123Cat,
I see that you are in Canberra Australia so the very best advice that I can ever give you concerning model diesel construction would be to contact Geoff Potter in Sydney - he has been building engines from scratch since he was a lad, has a full machine workshop, chroming bath, makes his own carbon props and his son was an ex world champ Team Racer (did I mention that he is experienced?)

If you want sage advice then go over to the Barton forum and private message him (far be it for me to hand out phone numbers in public).
Ask him what you ask here and just listen to how the conversation evolves into common sense solutions tattooed with "Ah Ha" moments!

Anything 'can' be done but is it worth it? That's the real question here.

Cheers.