What happens when a backyard builder stuffs a mini excavator engine into a Honda Insight?
He gets plenty of pickup and shockingly high fuel economy.
But YouTuber Robot Cantina says he doesn’t do these Frankenstein engine swaps for the sake of sustainability – it’s purely for fun and to see just how fast he can get a car to go.
Back in its heyday, the Insight was one of the most fuel-efficient cars sold in North America. Robot Cantina picked the model for the engine swap due to its ultra-lightweight and aerodynamic design.
Today, his 25-year-old diesel-swapped Honda Insight with 273,000 miles is powered by a 20-horsepower Kubota D722 engine, a common model for 2-ton mini excavators and other compact construction equipment. It is equipped with a five-speed manual transmission, a standard automotive clutch and an RHB31 turbo.
To see how the new engine performed, the YouTuber tested the diesel Insight and the original gasoline-electric hybrid on a 60-mile route under identical conditions in rural Kansas.
The result? The Kubota Franken-car got 70.1 mpg and the stock Insight got 62.7 mpg. So, while the turbo diesel didn’t blow the hybrid out of the water, it was still a cool experiment in automotive performance.
“Stuff like this takes time to test and improve on,” he says.
Check out Robot Cantina’s engineering oddity in the video below:
