I was talking about this... somewhere recently, but I can't find a thread on the boards in the past few weeks, so it must have been a discussion in person with somebody.
https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/engines/diesel/mercury-diesel/
I love the idea of a 2L diesel engine for a boat. The lighter block and closed cooling system had me wondering if these might bolt into a car.
I saw in another thread a mention of small 10hp or so diesel engines. Where could I find one of those?
Surplus Center has them occasionally. All they have at the moment is a 4.0L Perkins. 111hp, 271tq. $6k
Hit Ebay, you can usually find them on there.
Hatz and Deutz are two common names in small diesels.
I will say, they are noisy, vibrating, smelly things. You don't want to be around one when it's running.
One more thing. If I was in the market for a small diesel, I'd seriously look into these. The guy has been selling them on Ebay for a while.
get 19 of your friends together..
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/12hp-air-cooled-similar-changfa-diesel_1752235282.html
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:
I thought the EPA had pretty much shut down all the small diesels coming out of China and India.
Toyman01 wrote: In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: I thought the EPA had pretty much shut down all the small diesels coming out of China and India.
They have.. But maybe Alibaba don't know.. yet.
betamarine will set you up with anything from 14hp to 105. It's basically a marinized Kabuto.
I personally like the big heavy SABb diesels. Anything you can hand start gets a +1 from me
I still want one of these. Unfortunately Uncle cut them off several years ago. 
12hp @ 600rpm
This is the 6hp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFljBfO9tX4
The marine engines are very purpose built, built more like a old stationary engine than a car engine, extremely heavy, governed to 3000 rpm or less(and built to run there all day), are often meant to run at 120-140*f, shake like crazy (somewhat covered up by being bolted to tons of boat on huge rubber mounts) and sound like they're about to come apart at startup.
My friends sail boat for example has a mid 70s Yanmar horizontal cylinder 12hp, it weighs somewhere near 400lbs, almost entirely cast iron, holds close to a gallon of oil, features a manually cleaned oil strainer instead of a filter(and fully pressurized oiling, even the rocker shaft is pressure lubed), has an external water pump, attached gearbox with separate sump and (based on the milkshake it had in it for a while) what is probably a bronze faced wet clutch. It has the loudest diesel knock I've ever heard, and if revved too quickly puts out a black scum on the water that looks bad by industrial revolution standards. Standing in the cockpit above the engine cavity, you can feel it hit every power stroke at idle, puttering at high idle it has an exhaust crackle that would make a drag pipe Harley owner jealous. As far as I can tell its in excellent condition and tune, fires right up with no glowplug or intake heater, and moves the 10,000 lb boat at hull speed assuming a lack of current, and does so burning 1/4-1/3 GPH.
While in college I worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. We had a 28 foot Marinette Cruiser work boat that had a diesel engine. My God that was one noisy old bitch. It had to be a two stroke.
In reply to spitfirebill:
It was probably a 53 or 71 series detroit for that size of boat.....they are a howling diesel for sure.
The link above are new diesels designed by VW/Audi. That's what got my interest, I can't imagine they'd deviate too far from their automotive design.
In reply to Toyman01:
Wait...you can't get the listeroid engines anymore? Damn...I figured I'd end up with one some day.
Or do you still just have to import them as components and "roll your own" as it were?
In reply to ClemSparks:
There's a guy on Ebay selling Listeroid "compressors". With the right parts, you can build an engine out of one. But the 6hp is over $2K so I ended up with a 25hp Kubota on my generator.
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