Daihatsu CB

Daihatsu's one-litre three-cylinder CB, in the Charade and the small cars around it.

It is the engine that made the three-cylinder respectable. Before it, three cylinders meant a Kei car; the CB put one in a car sold worldwide and it worked — which is a large part of why almost every small car now has three.

It is bigger than the Kei engines Daihatsu is better known for and shares nothing with the EF or KF, which have their own page here. Confusing the two is the commonest parts mistake.

A three-cylinder is inherently unbalanced, and the CB handles it with a balance shaft on some versions and not on others — so a vibration complaint needs the version established before it is investigated.

It is belt-driven. Its known items are age rather than design: perished vacuum lines, a carburettor on the earlier ones, and the belt.