reading in a magazine about a Swede building diesel rat-bikes, he won the āpeoples choice awardā on one of them meetings, with a very innovative build.
He had mounted the one-cylinder diesel engine in bearings directly on the crank, directly in the bike frame, the engine block was the āfree floatingā mounted with a set of gas-hydraulic shock absorbers.
It was said to be almost vibration free, even if you wasnāt able to see the engine on idle, just a āblurrā 
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