The long road to recovery... maybe

[SirNik83]

I've been on and off this forum a few times. I'm not very good about keeping up with forums anymore. But the last month has been a little trying with the Tercel and I've been stalking the forum to see if I'm taking the road well traveled or doing something new. I've had a few ups and downs getting the car back on the road.. again... and I thought it was time I wrote a post about it.

I tried a few years ago to get my tercel to a point where it would no longer be a car project and I could enjoy it camping and what not. I rebuilt the engine, did the weber carb and a delta cam, I re did the interior and a bunch of little things to make the car 100% again. I also rebuilt the front differential on the transmission. I wrote a post about that years ago... anyway. After driving the car for a month or so the transmission started popping out of first gear and the front seal started to leak. I was pretty discouraged and parked the car beside my house until I had the time and money to do something about it.

a few months later I found an 83 tercel in the junk yard it has been rearended (the reason for it being in the junk yard) but the rest of the car was mint! 110k on it! being broke-ish I wasn't able to pick the car clean, but I was able to afford the transmission. That sat in my shed for months. Then 3 weeks ago my friends who all wanted to see the tercel run again offered to help me for a weekend. We planed a packed weekend. pull the engine, drop the transmission, install new transmission. replace front and rear seals, and oil pan gasket, and then reinstall the engine. Somehow we pulled it all off before sundown that sunday.


before we pulled the engine


getting ready to pull the engine


engine is out!


pan is off, changing all the seals and gaskets.


bolting her all back together


BAM! engine is back in! Almost like we knew what we were doing...

My friends go home and I clean the driveway and then go for a test drive and this is what I see......


Front seal is not making a seal.... DAMN IT!!!

[irowiki]

Thankfully if it is the front main seal it is easy to get to it with the engine in the car.

Though, it might not be sealing because there's a groove worn in the crankshaft. Would need to sleeve it.

[SirNik83]

So I called my dad. Poor guy. He drove a tercel for 10 years as a commuter car, taught me all about cars by helping him maintain his tercel over those years. Then he gave it to me in high school and I bet he though he could stop thinking about repairing the tercel... but nope I'm 30 and still playing with this car, so he still gets calls when I have problems.

He tells me I need a Speedi Sleeve for the crank, because the crank is likely undersized and thats been causing my repeated front seal leaks. OK, so I ordered one of those and waited for it to come in. took a few days and then some other personal problems arose so I couldn't get back to the tercel for another week. I finally get back to the car and install the Speedi Sleeve.


Yep the front seal is leaking


getto fabulous 2 jaw puller


yep the seal is chowdered!


another extremely professional tool. seal removal tool


Speedi Sleeve and seal installed. Shes tight as a drum now!


Yeppy shes a car again!

In my excitement I decided it was time for a small road trip! My friend who had helped me with the engine a few weeks back lives about 2 hours away, so I paid him an unexpected visit in the now functioning car! He was busy working on his IH Scout in preparation for a yearly camping trip. We talked about me coming with him this year with the tercel! I then drove home. Damn good drive. Here is a picture form the drive home. It was a great day to drive around in the car.






Then it all went bad!

One of my dash lights is out or something cause when it got dark I couldn't see my temp gauge very well. I noticed I could see all of the little symbol the needle was no longer blocking the middle of the symbol. I pulled out my phone and tuned on the light to see where it was. it was 3/4 the way up the gauge and moving up!! I slowed way down. going 60 on the freeway. and the needle stabilized and stayed warm, but not in the red. I drove like this for another 2 miles to my exit for my house. I slow down for the off ramp and the needle jumps into the red!!! I pulled over and let it sit for 10 min or so until when I checked the gauge the needle was at normal. I then fired it up and drove it 2 blocks out of the 3 to my house. I killed the engine and coasted into my driveway. I looked around under the hood and every thing was hot as he!! and the fan was not on.... So I unplugged the fan switch and sure enough the fan came on. Damned $30 fan switch might have killed my engine. I don't know yet. I'm going to do a compression test after work. I sure am upset about all this. so much work only to get one good days driving out of the car before another major problem.

[drege]

I feel your pain bro, When my radiator went south I kept hearing words from posts in this forum about even slight overheating causing the head gasket to pop, I literally started the car just to floor it and get to cruising speed, cut the engine, coast till momentum was lost, wait till pressure drops and top off radiator.
Hope it survived the heatup!

[irowiki]

Another good reason to replace those burnt out cluster backlight bulbs.

