I might be able to borrow an engine stand, and if not, I’ll just put it on a pallet and just see how things go. I managed to borrow a crane, which is already a massive help!
The idea is to lower the subframe from the YRV, and build everything on or around that subframe, so maybe the subframe becomes the engine stand at a certain point.
The Lexus is from a friend of mine, who also owns a Cuore 
. I’ll tell him you like his car 
As I mentioned before, I bought the YRV as a donor car for my project, which means I had to do some serious weight reduction (bro). So, I started by simply removing the entire interior and some body panels.
BODY AND INTERIOR
Stripping the interior and outside was fairly easy. The only two obstacles were the fenders and front bumper. Daihatsu’s tend to rust (surprise), especially near/in/on the sills. This often means that the lower bolt on the fenders is nearly impossible to remove. “Luckily” for me, the fender was in such a bad condition, I was able to just yank it off.
The first issue with the front bumper was that I just didn’t know how to take it off. Daihatsu manuals can be a bit vague, and I’d never worked on a YRV before. After undoing about a thousand bolts and screws (give or take), I was able to take it off. The second issue was the licence plate. The flathead bolt holding the license plate was completely stuck, and it definitely took the most amount of time (and 1 drill bit, RIP) to undo. Oh well, if that’s all…
SUBFRAME
The biggest (literally) reason why I bought this car, was the subframe and all the bits and pieces attached to it. Getting it out by myself wasn’t really an option, but luckily I got the help of my good friends 
. Here are a few pictures that were taken along the way:
. Hence the smile of disappointment on my face.
.
I’m hoping to get rid of the empty shell ASAP, so I can work on the engine/subframe. I already bought most of the parts I need, so it should be fairly straightforward. It won’t, but it should. Stay tuned!
nice work
Nice to see how well you document everything, even though the Daihatsu community is pretty small.
Looking forward to your posts about your engine-swap!
Will you try to supercharge or turbocharge it in the future?
Thanks for the compliment!
I’m keeping it N/A. Fitting it with any kind of charger would cost way too much money (if I were to do it properly) for my use. I think I can get it to around 120hp N/A, which will be plenty for such a light car. I don’t need it to be crazy fast, I just want it to be a fun, GTi-ish car. Every hp you convert into wheelspin, is useless anyway
Btw, the great thing about this engine torque. Although it has just 1 hp more than a K3VE2, it also has 12Nm more torque, and a much more favorable torque-curve. Since I’m not going to do any track driving, that’s perfect for me!
Awesome work! Damn I’m surprised about that rust…
After exactly one month (… and one day) of owning the YRV, I got it picked up by a local recycling center. Over the last few weeks, I’ve taken apart basically the whole car, and took every usable part there was.
I didn’t get anything for the car, but I also didn’t have to pay the man either. To be honest, I just needed it to be gone, because there was basically no more room left in the garage. We took out the subframe a week earlier, so it sat in front of the car, which took up a lot of space.
We put a little trolley under the subframe, so I was able to move it around. However, the subframe tended to tip over. One day the whole thing just tipped and shifted, so I had to remove the trolley. This meant that the subframe sat on the floor, so I couldn’t move it around. Luckily I managed to get the subframe back on the trolley today. In the most sketchy way you can imagine, that is. It involved 2 jacks (one of which came with the car), a brake disc and a pallet.
Luckily I can borrow a crane from a friend of mine, which will make life a whole lot easier! Next up: separating the engine+gearbox and subframe.
I realized I haven’t really talked about my budget yet, and I’m sure some of you are interested in a few numbers. As shown in the post above, the YRV is gone, so this seems like a good time to see where I’m at.
A few things you should know:
My budget for this build/swap is €1500. That may seem a bit ambitious, but it’s better to aim for something than to just spend a shitload of money. I’m not going to cut corners to get under €1500, because if spending more money means I can do a thorough job, I’m willing to do that. I reckon I can keep it under €2000, which is still great value considering the fact that most of the front-end will be renewed. Right now, I’ve spent around €1750. I still need to order a few parts from Japan, but apart from that, I got everything I need.
