Daihatsu A-series engine

The Daihatsu A-series engine is a range of compact two-cylinder internal combustion piston engines, designed by Daihatsu with the aid of their owner Toyota. Petrol-driven, it has cast iron engine blocks and aluminum cylinder heads, which are of a single overhead cam lean burn design with belt-driven camshafts. The head design was called "TGP lean-burn", for "Turbulence Generating Pot".[1] The engine also had twin balancing shafts, which provided smoothness equivalent to that of a traditional four-cylinder engine - although it also cost nearly as much to build.[2]

The engine was developed with some haste in order to replace the two-stroke "ZM" engines used in Daihatsu's earlier Kei cars, and was the first unit to take full advantage of the new 550 cc displacement limit in effect from 1 January 1976. It was first presented in May 1976 as the AB10.[3] Eventually, even a turbocharged version was produced.[4] The engine was replaced by the three-cylinder EB-series in 1985.[5]

  1. ^ Yamaguchi, Jack K. (1977), "The Year of the Third Power", World Cars 1977, Pelham, NY: The Automobile Club of Italy/Herald Books: 56–57, ISBN 0-910714-09-6
  2. ^ Ferrari, Alessandro (September 1984). "Due cilindri che sembrano quattro" [Two cylinders which feel like four]. Quattroruote (in Italian). 29 (347). Milan, Italy: Editoriale Domus: 71.
  3. ^ Baobab Street, Enjoy, p. 130
  4. ^ Baobab Street, Enjoy, p. 133
  5. ^ Büschi, Hans-Ulrich, ed. (1987-03-05). Automobil Revue 1987 (in German and French). Vol. 82. Berne, Switzerland: Hallwag AG. p. 240. ISBN 3-444-00458-3.