Military Prototype Diesel Motorcycles
A.E.D.
Corp Common Rail Diesel Motorcycle
I am indebted
to Nick Hirsch for supplying me with details regarding the Advanced Engine Development
Corp Common Rail Diesel Motorcycle project. I'm told the107-in cubed V-twin
engine is now installed in a 1988 FXRS Harley-Davidson MC and is being operated
on the street. Although not fully developed in terms of electronic engine event
control, i.e., injection timing, fuel delivery, turbo boost, it runs well and
sounds great. Things are still progressing at a steady pace. The
engine is an S&S unit.
The picture
taken shows the bike from the Turbo side and I'm told the engine has changed
in some detail since the original SAE paper was written about it's development
(which started in 2004). It still includes a 23 K PSI Bosch common rail fuel
injection system with custom electronic engine control, VNT turbocharger with
intercooler, and has 16.5-1 compression ratio.
AED run the machine on Biodiesel (B20) and plan to publicize it more in the
near future but at this time, commercialization plans have not been drawn up.
AED Corp has done extensive R&D work for the U.S. Military to explore
advanced heavy fuel burning in it's future vehicles.
The
D.E.R.A. Military Motorcycle
To those who take
an interest in matters Military, it's common knowledge that NATO has
embarked on a one fuel policy due to the fact it's cheaper and safer
to have all their vehicles running on the same substance, ie: diesel.
Obviously they had a slight problem when it came to motorcycles and
both the British and United States Army's have embarked on various ventures
to see how feesable it would be to convert existing bikes to diesel.
The British converted a Royal Enfield engine to run on diesel and invited
Fred Hayes of HDT over to try it out. Things went very well and R.M.C.S.
landed the contract to design a completely new engine for the Marine
Corps. After 2003 Petrol will no longer be allowed aboard U.S. warships
and so the Corps needed to replace their existing bikes with something
that used an alternative fuel.
This D.E.R.A. /
R.M.C.S Bike (above) produced in1995 has an Enfield Bullet crankcase
(beefed up) and a specially made top end which boasts 4 valves! It is
of 547cc and produces between 16-18 BHP. Diesel injector is a modified
unit from a car while the gearbox has but 4 gears.
Apparently
the engines flywheel is lighter than you'd normally expect to find on
a diesel. The bike clocks 156 MPG @ 40MPH and 184 MPG @ 30MPH. The engine
is mounted in a frame supplied by Eric Cheney. This bike easily pulls
away from 250cc petrol bikes on cross country runs according to test
riders.
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