Naturally, the YRV (for which I paid €375) is also included into the budget. At first, I was going to get everything from the junkyard, since buying a donor car takes up space and effort. But then I found out how much I would have to pay on the junkyard (around €350 and still missing parts), and figured I would get more value for money by buying an entire car.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use the wiring harness from this car, which meant I still had to get one from the junkyard, which cost me an extra €100. Because of this, the donor car turned out to be the more expensive option of the two. Or so I thought…
As I said earlier, the whole idea of buying a donor car, was to get more value for money. To do so, you need to take as much usable parts as you can get. And I did. I took around €950 worth of parts of the YRV (based on what I would’ve paid at the junkyard). Sure, there are a lot of parts I wouldn’t have got if I got on a junkyard. But now, I could.
So in the end, buying the YRV was the right choice for me. Not only in terms of money, but also in terms of… effort I guess? That makes me sound lazy, but imagine having to completely strip a car (including subframe, when there’s still an engine on top) on a junkyard. That would’ve been insane. Imagine having to do that within a couple of hours with limited tools. Or having to come back the next day, drive another 2 hours, because you weren’t able to get everything done in one day. No thanks.
I’m hoping to sell a few bits here and there, but I’m learning so much from this project, that I don’t really mind if I don’t. Knowledge is priceless!
I thought I’d give you guys an update!
I’ve been quite busy lately. Since the last update, I’ve picked up a friend of mine and his engine crane, and started the proces of disassembling the K3-VE from the YRV donor. Being very similar to the 3SZ, the K3-VE (a.k.a. 2SZ-VE) is a good ‘practice engine’ in terms of (dis)assembling, which is why I wanted to take it apart entirely. Oh and I also needed a few parts, like pulleys, brackets, bolts etc. . I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but here are a few:
I did take a lot of pictures of all the hoses for the cooling system, which will definitely come in handy as the 3SZ didn’t have any hoses attached when I bought it.
The only thing left to do, is taking the head off. However, I don’t have the correct tool at the moment, so that will come later.
After fixing a torn CV boot, the car passed MOT last week. With that, and with the K3 being mostly disassembled, there is no reason not to start building!
Here you can see the ‘foundation’ of the 3SZ. First I’m going to clean and paint the subframe, and a tonne of other parts (including the ARB in the picture). I don’t have a lot of experience with painting stuff, so if anyone has any advice on what kind of paint I should use, feel free to leave a reply! Most of the parts will have to be resistant to chemicals (like petrol and oil), and a few parts need to be heat resistant (like the brackets for the engine mounts) as well.
It will take a while to paint all the bits and pieces, so it might also take a while before I post another update.
I don’t know if you plan on painting by hand, with spraycans or with an airgun/compressor but the first step is to build a spraying booth. Overspray is a bitch.
Also be aware of the temperature and moisture in the air. With the weather at this moment I wouldn’t advise on painting in an unheated garage or outside since it’s way to cold and there is way to much moisture in the air. Made that mistake once and all the stuff I painted came out horrible.
I once painted a scooter (Vespa boxer) with a certain type of spray that would protect the metal from rust and would offer a base coat (volgensmij heb ik die gekocht bij de Praxis maar was al enkele jaren terug, viel qua prijs erg mee en was mooi spul, ik kan nog wel even kijken of ik die nog kan vinden als je wilt).
You can use hammerite as a tough paint (either by spraying or with a brush (you can use thinner to make it more workable). I doesn’t really look al that good but it will seal anything so it doesn’t rust. And since noone will ever see the subframe I think that you don’t really care about the looks As a heat proof paint I’ve always used the heaterspraypaint from the action (die kachelspray, verkopen ze ook bij bouwmarkten). I believe it is resistant till 500c. But that spraypaint doesn’t really stop any rust from forming so make sure you have an anti-rust base coat.
Thanks for your reply! I was planning on painting the subframe with hammerite, so it’s good to hear the same idea from someone else. For the parts that need heat resistant paint, I was looking at this:
And yes, the weather is far from ideal! Next week should be better, but I think it’ll take a while before I cleaned and sanded everything. Hopefully the weather is better when I’m done with that.
Hier voor 3 hele euro’s! I think it’s exactly the same only with a different name on it. The Paint isn’t all that though but I’ve used it on exhausts (with not that much succes since it got allot hotter).
