Many years ago I knew a guy in qld who claimed that it was possible to convert a Cleveland v8 to diesel. I am currently running a 351 in my 68 f250 and have a spare 302 but with feul costs etc and the fact that I like to experiment I am looking at going diesel in the old girl also I am looking at producing my own biodiesel for my 4wd as well. Has anyone ever heard of a Cleveland being converted and would it be a costly conversion. im not interest in going down the chev path with this conversion if all else fails ill go early powerstroke

'IF' it can be done, you'd need an injector pump to suit, and where would you fit the injectors ( would the threads be strong enough where the spark plugs go ????)
Then, I think the stock crank wouldn't be good enough, probably need a forged steel unit, then way better conrods, and heavy pistons to handle the 'knock', and a heavier flywheel....and...and.....
Would be cheaper to fit a turbo'd TD42 or a 1HZ....or a PowerStroke....more stuffin around with the Powerstroke....wiring and such.

cheaper AND easier to convert to straight gas ....


as cjh said .... lotta work changing parts around so they work with the higher compression of the diesel


BUT

if thats what ya want .. then research 1st before startin work on it

I am currently running gas and have you seen where the price is going on gas , also as I mentioned in my post I am looking at producing my own biodiesel which will cost less than half the cost of mineral based diesel and runs much cleaner much better for the environment. also here is a little bit of trivia for you The first ever diesel was designed by Rudolph Diesel and put on show at the frankfurt motor show running on straight peanut oil. He designed the diesel to run on any vegetable based oil making it cheap to run and relatively easy to produce feul. Then surprise surprise the feul companies realized they could get rid of there at that time all but useless bi product by convincing the public that it was the feul to use. does anyone remember the lies they told about ethanol to keep us buying their product. And who out there is in the unfortunate position of having to wait for pay day to feul up when the companies have lifted their price by around 15 cents a litre that's am increase of $9 on a 60 litre tank add to that the fact that the poor fuel companies were doing it so tuff that they had to jack the price in early july just after the average worker got their pay increase/tax cut what a coincidence.

Interesting idea.
I think the cleveland crank and rods would easily be strong enough but I'd use forged pistons. The 302 crank would be stronger still. I'd do a 4 bolt conversion and the block would have to be std bore or sleeved if it's a 351.
A 351W might be a better option possibly...taller deck, better rod angle, bigger mains. Or a 400c? If you could find a 391 FT truck engine that might be better still? already has a steel crank and very thick cylinder walls.
Getting the fuel in is something else altogether.

The problem with LPG, is that you use more of it to do the same job as petrol....even worse for Ethanol/Methanol.
Henry Ford wanted to make his engines run on Ethanol back in the 20's, but the Gov't didn't want to know about it.....it was Alcohol, and all alcohol was banned.....even though if you drank it, you'd die.

I have been looking at compression ratios for both Cleveland and diesel engines and I can find references to up to 11.7 to 1 for clevelands running 91 octane but need to know what comp ratio would be max for reliable running. Given that the burn characteristics of diesel and petrol are different then the actual compression pressure and maximum pressure on ignition may not be a problem its just that ignition requires a compression ratio of 15 to 1 low end to 20 to 1 so I would needs to be running at least 15to1 with glow plugs for initial startup not sure yet of max pressure in the cylinder but lets remember that for every 1 hp you are getting there is 3(indicated hp ) being produced on the top of the piston so for every 10 you are theoretically making 30 that's a lot more bang and a lot more stress and pressure on everything through from head to crank and block. Add to this the fact that diesels don't produce the high hp of a petrol in the normally aspirated state then im thinking that liner strength shouldn't be a problem and neither should crank and rods. Can anyone tell me what comp ratio would be max for a reliable set up on either petrol or a petrol based C**k

Reliable everyday running CR in a Clevo is 10:1...running a 30/70 (thereabouts ) cam.

Biodiesel production is pretty simple, but a lot of safety is required. You will also need to find vegetable oil or other types of fatty acids, which are actually more expensive than fuel prices per litre...assuming you are going the clean route. The other method is to go into an agreement with your local fish and chip shop (or even McDondald's) to take their used oil from them free of charge. Free oil at around 200-300L or so is pretty good to start with, however you need to treat this oil before you can produce biodiesel. Filtering it out under heat, boil out any moisture, filter again through a finer filter medium, let it cool and then run the reaction. You will need methanol or ethanol...ethanol preferably because it is safer, methanol is very bad for your nervous system, however methanol will produce better biodiesel at the risk of safety.

All the vessels you use, should be pretty much bomb proof, not your every day crockery. Here is an example of when things go bad at a biodiesel factory. Granted this numpty was welding a fuel tank. Methanol/ethanol everywhere from what I remember and that tank went flying.

http://www.safetyrisk.com.au/thomastown-explosion/