How Much Power Does A Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine Make?

It's the little engine that could.

10:20

Angel Sergeev

By: Angel Sergeev

Mar 31, 2020 at 5:50am ET

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We’ve seen so many different cars and engines being dynoed through the years - everything from massive boat engines to heavy-duty diesel trucks and high-revving supercars. But we’ve never talked about the smallest combustion engines in existence - the single-cylinder, sub-0.5-liter units. That day has finally come - meet the single-cylinder, diesel-powered, air-cooled Kohler engine, which has been put on the dyno.

The Warped Perception channel on YouTube just got a delivery of a brand new Kohler diesel engine for future projects. After starting it for the first time, the team decided to test how much power it makes on the dyno running with three different types of diesel fuels - standard diesel, biodiesel, and hydrodiesel.

The first run sees the little engine working with standard diesel. The unit runs for five minutes at full throttle before the actual test begins at 2,800 rpm. The peak power it produced was 8.5 horsepower (6.33 kilowatts) and a maximum torque of 16 pound-feet (21.7 Newton-meters).

What do you think?

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The second run is on biodiesel under the same circumstances. The results are slightly lower - 7.73 hp (5.76 kW) and 14.5 lb-ft (19.65 Nm) of twist at 2,800 rpm. The final run is on hydrodiesel which unleashes the full potential of the little engine - 8.83 hp (6.58 kW) and 16 lb-ft (21.7 Nm) at 2,900 rpm. You can check out all the numbers plus the temperatures of the engine during the three runs at this link.

At the end of the video, the presenter hints he is probably going to turbocharge the single-cylinder diesel. It’ll be very interesting to see it on the dyno again once the efficiency goes up thanks to the turbo.

Source: Warped Perception