Cap,

Yes, the Tanakas have features that lend themselves very well to conversions. And unlike common, home use weedwhackers and the like, they're made to industrial standards. Used by lumberjacks, diamond drill operators and the like. The chrome work is thick and durable.

But, you get what you pay for and they do cost a bit more. I got lucky and got a used one (for diesel conversion) and a new one, (shown here) that's been converted but retained the gas fuel mode. This will be used as a bench mark engine to compare it to my other experiments which will include diesel and glow-on-gas operation.

All will be posted to YouTube as we go along. Will use this thread to record results.

Diesel pics attached.

For examples of my experiments on smaller engines, see, http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=hopeso

I'm also making my own Biodiesel fuel and if the Tanaka works out, I have ambitions to convert my lawn mower to diesel and see if Biodiesel has a future cutting grass. Kinda nutty but fun to try.