DieselBike.net

A 4 page spread of the Kubota Z482 BMW R80 conversion is in Back Street Heroes this month.
I did the words and Nic, the Editor, did the photos.

Here are some teasers of it.
Wouldn't be right to rip it off whist it's still a current issue etc.....

I've lost two engines to oil starvation and always wondered why as I check the oil regularly. Today when changing the oil on it's annual maintenance cycle I noticed that with the sump plug removed the dipstick still showed atleast 1/4 full, which is not low enough to cause alarm. Only repeatedly dip...

SOLD.
Apologies to anyone who was interested.

SOLD.
Apologies to anyone who was interested.

SOLD Ruggerini MD150 650cc Twin Cylinder Engine. Turns over by hand but i've not got around to starting it because I never actually had a project for it + it's got a 24V starter motor and glow plugs in it and I've never had two good car batteries at any one time. Bought about 4 years ago on an impu...

SOLD I've got a Daihatsu 3Cyl 1000cc Turbo engine and gearbox and maybe some other bits up for grabs. Bought in good faith about 4 years ago and been clogging up the spare room ever since waiting for me to embark on a project but I never did. As such I've not actually seen it run however I was assu...

I'm very interested to see how this tank build goes.

That's a shame about the 1400TDI engine. I'm currently working on a VW 1900TDI bike project and have a few tricks up my sleeve to get it to work in a bike. However that has the older and easier to control VP37 injection pump. I'm not familiar with the 1400. It's hard to see from your photos but is i...

After the rear wheel could support the weight of the bike I moved on to attach the front suspension. Because the bike is going to be heavy, but not ridiculously so, I decided to use a 1200 Bandit front end I had stashed away from past biking adventures. For this to fit I need to make a new spindle f...

So with the engine firmly attached to the front subframe it is onto the rear subframe and suspension. I wanted something strong, reasonable easy to make and use common parts. So I opted to use the same setup as the BMW R series of bike as they use taper bearing which are very strong and adjustable. ...

pietenpol2002 wrote:We'd be fine with having you do both.

It would be rude not to have stoichiometric fuel ratio at maximum boost.

lare you going to stick with the fly by wire pump I'd like to, there is a DIY project for the Bosch VP37 pump. I've been following it but it appears to have made no progress from a few years ago after stalling at a particular technical point regarding a specialist sensor inside the pump. I've got a...

I cracked and started a build blog

It's been a long time in the making, over a year now, as I've had a few issues along the way regarding health and relationships etc. But now I'm working on the project regularly I thought I'd break the ice and start posting up a few (million) photos I've been making over the last 15 months or so in ...

pietenpol2002 wrote:upgrade for Molly?

I have recently acquired a Nose Cone...


...and an acrylic space bubble.

Hi There. Sorry for keeping this one in the dark a bit. I've been wanting to start this project ever since the 1900cc siezed up and spat a con rod out of the side of the engine which was probably 4(5?) years ago and I really really didn't want to turn into one of those blokes that sits in the pub ge...

I really like your approach to building a bike, and that your build is going very fast at the moment! You are doing it much like the way I built my last few bikes which include a 1900cc VW engine in a Dnepr frame that cost me naff all to make. Can I ask if you've considered how to work the gears and...

Since it is FWD, the easiest method would be to retain the gearbox and mate it to a shaft drive bike frame. You need approx 1:1 ratio for that bevel drive and sadly this rules out using one from a bike as they are all approx 1:3 ratio reduction. If you use a gearbox + transmission from say a BMW R ...

You'll probably need an engineers report/inspection on headed paper to prove the new engine is as you say. If you have a receipt for the engine it will help. It's been a couple of years since I did this and my first was rejected because I did not have the above + DVLA asked for proof of engine No w...

These are my first choice on hoses. Fuel hose: I use cotton braided rubber fuel hose on the diesel bike. I've had it on the bike for over a year and had no problems. It is very much more flexible and easier to route than the solid rubber fuel hose sold by your local autofactor and even when in tight...

Seems from the picture the dipstick tube is vertical and horizontal so I presume the dipstick only goes to the vertical, if so wouldn`t you be better off with a clear tube. On my big Honda with the upturned gearbox I have a clear tube and is an accurate measure of the oil level. It would be an equi...

It was sorted 5 days later after finding a replacement engine not to far away and a frantic evenings spannering to get it in the frame.

I ended up with a custom build policy from Bikesure. That's two modified bikes One being the Kubota Z482 BMW and the other being the VW 1900cc Dnepr. It has all the bells and whistles, business use, breakdown cover and foreign use and it costs me about the same as when I owned an old 1200 Bandit. My...

I'm not to familiar with the internals of the smart engine but tilted the VW engine over rather a lot in my Dnepr conversion. My biggest fear with tilting the engine was the oil pickup being relatively central in the sump after tilting it. I performed several crude experiments to check this out. The...

If the pump is defective, maybe it's an obstruction now, just a thought... Worth checking. I've run the z482 with and without lift pump and they work equally well. I've also run a z482 with no lift pump and the tank below the pump. The big advantage is that priming is much easier with the lift pump...

It looks like it is really coming on. Hope you win the battle with the electronics. I like your idea of taking it one sensor at a time. If I have to make solder joins in a wiring loom I find they are much more long lived if I go to the effort of using the heat shrink with hot glue in it and shrink i...

Really liking the attention to detail.

Just had a rather embarrassing catastrophic engine failure on the Kubota Z482 bike. Basically it was a total oil failure and I had to replace the whole engine as it is more cost effective and time effective than a full crank and big end rebuild. It was an upsetting failure and I didn't post anything...

Hi, I've got a Z482 twin Kubota in a R65 frame and love it. I was wondering how you were going to get the three cylinder engine into the same frame then saw your frame mods. :wink: I've had mine on the road for about three years or so and learnt that the Kubota diesels are reliable work horses. My f...

I'll be watching out for updates.