Wyo

Thanks for checking that out for me. For now I do have an extra engine and tranny for the truck sitting in the back of a parts truck that came with the one I purchased. It's been sitting for 5 years plus in an open truck box, so it should be an adventure. I made a mistake in my first post. I said 1200cc earlier, but these little 4-bangers are 660cc. I believe the 1200cc engines were only mounted in a few styles of Sambar that actually had a slightly larger body (marketed to Europe). I really don't want to mess with trying to cut and weld a hole for the engine, but I'll bet it will bolt to the transmission pretty easily. Here is what an article on Wikipedia says about these models and the Justy engine, "The Sumo shared many characteristics with the Sambar, except it had extended front and rear bumpers and a larger engine borrowed from the Subaru Justy." They didn't mention that the Sumo styled vans were also a few inches wider. Also, an extended rear bumper would allow for more engine room as I open the bumper of this truck to access half of the engine. Changing out the engine for a different one may not be a road I should tempt myself to go down right now. It would be nice to have more than 40 hp though.

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into it. Any information will help as I've only owned these trucks for about 2 weeks now.

Bought a 1993 Subaru Sambar truck with a bad motor. I was wondering if a Justy engine will go into this vehicle. My main reason for asking is, the little 1200cc Sambar motors are like $3,000. I noticed you can pick up Justy motors for around $500 and they come with 50% more horsepower. Any advice?

Hey, new to the forum here. I just purchased my first Subaru, actually pair of Subarus. I picked up a couple Subaru Sambar mini trucks from a local rancher. One has the cab wrecked and is for parts (only has about 30,000 miles on it without a title), and the second was seized up and has been sitting for over 5 years. I plan on doing quite a bit of work to the one to make it a decent trail truck and bomb around town vehicle. I did manage to un-seize the engine on the non-parts truck. It does run, but it now lets water freely flow into the oil and smokes like a grassfire. I hope it's just a head-gasket, but the former owner did drive it to the point of seizing. Luckily I have a second engine with low miles on it. We'll see how this project goes. I am quite impressed with the Subaru engineering I see in these little vehicles and hopefully I can get decent advice in this forum.