my 1998 cushman truckster is powered by a 850cc Daihatsu

[Dan]

I made a new discovery last week at work. while replacing a clutch in an older cushman "turf truckster" utility vehicle. i noticed a Daihatsu "D" cast in to the top of the motor and after looking through all of the indstrial governors and accesories, i saw a very familiar looking engine in there... I went straight to the specs in the manual and it is actually a 850cc 3cyl carbureted daihatsu motor. its called a 327 option in the manual. (3cyl-27hp) its only rated at about 3000 rpm though. I locked down the rpm governing slides and took it for a drive... It snapped up over 6000 rpms with impressive power and probably a little more rpm's to spare. I know they changed engines a few times after they abandoned the "OMC lincoln" motors and am not sure how long they stuck with the daihatsu but thought it was worth mentioning here. I used to be involved in the golf/turf forums and saw cushmans for sale or trade often. the engines should be in decent shape if they were held back in the 3000rpm range for pto driven acessories. Most were dedicated trucks for spraying or some other low hours of operation task. I wonder how it would perform in a mini concidering the extra few hundred cc's???

[Mighty Milt]

i wonder where they get the 27HP rating from... is it the governed HP? or the 6000rpm HP? because a stock 660cc is rated at 45HP 45 ft lbs torque.

[Acerguy]

Interesting. I just emailed someone on the local Craigslist that had a Cushman HAULster. Trying to find out more info.

[Mini4WD]

I just sold a 1992 Cushman Haulster 1 Ton that had the 22hp OMC engine in it. From all the forums that I have come across, the 27HP engine is used but is not a very common engine in most Cushman Trucksters or Haulsters. There is a Yahoo Group site that is strictly dedicated to Cushman Trucks that has a ton of information if anyone is even thinking of an engine swap. Only thing is, that a Cushman in good shape with a good engine will usually sit you back a few dollars. I got $1900 for mine and it was with only the 22hp OMC engine.


http://www.minitrucktalk.com/galleries/data/500/medium/cushman_002_1_.JPG

[larryn2o]

because a stock 660cc is rated at 45HP 45 ft lbs torque.

don't mean to hijack , but can you post something that shows the horse power of this motor?

[greg0187]

My guess is that its the ED series 850cc Seen here.

http://daihatsu-ie.ingway.jp/showroom/ed/option01.html

-Greg

[greg0187]

don't mean to hijack , but can you post something that shows the horse power of this motor?

Larry,
If you were talking about Milts engine (EF Series) See here.

http://daihatsu-ie.ingway.jp/showroom/ef/option01.html

[Dan]

It's hp rating is at the governed rpm's.(3600rpm) someone just put a 660 on a dyno... i wonder what the power curve showed at 3600?

I 've had many of the old trucksters over the years at golfcourses and all of them had the omc-lincoln motors except these. when they wore out, we repowered them with bigger v-twins from briggs. they were a lot of fun with the conversions and custom exhaust. Sounded like a rowdy road bike...

[Dan]

I just looked at the performance curves that are posted in the links above and it looks like they are all in the same vicinity. probably not a significant gain in performance. maybe a couple of hp or ft#'s of torque. anyways, i thought it was interesting to see the Daihatsu stuffed in to something bred from good ol lincoln nebraska.

[Timetripper]

According to the link given @ diahatsu thats 26kw not 26 hp :rolleyes:
Also just for reference that was intermitant rating and 26 kw = 34.87 hp
Also the quoted torque of 65nm = 47.94 lb/ft @ 2800rpm

My truck on the dyno sheet had max hp of 69.6 @ 7500 but it does not give a hp for lower
rpm but it does give a average hp for the run which is 46.8 hp FWIW

[larryn2o]

Larry,
If you were talking about Milts engine (EF Series) See here.

http://daihatsu-ie.ingway.jp/showroom/ef/option01.html

I've seen a few sites list it as 31 horsepower . we forget that it's in KW and not HP. one site did say that the Midget motor was somewhat de-tuned. mine didn't have a catalytic converter in the factory exhaust . not sure if others came this way in 1996?

[Dan]

heres the page from the manual that i found for the daihatsu 850 motor.

[larryn2o]

looking at the high cranking compression and low peak RPM , i'd say that it has a really small cam. easy enough to fix!

[oldsnowman]

heres the page from the manual that i found for the daihatsu 850 motor.

hey dan...have you ever come across any info on the engine that is in my truck the 660cc 12 valve:frustration:, all the info i ever see is a 6 valve engine:confused:

[Dan]

Nope, can't say that i have. If I do, it will definately show up here though.

[oldsnowman]

Nope, can't say that i have. If I do, it will definately show up here though.

thanks...are all the mitsu's in the US 6 valve engine?

[Dan]

All of them that i have seen are just 6 valve so far.

[oldsnowman]

sweet :D i got a race truck :D just kidding. my truck does have a lot of power and is pretty fast :)

[Dan]

I want a race truck...I've been adding racing stickers to mine since i got it and i think the "MSD" sticker really helped a lot. I gained about 4000rpm's and 40 mph.:D I think i'll be adding the off-road stickers next...see if i gain any travel in the suspension.. look out baja 1000!!!:eek:

[oldsnowman]

I want a race truck...I've been adding racing stickers to mine since i got it and i think the "MSD" sticker really helped a lot. I gained about 4000rpm's and 40 mph.:D I think i'll be adding the off-road stickers next...see if i gain any travel in the suspension.. look out baja 1000!!!:eek:

i think the OFF-ROAD or BAJA stickers will really help when your in the sand:D:D
back in the day we would always say "if the part comes with a sticker its got to be good" :D:cool:

[Turfspray]

The Daihatsu engine used in the Cushman was a 47 hp at 7500rpm. It was restricted in two ways. The governor controlled the speed. It was a Cushman exclusive called a ground speed governor. It was accurate + or - 25 rpm. It kept the speed accurate for spraying, top dressing, etc. The truckster used models also had a small resticter bracket on the trottle arm that kept the carburator from opening no more than one third. This was because the rest of the drive train was only good for about thirty HP. I was in the first service school in Lincoln NE when it was introduced. I just purchased a 93 turf truckster with that engine Saturday. It is different in important ways from the On road truck and the off road truck imported in the same era. Breater, carb, intake differences make it very difficult if not practical to swap parts. The 327 was 3 cylinder 27 hp at 3600 rpm.