Honda insight with Harbor freight predator engine

[JC1]

I saw this article on my Google home page.

Honda Insight Powered By Single-Cylinder Harbor Freight Engine Actually Works

Plenty of engineering had to be done to ensure the car's new 420cc engine played nice with the Honda.

www.thedrive.com

Mods move this if it's in the wrong forum.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

OEM's should use a tiny engine like that for an EV range extender

 

[atikovi]

I'll bet the stock powertrain gets better gas mileage.

 

[PandaBear]

It would be more reliable to put a motorcycle engine in there though, or imported K car engine.

 

[atikovi]

It would be more reliable to put a motorcycle engine in there though, or imported K car engine.

From a Dodge Aries?

 

[eljefino]

OEM's should use a tiny engine like that for an EV range extender

BMW i3 has entered the chat

 

[PandaBear]

From a Dodge Aries?

No, Japan has micro-cars they called Kei cars. Maybe I should call them Kei cars engine instead.

 

[fsdork]

BMW i3 has entered the chat

If only it weren't crippled by its programming. Yes, I know it can be modded, but still. Super annoying.

 

[Zaedock]

It would be more reliable to put a motorcycle engine in there though, or imported K car engine.

Yeah, but you can't buy those with a Super Coupon.

 

[andyd]

Yeah, but you can't buy those with a Super Coupon.

It would be great to get a few performance stats

 

[555]

First, apologies for short comment lacking in specifics.
YouTube has a channel called Free Documentary which has some videos from some small, developing countries in Asia where you will see some small engines powering large vehicles(usually leftover Soviet stuff) through the gearbox. Now these are not highway worthy vehicles, but they get the job done apparently. At first I couldn't understand what I was looking at. What I thought I was seeing was a large portable gasoline powered generator(minus the generator)mounted on a small platform on the front of some fifty year old Soviet military truck. How is this possible? I assume the driver can only use the low range gears. You have to see it to believe it. I'm still thinking someone will correct me on this.

 

[Cujet]

It's good to note that such engines have very poor BSFC numbers. In fact, they are horrible.

 

[nthach]

No, Japan has micro-cars they called Kei cars. Maybe I should call them Kei cars engine instead.

The engine in the first gen Insight was a .9L I3. A bigger variant of the engine Honda uses in their kei cars. But, Honda does make a 600cc I4 used in the CBR600 as well.

 

[nthach]

It's good to note that such engines have very poor BSFC numbers. In fact, they are horrible.

Small engines are crude but only need to do one job. From what I’ve heard, Harley did poach a few Briggs & Stratton engineers way back in their formation years. No wonder why a Briggs engine almost sounds Harley-like.

The REX engine in a BMW i3 isn’t really a in-house design. It’s from Kymco in Taiwan who BMW owns a stake in.

there has been a movement to modernize small engines with EFI and tighter ignition controls. Honda’s doing it with their iGX series. Walbro was working on a small-scale EFI or feedback carb for small engines.

 

[y_p_w]

From a Dodge Aries?

I think we had one of those (might have been a Plymouth equivalent?) at my high school's driver training class. It was easy to get into driver ed classes, but the driver training classes had a long waiting list because there was only one teacher and one car. My parents paid for a commercial driver training class. Driver ed and a 6 hour driver training class were requirements for anyone in California under 18 to get a provisional (under 18) driver license.

 

[Graham Piccinini]