Primer and preparations is everything!
Op je muil, gauw!
I think it’s fine for lower temperature applications (that’s why I used this “brand” for my headlights), but in my experience, Action paint is not good enough for engine temperatures. I used the silver heat resistant paint for the heat shield on the exhaust manifold, and boi, the discoloration is real. I didn’t repaint it, because it was one of the first things I did to the car, so I kinda like the fact that it’s not perfect. However, I’d like it to turn out nice on the new engine (bits), so I’m going to look for a better brand.
Good idea. Let me know if the MoTip is working better. If you need any help with setting up a simple paint boot just let me know!
In my last post, I showed you the setup of the subframe. Since that will be literal foundation of this project, it had to be taken care of first. My plan was to paint all the metal bits (connected directly to the subframe) with Hammerite, which is a pretty tough metal paint. First up: the subframe!
I’ve spend a decent amount of time cleaning/sanding the entire subframe with wire brushes. Seeing how much filth and rust was covering my garage floor, I think it’s safe it was necessary.
After that, I gave the outside a bit of a clean, and filled the inside with cavity wax, to prevent future rust issues.
If you compare this picture to the one I showed in my last post, you’ll notice there’s a bit missing. Subframes on YRV’s and Sirions come with this extending piece of metal with holes in them. In the YRV and Sirion, these holes are used to fit the radiator. In Cuores, the radiator pops into the holes that are actually in the subframe, rather than in front of it. The problem is that that extending piece of metal sticks out way too much, making it hard to fit the bumper. So, it needed to be cut off. This was basically my first experience cutting something with an angle grinder, but I think I did a pretty decent job.
I haven’t been able to test it properly, but you do feel a difference. There’s a small difference going into corners, because it feels like it doesn’t have to roll (as much) before actually turning. Of course the car turns when you turn the steering wheel (except for when you have massive understeer), but it just feels more resistant to rolling. This all sound very obvious, but it’s hard to describe the way it feels. Also, it doesn’t roll as much when going on a highway, which is probably the biggest noticeable difference.
So there’s not a huge amount of difference (as I expected), but I think it’ll make a good difference combined with the front ARB, once that’s on.
The next step is to paint all the parts that need heat resistant paint. I still have to decide whether or not I’m going to paint the engine and gearbox as well (probably yes), but I guess you’ll see in the next update .
When everything is painted, the fun stuff begins: assembling. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m going to build on and around the subframe. So, I’ll fit the engine to the subframe and then start replacing all the parts that need replacing. Here’s a satisfying picture to show you (most of) the new parts I got over the last couple of months.
Everything on the left is drivetrain related, everything on the right is suspension or brake related. If anyone wants to know all the parts in this picture, I’ll make a list, but for now I’ll just stick to the picture.
Summer vacation is almost here, but not quite yet. School’s out in about a month/month and a half, and then I can work day after day on the project. The plan was to do the swap in July, but it depends on school whether that’s doable or not. For now, I’ll just keep working on the weekends, and we’ll see how things go.
Cool to see you’re going maximum attack on this project, hope to see you finish this soon! The documentation on this is unreal and you’re contributing a boatload of useful info to the community. I know you still have a LONG road ahead of you but I can’t wait to see this in real life.
Are you going to have it dyno’ed / remapped once you’re done??
Thanks Jeroonie, much appreciated
Tbh I think I’m pretty satisfied once I get the engine to run in the first place 
.
I’d like to do a few ‘performance’ mods without having to remap/dyno it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s not really what I’m looking for. That’s also part of the reason why I ditched the K3VET: because i’m not aiming for huge power figures. I think I’m good with the 103hp (and especially the torque) for now, but who knows… maybe I get bored and slap a supercharger on top of it 
Great work it’s great to see you prepping so much, gives me confidence that this build will be completed and rock sollid when finished.
-crashes into the first tree around the corner-
-tree explodes- 
Thanks for the compliment!
It’s been a month since my last update, and I actually wasn’t going to post a new one until everything was painted. However, because of reasons (I will come back to that later), I decided to post an update now, and another one when everything is painted. Hmmkay? Good. First up: the gearbox.
