I made a floating frame to bolt my VW diesel...

Great!!! But this engine is not a stationary design, it has no flywheels 

When I redid my Petter PJ-1 genset I created a similar floating subframe on a heavy wheeled mainframe.  I used some larger valve springs that are likely from a big diesel engine.  The single cylinder Petter is a boinker! The whole engine does a repetitive rotational jerk at every ignition bang due to torque reaction with the massive flywheel. 

It's a good thing the bearings are isolated and this vibration, angular torque, and uneven delivery of force is not seen by the moving parts. Right?

If the Petter was bolted to the concrete floor in the shop I have every confidence that I`d be aware of it running in my house 100 feet away....

It's never supposed to be bolted to the floor. Slab floors are not stationary engine mounts either. I just posted that the proper mount is an isolation block... Slabs transmit the vibration. Flexible mounts focus the vibration like a lens right on the loaded bearings.

I find it impossible to see your rationalization that with a stationary engine that is moving about with the rotating parts jigging around on the bearing mounts the bearings see less stress. With the flywheel mass which transportation engines like your VW don't have... I bet the stationary engine is delivering many times the stress to the bearings as opposed to the VW setup.

^^^ I popped for tilt bed trailer like this one.  It makes loading vehicles and other wheeled loads pretty easy... But it's more complicated if you have to winch something up because the winch has to be mounted higher than the front of the tilt bed and the angle of the pull shifts as items are loaded.  The advantage is no ramps, and you can roll things up with pipes and safety chocks as long as you have plenty of help while loading. Otherwise you have to make sure there is a loader at the pickup point. I make sure we have loading plans before I make a pickup.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ford-diesel-power-unit-800-tractor-engine-172-rockford_W0QQitemZ330025419063QQihZ014QQcategoryZ61574QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The reserve is not met on this... I am posting the link because it is an interesting engine... It's not an 800 BTW, it's an 801; the Ford 800 is gas, perhaps the seller is noting that it fits the more common Ford 800 tractor frame, but this engine was used in a lot of tractors.

I have checked around for parts availablity on these, usually in AG applications parts are available aftermarket when the manufacturer stops supporting them.

This looks like a nice little diesel, I wish I could find an excuse to pick it up... Or, please buy it before I invent a need.

I wish people on ebay would not use reserves, just put a "buy it now" price on the danged auction and be done with it.

I hate auctions.... It seems everything I am interesting in goes for a fair and reasonable price except the stuff I _really_ want, then there is the other guy who comes up out of nowhere and wants it just as bad or worse... I always back off when the price goes higher than I want to pay, and the other guy ends up paying more than it's worth. Maybe I am good for the economy.

As an aside it is fine to think of using natural gas to power a standby power plant if you already have the gas being delivered for say home heating, but consider that when TSHTF, not only will you be without utility power, your natural gas pressure will also be zero.  Then a diesel that can run on just about anything resembling oil including hot bacon grease will be your salvation.

I don't know where he is at... But where I used to live in the central midwest the government and gas companies sold everyone 10 years ago on natural gas as the cheap, abundant, clean energy of the future.

Well... The future is coming to light and the only truth is that natural gas burns pretty clean, all the rest was a pack of lies.  The last two winters natural gas prices went so high that it was cheaper to go to the Salvation Army and Goodwill and get old clothes to burn for heat (think I am kidding?).

It won't be long and natural gas consumers will be dependant on LNG shipped by bulbious tankers from the Mideast.

The supply system will not collaspe for some years... Think about the state of mind in your typical blinder wearing suburban resident when there is little or no gas pressure regardless of cost. Something like that would break the back of the American myth and the Fascists in control of U.S. politics will expand their World War before they admit truth. They will blame anybody and everybody before they will admit fault or take responsibility... It's lies they tell.

However... In the short and mid term, natural gas powered electrical generation does have advantages... You don't have to bunker fuel, the gas supply is independant of electrical mains for the most part, and the technology required is inexpensive and all off the shelf.  LNG starts getting less and less efficient because of the expense in compressing it and the transportation costs, but as long as the fuel cycle is not dependant upon imported compressed gas it's pretty efficient...

It would seem to me that the injector timing would preclude the engine running in reverse.

that is a great looking new toy. i hope it works well for you... you are doing something i have been dreaming about doing for sometime.. i hoipe i am as lucky to find as good a deal.

The guy who has owned it recently and has been... ummm... 'taking care' of it is quite the card... Windows on these things get broken and vandalized on a lot of construction sites, he replaced the broken glass with skylights.  The orginal seat is gone, he bolted in a swivel office chair with arm rests... At least it is mounted correctly and you can turn around and work both sets of controls. It is also comfortable.

I need to spend some hours in the cab with the manual on my lab learning the controls, then learning to drive this beast... The brakes do work, everything works... But I would really feel more comfortable if I engaged in this learning process after hauling this beast down to my property where I can't destroy anything.

Water on my place is a problem.... I have analysed the satellite maps and topos and walked around looking at the vegitation... It's been years since I have witched water but I already know two spots where I feel there is water at 40 ft or less, and 20 ft is actually more likely... The problem is these spots will probably only yeild significant amounts of water after the rainy season and the wells would go dry for 1/2 year or more... There are a couple of nearby wells (2 miles & 3 miles) and a spring (1/2 mile) down hill from my land, but they are all much lower and/or tap larger water sheds. My water shed is restricted to the 160 acres right around me. 

With this in mind I intend to put in a large cistern and cachement systems with above ground tanks. I will put up a small tower for water pressure. With the ability to store 10,000 gallons I can see fit dam a couple of shallow washes and see about using the backhoe to dig down behind the dam in an effort to hit the deeper ground water... Then install a pump. There are good rains periodically, when it comes you have to get the water up and into storage and then conserve for the dry months.

The problem really is that with a small water shed and shallow water the actual quality of the land is very important... Running a machine that leak hydraulic fluid all over this type work will ensure the water ends up with oil leaching into it.

As far as dreams... I suppose in some form or another I have dreamed about something like this project, but it was simply too far out to ever be realistic. What happened was the course of my life made it a necessity... I am not doing this so much because I want to or this is something I have always dreamed of... I am doing this because this is simply how it has to be done, and it's a hell of a lot of work, time, and money getting set up... I end up giving up a lot of things I enjoy (nice restaurants close by and city services for instance)... But I figured as remote and hostile as this area is, if I took the time, put in the work, spent the money, and do things right I can be very comfortable and have all the things I really _need_.

Once I am done my cost of living should be extraordinarily low... Food and maintenence only... No utilities, no commuting to work, if I end up going out once a month for food and to collect waste oil wearing greasy overalls and looking like a country moron...

I would smile 

Anybody know how to repack hydraulic cylinders?

Anybody without knee-jerk problems can see that fission power is part of the future. 

Fusion, not fission is the way out.

The problem is nobody has documented the correct reactor geometry for a working fusion reactor. I could put on a silly hat and bang a drum all day screaming "LOOK AT ME!!! LOOK AT ME!!!" - But it's nought without a working demonstration prototype of the correct plasma containment geometry.

http://listerengine.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=101

Once I document it, it will be 20 years on a normal development track to commerical implementation, 10 years on a crash program. My best guess is that a real world prototype is 24 months out... They are leveling the ground to pour the slab for my research lab next week.

http://listerengine.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=103

I am hauling in the fuel bunkers for the generators in two weeks.

http://listerengine.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=96

Once I pour the foundation blocks for the engine room, I can work out the engineering for the jackshaft and drive the ST15kW to power the research prototypes.