Engine swap

Forum: 

Is it possible to drop the 2.8 turbo diesel fourtrak unit in to my sportrak without changing the mounts? and would i have to change the running gear? failing that does anyone know if i can get a 3.5 V8 in there?

swapping engines

i changed engine in my rocky and i was nothing but trouble,trust me.in my opinion you should sell the sportrak and buy a 2.8td fourtrak independance and the oldest that i can be is 93.i had a feroza and i tried to get a diesel engine in with very very little success.

Have a look at this page: ht

Have a look at this page: http://www.daihatsu-drivers.co.uk/node/3770
As for a V8 in a Sporti... Well. I have to say I'm a great beliver in a plasma cutter, a welder & a lot of elbo grease making anything fit together, but I have to say I think that may be a bridge to fare.
I'd like to see it done. They do go in 4traks with some seriuose cuting about. I think however that there probably just isn't physically enough room to shoe horn a V8 into a Sporti bay, even with the iner wings cut right back.
If it does go, it will be so tight you will probably have to move everything els out of the bay to make room.
Also the Sporti gearing is so low that you'd be pulling away in 2nd just to stop the wheels from spining... in the dry, up through the gears as fast as you can change them, and topping out at a feirly low speed, becouse the engine is redlining in 5th, and want's about another 3 gears. Not very economical. Not very much fun in the long run. Not very fast. And probably not very good off road, due to too much power for it's waight, very difficult to keep traction.
However a vehicle that small, with that much power, with the right gearing would be a fenominal car off road. And extramly scary on road.

Question: How much work do you want?

Any veiws expresed in this thread by me are purely from my own experience, and (sometimes) falible memory. Hope my comments help, but please don't take them as gospel.

HI, I'm new to this forum and

HI, I'm new to this forum and I just found this thread and thought I had a couple ideas. First of all, I own a '91 Rocky (identical body as the sportrak, I think) and I've been looking mods other people have done to the engine. Straight away I'll tell you that I don't think the 3.5 V8 will fit all. i'm almost certain you'd have to cut away the firewall as well as the insides of the fenders. However, I have seen someone else fit a GM 3.8 V6 in there, http://www.dougfreeze.com/daihatsu/ the pic on that site is from a feroza, but again I'm almost positive it's the same thing. If you have to go with a V8, you'll want to look at the W8 engines, since they have a smaller design both front to back and side to side. Unfortunately these are very rare and expensive. Right now I'm working on putting a turbo onto my 1600. I read up on the engine and a KO3 turbo from a volkswagen or the P14 turbo from mitsubishi will work great on there. I go off-roading with my Rocky, so I'm not changing the gears right now. I've already done a couple simple things to the engine and have gotten about 10hp more out of it. I'm aiming for 150hp total after the turbo mod. Hopefully this helps somewhat.

engine mods

Thank you all for your input i quite like the turbo idea maybe with filter and exhaust could be what i'm looking for bit more power and a good sound, will look into turbos a bit more. pity about the V8 idea but not dismissing it completely as i might strip it down to the chassis and build a monster, custom cage no panels! I'll keep you posted. cheers