How to get a 1980s NA 3 cylinder Daihatsu Diesel Charade stateside?
 

I am curious, I have always been interested in this paticular varient with its 100mpg and since I happen to have a street legal Daihatsu clone in my possetion that has the same motor mounting scheme, halfshafts and more as an 80's daihatsu charade, I am wondering.

how would I locate and import the whole slug?

It appears they are hard to find, except in india and are usually turbo (no need in this application)

Any ideas?

i didn't see any of those but i did see this gem:
Mahindra jeep Good condition jeep - Kochi - Cars

I have exported a lot of cars. Some to some crazy places. But, I have never imported a car from India! You need to check into what the D.O.T. has to say before you do anything. There are some cars that just can not come into the United States. Ever. Unless they are a "parts" car. If you just want to bring in a car to cut it up and use the parts out of it, that should be fairly straight forwards. But if you want to actually be able to use it on a road there, that's different.

I'd start here:
Vehicle Importation and Certification Requirements

Then look into your state's individual rules and regulations after that. Good luck!

Half cars are a very common item and cheap.

DOT does not worry me, if you want a half car they will cut it with a sawsall and send you the front half.

Main worry is locating a running example from a place I can trust tos end it, I found many on used car sites overseas but only in very odd countries, the places they should have been common they are not.

http://cars.mitula.pk/daihatsu-charade-diesel-lahore

http://olx.com.pk/karachi/cars/?t=charade+diesel

Ah well.

Briggs and Stratton manufactured the 3-cyl engine in a joint-venture with Daihatsu. Wouldn't it be enought for you to get just the engine?

For me things need to be very simple or it won't get done.

In my case the road legal vehicle I have as a shell does not have a transmission, clutch, fuel tank, radiator or most any normal gasoline or diesel components.

This means that yes, ideally I have the whole drop in replacement so I can just mount, drop and hookup.

If I get the briggs model, there are a variety of differences between it and the roadgoing motor, perhaps better, perhaps not.

But I know that I do not want to be fabbing adapter plates, motor mounts, fuel tank mounts, etc when a nearly identical foreign vehicle already has those parts ready to mount.

Get a Daihatsu with the gasser CB as the donor vehicle, the only difference from it to the CD (Diesel version) is the top end of the engine. I have already seen a handful of them in Uruguay (but unfortunately right now I can't help you bring one into the States).

I have thought of going that route anyway and just being a gasser.

Sadly though it would be almost a factor of 2 difference in fuel economy at low speeds in the shell I have.

Issue with the briggs diesel is the throttling mechanism, also I can't validate that it is identical in terms of the bell as compared to the classic stuff I can get.

Ah well.

What would be your other options? You may be aware the Diesel Daihatsu is nowadays pretty much scarce even in the markets where it was officially available...

None, I have gotten some very rare items in the past with some persistance for a fair price, you don't know unless you ask.

Cheers
Ryan