newest addition to the family

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timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

newest addition to the family

Post by timothygodden »

Bought my brother his first tercel from irowiki(thank you soooo much dude) After picking it up and driving it home his exact words were: "I love it! I shouldn't but I do." A very appropriate sentiment for our 80's boxcar tercels, I think. He will be joining the forum soon. But here he is with it.
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Vienna
Advanced Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:49 am

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by Vienna »

Glad she found a good home! Was nice to meet you both.
timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by timothygodden »

This car threw a rod 1000 miles in :(
Found a replacement engine in Farmington, nm, same place I bought the car.
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Petros
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Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by Petros »

the only thing that will cause that is running it dry of motor oil. always check your fluids!
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by timothygodden »

Could've also been the quarter of a million miles on it. Anyways had a hell of a time trying to get a new engine. Wrecking yard had one in there system,grade A 112k when they pulled it out $600, took two weeks to get to me,
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and it was a 3E not a 3A, turned out to be improperly logged in the system. They said they would send me another one and I could keep the 3E. One month later of me hounding them and never receiving a return phone call, this is what they sourced me from another yard in Rhode Island, yeah right it passed a compression test.
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So I start hounding them again, this time for a refund, once again this process took a month, but they gave me a refund and let me keep the second engine as well.
During this my brother found another T4wd just down the dirt road from him.
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Needed timing components but supposedly good other than that. They wanted 1000 I got them down to 500 because there was no way for them to prove it was good other than that and they were moving soon anyways. Brother threw the timing kit I sent him on it and drove it away later that day. It is currently treating him well, sent him a bunch of new parts and gaskets I had around and he is putting all the best pieces onto it from the first one and loving every minute with it, guess we really are twins (we have always joked one of us was switched at birth) but the T4wd does not lie. Now there at three tercels in the family and only one is moving around.
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lannvouivre
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Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:18 pm
My tercel:: 2006 Pontiac Vibe
Location: Odessa, TX

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by lannvouivre »

Ew, those combustion chambers are really nasty.
But...did you try hitting it with a hammer?
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irowiki
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Posts: 3463
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:02 am
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by irowiki »

Sheesh. Was it Hwy64 or A1 you were dealing with?
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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Petros
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by Petros »

clean that head up, replace the exhaust valves and all the valve stem seals, and it should be good to go. Make sure you run it across a surface plate (granite slab) with some 400 grit wet n dry with lots of water, and it will clean up the gasket surface nicely. It will also tell you if the surface is flat, if not: keep sanding until you get a nice even sanded surface texture. See my headgasket replacement thread over in the Repair Guides section.

Buying used engines is always risky, time involved is always a big deal, if nothing else. Usually for engines this old there are no good ones available, I know the temptation: get a good running engine and drop it in on the weekend. But unfortunately, that never happens. You can buy all the parts you need for a complete overhaul from rockauto.com for about $400. and have a local machine shop over bore and hone the cylinders and perhaps regrind the valve seats. the rest you can do yourself, save yourself a lot of grief and get a completely fresh engine. I can get 100k-150k or more on a rebuild, but I am hard on my engines. the actual hard part is pulling and installing the engine, which buying a "new" questionable engine does not save you from. Once you have all the parts and the block and head machined and cleaned, the final assembly should only take a few hours, perhaps 5 your first time. consider how much time you spend going back and fourth with the engine supplier, and it was nice of them to refund your money (that is pretty rare, so good for you), and waiting for the right engine to show up.

Now you have several "core" engines you can rebuild and have ready to swap it to any of your project cars.

good luck.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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dlb
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Posts: 7305
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:03 pm
My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by dlb »

that's a crappy, crappy business they're running by telling bold-faced lies to customers like that. bad enough they're mixing up engines but saying the 3a passed a compression test with visibly blown rings, not to mention all the corrosion -- that's ridiculous. i hope you leave them a negative yelp review or something similar. let other people know what they're getting into.
timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by timothygodden »

irowiki wrote:Sheesh. Was it Hwy64 or A1 you were dealing with?
Highway 64
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irowiki
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:02 am
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by irowiki »

timothygodden wrote:
irowiki wrote:Sheesh. Was it Hwy64 or A1 you were dealing with?
Highway 64

I've had a lot of issues with them too. "Oh we have four wheels in stock that match what you need"

Get there... oh we can only find one. Maybe two. Sorry!
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by timothygodden »

Yeah not too pleased with them. Glad I got my money back but that was more me harassing them then any good business strategy. Wont do that again
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lannvouivre
Top Notch Member
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:18 pm
My tercel:: 2006 Pontiac Vibe
Location: Odessa, TX

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by lannvouivre »

Petros wrote:Buying used engines is always risky, time involved is always a big deal, if nothing else. Usually for engines this old there are no good ones available, I know the temptation: get a good running engine and drop it in on the weekend. But unfortunately, that never happens. You can buy all the parts you need for a complete overhaul from rockauto.com for about $400.
Zach wanted to swap in a used engine when I realized that the oil was full of powdered crank and rod bearings, and this is basically what I told him, although I also told him that he'd end up with a "new" engine overhauled by someone who knows what she's doing and cares about quality and all that. Getting the engine in and out is the only really hard part.

The other parts are just tedious and tense since you check clearances and keep surfaces clean, and maybe have to backtrack if you feel worried you forgot a step. Of the overhaul itself, only compressing the valve springs and installing the front and rear crank seals is hard. The only engine I've worked on that was simpler was the 1ZZ-FE from my car because the cams operate the valves directly, and not with a rocker middle-man. If you wanted to learn how to overhaul an engine, the 3A-C and 1ZZ-FE Toyota engines are the two ones I'd recommend first.
But...did you try hitting it with a hammer?
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irowiki
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:02 am
Location: Farmington, NM

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by irowiki »

The 3VZ is also pretty simple, and almost reminded me of the 3A, except for the lifters that are adjusted by shims.
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
timothygodden
Top Notch Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:45 am
My tercel:: 84 tercel 4wd sr5 lifted, modified head, delta cam, 2" exhaust
Location: seattle wa

Re: newest addition to the family

Post by timothygodden »

My brother is giving a little love to Blue Lightning as he has coined his tercel.
New water pump, oil pump, gaskets, seals, clutch kit, and a full tune up.
Plus the 250k mile tercel coined Baby Gurr (the white one we originally got from irowiki) is being stripped to donate it's suspension to Blue Lightning. Best handling stock set up I have driven .
Not sure what will happen to Baby Gurr, could end up as a rolling chassis up for grabs or as a pile of parts also up for grabs. Anyone in AZ looking for a project?
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