Daihatsu F50 Taft/Scat

[pepodest]

Hi my name is Pedro Podesta. I am from Argentina, staying in Wellington for a couple of months with a working holiday visa.
Back in Argentina I own a Daihatsu F50 (2.5 diesel) known as Taft or Scat in Argentina.
Before I left I was working on a fully rebuiling process of the vehicle, with some friends. Its quite a rare vehicle back home so I though I might take a few parts from NZ.
One of the problems we have is on the cylinder head, in which some crack were discovered. Apparently some compression pressure is lost through these cracks.
Has anyone experienced anything similar?
It is very hard to get a new one in ARG, what about NZ? can I have any luck?
We were suggested to weld the cracks... any opinions?

Thanks
Pedro

[meece4x4]

Hi there Pedro
First off Welcome to ORE and New Zealand,
Unfortunately the Scat/taft are not that common down here, it is a very lucky Daihatsu owner indeed that has a Scat hiding away in their shed, they are sort of the Holey Grail of Daihatsu's.
As for welding the head, it can be done but not advisable as there is always the possibility that the head will have hairline cracks in areas that you cant get at, have you had the head crack tested yet?/

Shipping costs are going to hurt for something as heavy as a head, so if you do manage to find one it might be a good idea to get it test here before you go to the expence of shipping a possibly cracked head back home.

Is there any other type of trucks in Argentina that you could use a doner engine from?? maybe adapt a 2.4 or 2.8 Toyota motor/box/transfercase to fit the Scat,

[pepodest]

Hi,
Thanks for the quick reply.
You are right about welding the head, I am quite worried about the result, specially because the price is very high and they can't give warranty of their work. They were in the process of testing it to check where the cracks were.
Anyway I still have the hope of finding a cylinder head some where, to replace.
If not I will have to change the engine as you say.
Cheers,
Pedro

[Jerry]

Any other similar Daihatsu motors that would fit? eg light trucks etc (Delta's etc)

1981-84, Toyota sold a rebadged Taft known as the Toyota Blizzard. Fitted with the 2.2L L-series diesel, the LD10 Blizzard featured the same optional Deluxe model fitout as the Taft.

do you have any toyota blizzards , would the 2.8 out of the Rocky/Rugger/Fourtrak fit?

staying in Wellington for a couple of months with a working holiday visa.

You are more than welcome to join us on any trips we have going when you are over here, when are you coming over?, plenty of spare seats usually.