[marlinh]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Was the coolant level too low? Thermostat? Usually when you are driving down the freeway ram air is enough to cool the radiator. The fan won't come on except in stop and go traffic and at lower speeds.

Let us know what you find. Love that valve cover!!

[dlb]

jeez, your saga of getting that thing on the road is incredible. don't give up on it yet, sir nik. btw, i've been wondering what you've been up to. glad you checked back in.

good work on the speedi sleeve. marlinh had a similar experience and documented the speedi sleeve installation on here. good info.

it's possible the fan switch is not working but the engine shouldn't run so hot as to need the rad fan on when driving at highway speeds at night. something else is not right. was the coolant topped up? any visible coolant leaks? thermostat, rad cap, plugged heater core, plugged rad? if it passes all those, maybe the head gasket just happened to go, which then caused it to overheat. i can't remember, did you replace the head gasket recently? if so, did you re-tighten the head bolts after 100 miles or whatever it is?

*edit* haha marlinh, you beat me to most of this.

[Petros]

I have found when a car sits for a long time the t-stat goes bad even if not driven much. I drove from Texas to Washington without a working cooling fan, you do not need it above about 20-25 mph where natual air flow is more than the fan provides.

If it went into the red zone, better keep an eye on that coolant, it might show good compression but the head gasket could still be compromised enough to slowly leak coolant into the cylinders. if you find you have to add coolant every week or so, it will just be a matter of time before it gets bad enough for it to loose all the coolant in one day. This will give you a chance to put in a new head gasket with the special modifications to make it more durable. Even though it is a big job, it can be done in one day if you have all the parts and tools ready. You might also replace the exhaust valves while you are at it, and the stem seals too if they are old.

Good luck.

[SirNik83]

Thanks Petros!
I did the compression test and its got between 140 and 145 on all cylinders with all the plugs in the engine. (taking them out one at a time to run the test.) I ran the test again without the plugs in the engine and the all fell between 160-165. I'm glad that its not dead-dead... I'm going to replace the radiator, because your right, I shouldn't need the fan with it being on the freeway. And I bought that radiator at a junk yard when I was in high school... its earned retirement. I'll also replace the thermostat. I did find a decent deal on a 4ac in my moment a panic. I think I might try and go get that. I love the little 3a engine I built, but it is easy to pull the engine, so maybe having a back up isn't a bad idea.

[Petros]

Put in a new radiator if you think it needs it, and a new t-stat, and consider the upper rad hose at a min (if not both upper and lower) if yours are old, and than drive it some more checking the coolant level every day, and than at every fill up.

The radiator can get a lot of build up, also exacerbated by having it sit for a long time.

Do not pull it apart just yet, just keep a careful eye on that coolant level. check it every fill up. If it does not change any in the next 30-45 days you might be okay.

[SirNik83]

I didn't see all y'all comments til tonight for some reason. Then again I've been a little stressed out lol.

dlb, I did re-torque the head bolts after a few heat cycles. I'm thinking the radiator is the problem. But the new one should be here in a few days.

marlinh, Thanks for the compliment on the valve cover. my sister painted it for me. It was my favorite book when I was a little kid. I can just hear the tercel saying "I think I can" when I make it climb some of those hills.

I had the water topped off after the test drive, after getting the radiator back in. I thought it was good to go when I left. I drove it all day up mountains and revv'd it up pretty good climbing the hills, and the temp was spot on. Then the highway driving back in the city is what got it hot.

I'm suppose to get the radiator in the mail on the 2nd. I've been trying to figure out how to get that 4ac home... I might just put it in the back of the tercel. Its how I got the engine for my Civic home

[irowiki]

We put a 3A into the back of our auto tercel and it did fine. If you put an engine in yours, I'd avoid 5th and maybe 4th if it is a hill.

[Gottolovem]

The 4a weighs nothing perhaps the same as a grown man!
Think of it as an extra passenger

[jimcrazy]

it will fit when mine was delevered the 4a was in the back along with a tote with the extra parts and 4 winter tires on rims

[Petros]

It will carry any four cylinder engine just fine, like having your mother in law in the back seat. Just make sure you strap it down good so it does not shift around and damage the body panels or back hatch.

I once had a Mazda 3.0 liter V-6, and an engine hoist, plus my tool kit, in the back of mine. Got it from the pick-n-pull on a half off day, rented the hoist and took it to the yard to get the engine, than brought it home up our steep gravel roads, backed it up or driveway and unloaded it. not much rear travel left, but you will have no problem at all with a 4a or even a 4age/4afe engine in your tercel.