Alrighty as of today I've commited to a bulk purchase of kits/parts from Clegg(gasoline rebuild)... really nothing more on that topic
At this point focused back on the idea of a kubota diesel conversion, been in touch with a fella who's sitting on a 1400cc Kubota(Largest 3 cyl available from what I gather) still in the process of asking questions trying to figure transport etc. here's the lowdown in his own words,
"was used in a fishboat to power a large refrigeration system , it was heat exchanger cooled so there is no radiator It has a marine exhaust manifold but could be used in a vehicle as is or changed to a regular manifold. It was maintained mechanically but is not the prettiest. It runs fine but needs at least a rear crankshaft seal. I purchased it to use on the generator which is immediatley behind it in the picture . I have run out of room in my garage and have many more projects than I can finish. It has a variable speed injection pump suitable for use as a vehicle throttle unlike many of the constant speed engines you might run into. I am a bit of a generator hobbiest specializing in Onan and kubota diesel sets. I have experience shipping generators to the US, and have sent a couple to Florida via YRC"
To whit my response,
"given the hobbyist nature of your use of these engines maybe you would be able to help answer a couple of questions. What is the effective HP of this engine doing a conversion online from kw I came up with something around 30hp which seems a bit low given the displacement, do you feel this engine would need a different crankshaft in order to achieve 'vehicle' speeds and output?"
aaand...
"I want to say that I believe your estimate of the engine power is fairly close, maybe a bit low but in the ballpark. The typical torque of a diesel engine is probably 30-50% higher than a similar gas powered engine of similar displacement. I believe the maximum practical engine speed for this engine is 3600 rpm give or take a couple hundred. This would be the same for any industrial ie non vehicular engine. Even OEM diesels like VW do not like to rev much more than that. The saving grace in your plan might be the transmission in the Justy which I believe is a CVT, I believe that it would react to the available torque and simply shift to its upper range of cones or what ever it uses , sooner. In a standard transmission scenario it might mean starting in second gear rather than first. The experience I have with a VW diesel which had a gas transmission installed was that you ended up shifting sooner. I do not know how many hours are on the engine certainly hundreds possibly low thousands , It has a Murphy switch-guage instrument panel but I do not know if the hour meter was present or working , i suspect not, suffice to say that it has a fair number of hours on it. I believe it has had regular oil and filter changes, it came with a box of both oil and air filters to pass on. I believe the injectors have been rebuilt and possibly the water pump replaced. Beyond that i do not know. It came with a flywheel, an SAE flywheel housing, and a coupling plate, some of which might be of use to you. I would expect that it would be a good idea to pull the oil pan to check the bearing clearances and replace the front and rear engine seals while it is apart."
I know it's long winded but trying to paraphrase would be a little mentally labor intensive, guy seems really cool and obviously fairly knowledgeable, going through with this basically is going to become a money pit lesson in diesel mechanics which will be a long process but I'm interested enough in learning I don't mind a long game project especially if it comes together this thing will be pretty bad ass(in my own humble opinion; very well could be a cluster-f#*k but hey live and learn) anyone with diesel experience that can second the information contained?
I have yet to find out the dimensions so as to find out how tight a fit, I know the weight is wayyy up there 12Xkg I believe I saw looking up the model... but planning to lift and reinforce the vehicle it should be workable... any thoughts appreciated; throw it at the wall see what sticks.