I have a 1999 u62t 4x4. I wanted to do a engine swap for more torque. Im not trying to b fast, just want to pull a small car trailer with a 1,500lb Honda crx on the trailer at a good 40-45 mph. I think it would b cool to have the u62t pulling my car to the local track. I wanted to stick with the stock 4x4 transmission, but not sure how much hp, or torque it would hold. I'm not even sure if the stock 4x4 tranny is capable of pulling a small car trailer, and car. I was going to do a bell housing conversion plate mounted to a engine, but I'm not sure what engine to go with? I wanted to stick with Mitsubishi engine, because I hate the fact of a hybrid kei. Also if I'm doing a engine swap I want one that I can find ez. I was looking at the mirage/colt engines. They seem small, looks like a minor custom modification to fit. also there's a turbo 1 that gets 180flbs of torque. Not sure if this is enough though. I also looked at the eclipse/talon 4cyl engine's. They seem more larger, and more modification to fit but it does look tempting. I know I don't want to do a 3000gt v6 engine. If I have to go that big, I mise well do a Toyota 4x4 transmission with a gm small block v8. any body think a disel engine would b better?
These vehicles were sold on quite a few different world markets and depending on what country they were destined for, they did receive different engines but I don't know if they used different trans or not. Somewhere in this forum there is a statement about most all the engines were pretty much bolt up. I know the engines were 3 & 4 cyl and I think ranged from 550 cc to about 1600cc. You might get lucky with some searching on different sites. Fred
Yeah but... You might stuff a bigger engine in but towing something that heavy you're gonna run out of brakes real soon. Hit some wet and an emergency stop, with your face as the crush zone... ow. A light utility trailer or something I can see, pulling something over twice the load rating of the truck not so much. Highly discouraged.
Maybe that... would still scare the outta me... Kei load rating @350kg so say 700 lbs. 1500lb car plus the trailer @...750lb at least? I know that's not tongue weight but if anything went wrong you'd be on the light side of the stick fo' sho'... Diesel... I always thought that'd be neat, or in a Jimny too... Problem there would be the gearing. Most of the little kei engines rev to 7~8k rpm, diesels not so much. You'd have torque up the wazoo yeah but you'd only be going about 30mph in top gear, without a lot of trans and/or rear end mods. By then it'd be cheaper just to find a Toyota Hilux or something, that'd be fun too...
Good info, I knew y'all could point me in the right direction. I always wondered why my u62t needed to rev high. BLooks like it's best just to keep this one the way it is, and buy a broken one and start from scratch, strip it down to the frame, strengthen frame, and find a whole new drive line and engine, new suspension and upgrade the brakes! Complete custom build! B b Ok there is a 1993 mini cab 4x4 with a blown engine for 1000 in my area. I'll go with that instead. I'll start another thread when I get it, with a donor 4x4 mid size truck, I think I might go with the old Toyota because it has the4x4, 5 speed ,with hi/low, and they make a v8 conversion bell housing for it. If y'all was going completely custom what donor truck would y'all use for compact pulling?
At one time in the past I owned a 1986 Toyota gas engine 5 spd 4X4 with hi/lo pickup. I believe it was overall one of best vehicles I have ever owned and I have owned over 60 different vehicles since the mid 50s both domestic and imports from Asia & Europe. Fred
:Nod: Hard to go wrong with Toyota... My other d/d is a '94 Hilux Surf/1KZ-TE (3L turrrbo diesel), do like. A 4-banger 'yota plant would probably stuff in there, and as mentioned all the 4x4 bits are available. V-8 I dunno... you'd probably have to mount in the bed...
Seems as if I do remember that there were conversions of the Small Block Chevvy into the Toyota pickups via an adapter plate. If I remember correctly the SBC V8 and the SBC V6 had the same pattern so you might consider the Vortec engine too. As suggested, you would have to mount the entire drive combo(engine-trans-&tc backwards in the bed and drive the axles from the wrong end. Another very reliable little engine is the Ford 2300 as used in the earlier Ranger pickups and there are probably adapters available for them too, or the entire driveline. Just food for thought. Fred
I've got a Ford "Lima 2.3" aka pinto motor in my garage for my mini. It's taller than any diagrams I found gave it credit for. I'm not sure how much headroom you have in the dihatsu but my Mitsu motor is about 18-19" tall and I only have room for maybe 22" total while maintaining ground clearance without modifying the cab floor. I was pretty sure I'd seen the 2.3 diagramed at 22" tall but it's closer to 26. I'd have gone down that road - probably shortening the oil pan sump and pickup 2-3" - but the transmission, while small itself, has like a 2' long output shaft! I haven't torn into that to see how I can shorten it, but I'd have about a negative 6" driveshaft length without shortening the trans or moving the rear axle back. I'm locked to a 3 speed without direct drive in my current Mits trans, so I need the full swap. I'm going to look at a complete Samurai this weekend to see if that'll be a better fit. I've also got a 1.9 TDI and Toyota 5sp and transfer case but I know that'll be WAY too long, and will have far more power than I'll ever need in the mini. Planning to put those in something bigger.
Samurai was a very good little vehicle and could fill the bill for you. I've had a couple of them over the years and they are a reliable setup. A lot of rockcrawlers & hill climbers use them for a base vehicle. Fred
