I am in BC Canada, anyone know where I can get a 4 cyl 660cc Subaru Sambar engine for a decent price?? I was told the crankshaft is not hardened properly on All Sambars so you need a rebuild kit for $3500 CAD to fix the issue! Holy Hell! I can do a Electric swap for that money and have a guaranteed reliable motor! Has anyone done or know of anyone that has put a ATV engine in one of these? something between a 500-750cc? I am thinking like.. Kawasaki Brute Force, Honda Foreman 500, Can-Am Outlander v-twin 750cc etc. Looking for ideas in either direction! Finding a motor or putting in a different one!
You can get completely rebuilt engines from Yokohama for about $2500 USD including shipping. Who said that the crank was not hardened properly? This is the first time I have heard that one...
Welcome aboard. Please go to the blue field near the top of the page, follow the blue link, and fill out your signature page with the information on your truck. It helps with giving you better advice. Still may not be good advice, but it will probably be better than random shots in the dark. That said: There was a thread about five years back from a guy, down in Florida, who installed a flat six out of a shaft drive big bike, in the van his wife drove. He said it was far more capable of keeping up on the freeway, afterwards. The Subies may be harder than some of the others to do engine swaps in. If I am right the rear axle is a transaxle, with a drive shaft output to the front axle. So, you are going to have to figure out how to adapt a different engine to the bell housing on the Subie, or figure out how to mount the engine and transmission from something else, and how to get some other rear axle in their as well. I’m thinking the rebuilt engines out of Japan are a better bet cost wise, unless you have way more experience than most folks on turning wrenches, and fabricating things. Unless you already own welders etc., and have that skill set which will allow you to do it yourself, it will cost you more to do the swap than get the rebuilt engine from Japan, and install it.
Rocky Mountain imports in Victoria BC, if you call them up he has a whole sales pitch on how these engines were designed with not proper hardening so they "ALL" Experience the "rod knock" but if you get the new updated Crankshaft then it is properly hardened and this issue goes away.
I'm currently getting my engine rebuilt for the same rod knock issues. It was around $400 in parts and $350 in machine shop work to rebuild the lower end. The biggest problem is finding someone with tooling small enough to do the required work. I've never heard of this hardening issue before.
Yea, I really question that. If there were a "known issue" with "all" Sambars.. I am positive it would be common knowledge.. not just a sales pitch from one random reseller in Canada.
man you are in Canada...... why wouldnt you just get a snowmobile engine? several good swaps posted here on the site. you can get a BIG power boost & save some $$$.
With the subaru engine in the back and using a transaxle it makes any swap WAY harder. So just swapping in a snowmobile engine is not straight forward. One option would be to put in an independent rear diff from like a justy, impreza etc and put the motor under the bed. That would make hooking up to the cv axles pretty straight forward. You'd need to fab mounting for the diff and engine. You could also try adapting some small engine to the existing transaxle. That would take some pretty precise machined adapter plates, flywheel and bits to work. Any of that done right is several hundred hours of fab work and thousands of dollars. Like I had posted before a bottom end rebuild can be done for under $1k.
