Hello, as you all might have noticed I did a K3 swap recently. I asked some things and posted some pictures here and there on the livetodai facebook page but I guesss it needs a proper thread to show some stuff in detail for people wanting to do it in the future. I guess information is key, even though a lot has been written about it new threads like this are always welcome to provide extra pictures and such…
Anyway, lets start from the beginning. A couple of weeks ago I started stripping the car for more access, removing the entire front section. Even though it might not be neccesary it gives more room to breath and work around the car .
Of course the old engine had to come out first. I was smart enough to remove most of the l700 suspension to make extra room to manoeuvre the old engine around, I lowered the car on some old steel wheels and unbolted the four subframe bolts. Then I jacked up the car and voila the 3 cyl engine is out! I was smart enough to put the K3 on a wooden dolley which made it easy to swap the new engine in.
Before the K3 went in I took some time to repair some rust and paint it. Last pic shows the right chassis leg which I hammered a small section about a cm or two in to give the alternator pulley some extra clearance. Makes life a bit easier when changing an acc belt when the time comes.
Most of you might want to keep or build in the power steering of the sirion but I went with the old manual rack from the l700. To do this remove the tensioner pulley and belt. Use the alternator tensioner bracket from the l700 and get a 78cm long belt to fit it on. Make it yourself easy and tension it properly beforehand.
Also to keep the manual rack you need the brackets from the power steering rack pictured on the left, they are a tad longer than the l700 ones otherwise it won’t fit.
Fitting the suspension again, took my time to check for any kind of play. Considering the entire front and rear is packed with new stuff (shocks/springs/control arms/balljoints/bushings etc.) there shouldn’t be any. Not pictured but for the sway bar I opted to get my hands on a copen front sway bar to prevent balljoint bind and keep the correct tracking and camber. To summarize it if you want the l700 tracking width and camber settings you need to keep your l700 cv’s, control arms, shocks and springs, hub carrier and a copen or modified sirion sway bar.
I did some test runs and visited a allignment shop to check for deviation and it was still bang on!
Next was the loom swap, to make it yourself a whole lot easier just swap the complete loom solder the rear part together, the wire colours for the rear and the sirion are the same, the remaining colours that remained were for electric windows and central locking for the rear doors from the sirion. I just unpinned these.!
The sirion fan resistor pack is pictured above on the right.
Remember to switch the fan resistor pack from the l700 for the sirion one, this lets you keep the sirion fan controls and prevents extra effort to wire the l700 fan controls into the new loom.
After putting everything back together I noticed the throttle cable being too long, so I shortened the cable and soldered a new cable end that I made from brass stock 6mm in diameter and 12mm long. Works fine now.
For the exhaust I kept the stock sirion one, the endpiece that goes over the rear axle is only a bit longer than the l700 one, so I went to see a mate that shortened the pipe and rewelded the stainless tip onto it.
Excelent writeup, with all the pictures it really looks as straightforward as a swap can be. Also congrats on such a clean looking L7.
Would you happen to know if the Copen swaybar is thicker than the sirion unit? Still I’m sure it’s an improvement over the Cuore’s one.
Also i’m curious if one could use the Sirion power steering rack- logic tells me both (PS equipped) could be the same except for the tie rod lenght? Could be depowered and will give you a bit quicker steering.
Thanks Eddy, alot of effort has been put into the car to make it look this good. The copen sway bar is around 23/24mm and the sirion one is 22mm? I believe. Bolts right on. Makes so much difference compared to the stock one, makes the car feel more planted on the front end. I guess you could depower the PS rack from the sirion to have a faster turn in lock to lock, I just kept the stock rack because I overhauled it some time ago(new tie rods and ends and a proper allignment). To propely use the sirion rack it needs l700 tie rods?
Ah nice mate! My swap is almost done, i just have to tidy up the cables under the dash.
How did the “rdw keuring” go? Do they check the whole car or just the engine? I cant seem to get good info, called them twice and got different answers.
They check for the structural parts of the car, these need to be rust free. They check the mounting of the engine, the brakes and the steering. If all these previously mentioned things are good you shouldn’t worry about it.
The RDW technically speaking isn’t required to check if an engine is supposed to be in a certain car, that is your responsibility to mention the correct details when getting an inspection done. So go figure if think you can do it cleanly enough so they won’t notice(and they won’t because of the rarity of Daihatsus getting swapped) or want to do it the legal way. I won’t blame you not telling it. The RDW isn’t as strict as the TUV or Australia Engineering certificate stuff.
I get your point of the picture but remember, in case of an acident they will check your car and you wont be insured. Same goes for random police checks.
Also i do the APK myself and if i get checked (steekproef) the guy will count the cylinders and find that the engine is swapped. If this happends ill get sued for fraud and my company and i cant do apks for a long time.
Thanks for your info ill stop hogging your beautiful build thread.
