E Komo mai!

Hi. Or, rather, Aloha! I’m Andy, and I live in the State of Hawai’i, on the Windward side of the Island of O’ahu, in a city called Kāne’ohe. I’ve lived here since the early 1990s when I first came to the Islands as a young US Marine. It has truly become my home, and I have no plans of ever leaving. It has been said that you don't choose Hawai'i, but rather, Hawai'i chooses YOU.

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Before we dig into this introduction, a few things. 

1. I swear. Quite a bit. My time in the US Marine Corps only served to help me hone my craft. If this site were a movie in the USA, it would be a strong PG-13. Then again, if you're into Subaru kei vehicles and you're driving, you're at least 16 in the US. I'm ok with that. 

2. I tend to write in a verbose style. I am a big fan of "stream of consciousness" writing, wherein I don't censor the thoughts that are coming out, I just vomit them onto what ever medium I'm writing on. 

 

Ever since I started driving in the late 1980s (gasp), I have had a “thing” for small cars. I owned a 1985 and a 1986 Honda CRX (first gen, best gen - neither was the Si model, boo!). I’ve owned more than a handful of Classic Minis, as well as a good number of new MINI. Now I own three Subaru Sambars, a 4x4 5MT Dias Classic Van (KV4-57N), a 2WD ECVT Dias Classic Van with a factory installed hydraulic wheelchair lift (KV3-5RC), and a 2WD 5MT Super Deluxe Classic pickup (KS3-3UM). (The ECVT one is being fixed up for sale, as we’ve not got a use for the wheelchair lift anymore. I really hope I can find a buyer that will benefit from it!)

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Oh, did I mention that I’m 6’6” (198 cm) and 300 lbs (136 kg)? Definitely gorilla-sized. “Why don’t you have a big truck?” they say… I’ve got one. I just don’t like driving it because it gets like 13 MPG and is a giant pain to park. Besides, my Kei truck can easily do at least 80% of what my full size truck can do!

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Just in case you were wondering, this is what I look like in the truck. I’ve got maybe 1.5 - 2” (38 mm - 50 mm)  of headroom, and my knees are probably 1 - 1.5” (25 mm - 38 mm) from the dashboard. When people ask, “Will I fit in a Kei Truck / Van?” I say, “Yes. I can fit.  There’s plenty of room!”

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Why am I doing all this, you ask? One reason is that I want to keep a record of my journey with the KS3 and KV4. (They really do deserve names!) The next thought is that I would love to provide what I think is a good collection of resources for the Subaru Kei owner with the EN07 engine. Are there other places that do similar? Yeah, to varying degrees. Lots of the “good stuff” is probably posted on sites in Japan, which doesn’t help me as I neither read nor speak Japanese. Another reason is that I want to do something to help the community. If I can do things / figure them out to solve my issues, then I want to share that knowledge with others so that when and if they have a similar question or situation, they can say, “ah! I just have to do x, y, z!” Trust me, If I can do it, so can the average human. I am a crayon-eating former Marine after all.

 

Gatekeeping in a hobby is unacceptable, and stupid. If you want your particular hobby to survive, you need to help people, and welcome new members! Nobody gives a shit how much you know (and don't share), nor "how much you've forgotten." There's a reason why I don't associate with the British Car Club out here anymore...

 

The final reason, and this is a big one, is that it absolutely infuriates me when people are greedy. There is most certainly a way to provide services & products, make a fair profit, and NOT gouge people. The cost of everything is just going up these days, and we as responsible humans have an obligation to stop that nonsense where we can.
 

​​I never learned to “wrench” from my late father or anyone else when I was young, so I was intimidated / anxious about working on cars. Within the last 20 years though. I’ve done lots of random stuff, up to and including a full engine (EJ205, 222hp), transmission, and suspension swap from one vehicle (a wrecked 2002 Subaru WRX wagon) to another (a 1999 Subaru Impreza “L” sedan with the EJ223, a non-turbo H4 with like137hp .) The sedan was a good 600lbs lighter right off the bat. Fun car! That conversion was done with heavy, heavy assistance from a friend, Dave. He is way more skilled than I with a wrench, electrical harness, or stereo system. Luckily I can follow directions. Most of the time. I would like to report that the vehicle still exists, and lives life as a SCCA Rallycross vehicle! It uh...may have undergone a rebuild after some thrashing, but I was told "we did a good job" with the swap!

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...Then came the “dark period.” I didn’t want to work on cars. I just wanted to get in and go where I needed to go. Existing vehicles suffered. Maintenance was brushed off. I started to see cars as just an “A” to “B” tool, not the fun things I had known previously! Thankfully, the dawn is breaking on a new era. I recently had to do a bunch of work to the KV3 (the one with the wheelchair lift), and thanks to me, YouTube, and many times my wife’s smaller hands, we got it done! I then started driving the KS3 (pickup) a lot, got a new battery for the KV4  (4x4 van), started driving that too, and realized I was having a lot of fun. Moreso, I realized that I was having fun working on cars, an outcome I was certainly not expecting.

(edit as of 17AUG2024) - I started "dailying" my KS3 back in July 2024, and oh man, does it make me happy! 5MT in a package that just makes people smile. My commute is about 15 or 20 minutes each way, and thankfully on surface streets with like five (?) stoplights. I average 30mpg!

 

So, that leads us up to the present day and why I’m going through all of this. Both my KS3 and KV4 are 5MT and have the EN07C, which is the carbureted version of the Subaru EN engine series. To go from “my” side of the island to “town side” (Honolulu) you have three realistic options, all of which involve the Ko’olau Mountain Range that divides my (East) side of the island. The roads only gain like 1,000 or 1,500 feet of elevation from sea level, but in a rather short distance. This means is that you spend a good amount of time in 4th gear (not 5th), with your foot to the floor, and you’re managing between 60 - 80 kph (just a hair over 37 mph to just under 50 mph). I haven’t installed a tachometer yet, but I’m guessing it’s at least 5,000 rpm  for that gear and speed. Most of the time you’re at the middle of that range, and that’s with just myself and my wife in the vehicle. Loaded down with a good Costco run the other day going home, all I could manage was 60 kph up the Pali Highway. That’s just not gonna work. (sigh, I really need to install the tachometer that I have and the pod to go with it...) As my friend Matt and I agree, if it's worth doing, it's worth measuring.

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My engines left the factory 27 and 29 years ago and were rated at 38.8 hp @ 6,500 rpm (redline is 7k), and 39 lb/ft of torque at 3,500 rpm. On a flat surface in “city” driving I have no problems keeping up with traffic. Unfortunately, there are a decent number of hills out here! My thinking is that if I can just eek out a moderate increase in hp / torque from the EN07C that it would make the uphill quality of life so much better.

 

Subaru made a Supercharged and fuel injected version of the EN07, specifically the EN07W, which was single-point fuel injected (57 hp, 53 lb/ft of torque), and the EN07Y, which was multi-point fuel injected (57 hp, 54 lb/ft of torque). Neither of these engine variants had an intercooler, and neither were offered, to my knowledge, on my beloved “Classic” editions. 

 

So at the moment, we’re kinda stuck. There weren’t exactly a bunch of aftermarket “go fast” parts for these 658cc engines. How am I going to get more power? More importantly, how am I going to do that and *not* grenade an engine?

 

…and thus, Projekt-EN07 was born.