What is Daniel am doing at the moment ...

[MrHijet]

[color=#000000]As you can see, my flow bench project is still freezing.
Due to some changes to my digital sensor project, this is also not getting forward.

I just have to work on too many projects at the moment.

I have to get my little van (Daihatsu Hijet) over the car certification (T

[MrHijet]

Have you ever tried to get a whole engine in a postal parcel ?
I tried it and hopefully it works

One month ago I bought a little 3 cylinder used engine in japan. The engine is a 660cc Kei-Class spec engine.

In mid of the 80s (When the Kei-Class specification was even limited to 550cc) they investigates the european market and decided to not sell so small engine in Europe, because the japanese manufactors were afraid these small engines would not been accepted by the customers. So they build engines with a slightly different layout to have 900 to 1000cc. Mostly the european variants have a higher stroke.

Daihatsu was (and is) focussed at the low cost market in Europe, so the engines kept simple and stupid. In the years since the mid 80s till 1999 this engine was sold more or less unmodified in Europe. In Japan however they had always optimized the same engine base.
From a simple 2 valve, single carb, normal aspiration engine they finally evolved it to a turboed 4 valve, dohc, variable valve, fuel injection engine.
In Japan they still stick to 660cc due to the kei-class specification. This makes an import of such an engine interesting. Building an engine based on the higher stroke european model and the high tech japanese parts, should be a fun project.
Thats why I ordered one engine and ask the seller (and my friends in Japan) to please disassemble the engine and make 3 parcels which are below 30kg to send it over to europe.

Sounds crazy ? Yeah a bit ... but I am addicted to these little daihatsus.

Cheers,

Daniel

[MrHijet]

Do you guys remember that I was at the ?

Oh boy, I still work on sorting the huge amount of photos I have done.

I switched to Adobe Lightroom after I struggled too long with the 5000 files. I am already sorted out 3800 files, even if they were quite fine, have the better photos are enough. I really like the rating feature, which really helped me to get this pile of work done.

I will hopefully upload some pictures in the following two weeks

Cheers,

Daniel

[bruce]

Wow you have been busy!!

Interesting way to ship a whole engine I must say!

[106-1194218389]

Daniel,
I am looking forward to seeing your new pictures as they are always great. I am glad you put that link in because when I went back I noticed all my pictures had disappeared. I corrected that and they are back. I am in mourning at the loss of an opportunity to go to Miller Motor Sports Park for a 7 hour endurance race and then same weekend to go to Bonneville - all for free I have some very urgent repairs at home as in a water leak pending disaster if I don't fix it.

John

[slracer]

Hi all, A team from France brought a Motobecane (a French moped) to Bonneville in Sept. Why do I mention it here? Because they shipped the small (50cc) engine and frame, but carried the rest of it in their suitcases! That is an unusual way to ship a motorcycle! A pic of the re-assembled vehicle and team is attached. BTW, each member took a record home, 2 with the sidecar and 2 without!

[MrHijet]

@slracer:
really cool. Getting a whole bike over the ocean ... not bad at all


Today I had a short break on working on my cars. I visited the steam beer brewery in Essen (Germany). There was the Nippon Classic Day, a yearly japanese classic car event on the place of the restored brewery. (Steam beer is great there! You have to taste that !)

I made some shots, which I already uploaded to my website:



Cheers,

Daniel

[MrHijet]

doh! I am having some stress regarding the engine parts from Japan. The JapanPost-Office rejected to send the parcel, as the inventory is an "internal combustion engine" and could include gasoline/petrol.

Now I am trying to explain my japan friends to explain the (very conservative) post officers that there is no gasoline inside as the parts are seperated and that it's not a complete engine, but single parts.

It's kinda tough that they reject it now, when the parcel was already 6 week on tour

Daniel

[MrHijet]

Friday is a public Holiday in Germany. My girlfriend will be on a kite surf camp from thursday to sunday in the netherlands, so I have plenty of time to work

I will try to complete the engine transplant of a friends Daihatsu Charade GTTI. We have prepared the chassis in the last half year and last weekend we built in the gearbox and mechanical engine already. Now we have to complete the cabling, tubings and so on.

I hope I will find the additional time to built in my new uprated braking system in my Hijet or if a friend from a neighbor city find some time, I will rebuild my other Daihatsu Cuore from carburation to electronic fuel injection. I also arranged a JDM-only (Japan domestic market) speedo/tacho meter, which does not only look nicer, but has a huge rev meter in the center. Additional (and the real reason for buying this meter instrument) is that this meter include a EFI compatible speed sensor, which I can use to feed the ECU.

Sounds like a lot of fun

Cheers,

Daniel

[MrHijet]

[color=#000000]As I expected, I had to drop some of my planned jobs.

No car photography shootings due to bad weather and also I had no time for the Hijet. No time for the carb -> EFI conversion at the Cuore.

At least the Charade GTTI is ready to get the T

[MrHijet]

[Tony]

Yeah, just call them "spare parts" or "tool samples". That explains the weight, and has worked for me in the past.

[MrHijet]

"car parts" was fine too and it is still a true declaration.

Daniel

[MrHijet]

Finally (and quicker than expected) I received my engine parts from the customs office

I am really happy to see everything in one piece. Tonight I will inspect the parts more deeply (I had to drive directly to my office to work).

I hope my girlfriend won't kill me, when I will inspect the parts ... in our living room

Cheers,

Daniel *todayisagoodday*

[MrHijet]

After I had arrange some imports from Japan for four friends, I finally received my first engine parts

I also ordered a standard exhaust manifold from a normal aspiration engine, so that I build up a "complete" engine, test run it and then optimize step by step.




Here is one of the three little rod and pistons. I am happy to see that it was a good idea to get a whole engine instead of just a cylinder head.
The piston has a dome to raise compression.:




Now to the cylinder head. Please don't mind the used and oily condition. The head on the following picture just catched european air for around 5 minutes. I will disassemble and clean all parts ofcourse.

Intake side:


Exhaust side: Check out the tiny spark plug connections. The sparkplugs are specially made for this engine. The sparkplugs are very thin and extended to fit into the head. The head consists of 6 exhaust channels.


A view into the combustion chamber: It's a nearly perfect position for a spark plug which is screwed in from the side.


A view from above. as you see it's a single OHC concept. It has the two exhaust rockers per cylinder and one combined rocker from one cam lobe to two intake valves. (Sorry again for the messy head):


Just remember, we are talking about an engine of 40 cu in ( 0,66 liter )

Cheers,

Daniel

PS: Just the intake manifold is still missing. I am quite happy to see most parts in good shape. (Time to complete the flowbench)