I started with the gearbox. It took several afternoons to clean and sand it entirely. A ‘pain in the butt’ is an understatement. It’s not exactly a nice flat surface and because of that, I basically had to sand the whole thing with a multitool. Oh well, in the end I managed to get it nice and clean.
I didn’t have a paint booth, and I simply didn’t have the time and space to build a proper one, so I DIY’d the hell out of it. I bought some plastic sheets, and attached them to the frame of my garage door. With the door closed, it’s a pretty decent sized booth, and with the door open, it’s well ventilated too. Time for some paint!
Both the engine and gearbox will be painted with the same heat resistant silver paint. I did a few layers of paint on the gearbox, and I’m pretty happy with the result. It’s definitely not perfect, but I’m aiming for decent and doable.
After painting the gearbox, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to paint the engine with what was left of the silver paint, so i decided to order some more, and paint the brackets (and more) with black heat resistant paint in the meantime.
Black brackets. One of the ‘and more’ bits, was the oilfilterhousing. But since the housing from the 3SZ is different to the one from the YRV’s K3 (from which I will be using the brackets for the engine mounts), I wanted to do a testfit. Guess what?
Yes, the oilfilterhousing-thingy clears the bracket (only just), but unless I decide to ditch the front engine mount, it wouldn’t work. So, I’d have to use the unit from the K3, so I put them next to each other to do a comparison. Which went well.
Straight away you can see the problem: the off-center hole (for oil return), is on opposite sides of each other. At this point, I had a new plan:
I can’t fab anything, so for the first time this project, I got to a dead end. After handling the situation very well (some tools may or may not have been thrown around the garage), I decided to compare the fronts of the 3SZ and K3 (where the housings bolt onto). And guess what? The hole for the oil return was on the same side.
w h a t
I took another look at the K3 housing, and then it hit me
The oil is coming out through that hole on the right, goes around that circle to the other side, on where it can flow into the engine block. (Sorry for the poor explanation). I was happy I figured it out, but I sure hoped that the designer of this bit, was having a bad day. I don’t even understand why it was designed like this in the first place, because as you can see, the 3SZ housing has the hole on the correct side. And as far as I can work out, I don’t see any (potential) clearance issues.
Oh well, I figured it out, so let’s get back to sanding.
Again, very tedious, but also quite satisfying. Time for paint!
Decent result, happy me! I later found out that I didn’t actually cover everything all that well, but I ran out of paint so I have to do a touch-up later.
I had an extra day off, and I wanted to spend my time well. I challenged myself to take the oil pan off the engine, sand it, clean it and paint it, all in one afternoon. Luckily, the oil pan doesn’t have as many nooks and crannies as the gearbox, so I got it done.
As I’ve mentioned before, summer break is nearly here, and I’ve been looking forward to that moment for weeks. I feel exhausted, and just want to lock myself up in the garage and work on the 3SZ.
When I ordered the paint I was talking about, I instantly got an email, saying that they didn’t have any paint left, which would cause a delay. Now, that didn’t have to be a problem, since I placed my order on the 29th of June, and would resume working on the engine on the 3rd of July, so I had some extra time. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the paint in time, so I couldn’t really do anything that weekend. I tried to do a few small jobs here and there, but I planned everything to be done in a certain order, so work got put to a hold pretty quickly.
I got my first vaccine on Sunday the 4th of July, and I’m not here to start a discussion about COVID or anything, but I just felt a bit off on Monday, so after an hour of sanding, I just went home and got to bed.
On Tuesday, me and my 2 friends/classmates had planned to work all day long, to finish our schoolproject (a crosskart). While I was working, I got a message from a friend from high school.
A friend of ours got into cardiac arrest, and she’d passed away. Even though I didn’t see her that often anymore, she was still one of the best friends I’ve ever had. Today I had to say goodbye to my 21(!) year old friend, and I can honestly say that it was one of the shittiest days of my life so far.
This week has been quite rough, to say the least, and it’s going to take some time to process all this. I’m sorry this was a bit non-car related, but I just wanted to give you guys an update on what has happened in the last month. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up work on the engine soon, and show you the result of all the painting I did. Stay tuned!
