Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
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BumblebeeII_GB
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Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:43 pm
My tercel:: 1987 Toyota Tercel Wagon 4WD. Stock for now.

Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by BumblebeeII_GB »

I just bought a 1987 4WD Tercel on 29 June 2021 in South Texas. It’s currently stock with 92,600 miles, but I plan on adding a roof rack and 14 or 15” Miata wheels. While I prefer manual transmissions, I just turned 60, had both hips replaced last year and already have early Miatas with 5-speeds. This car has the automatic. I want to use the 4WD Caribou as a camping vehicle up in the Rockies.

Is there a throttle body fuel injection conversion available for this engine? I’m familiar with the Weber 32/36 carb conversion. I’d also like to put a freer flowing (but not excessively loud) muffler on it.

Can anyone advise me on what size 14 or 15 inch tires will fit without lifting the suspension or cutting the fenders?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

P.S: The previous owner did the two-tone Rhino Liner paint job. 😄
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Kozuto_98
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My tercel:: 1987 SR5 Wagon
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by Kozuto_98 »

Hey, congrats on the purchase!

For tire sizes I've run 175/70/13 and 185/65/14 on 7th gen Civic rims (02 - 05) without needing to lift anything. I think you can get away with up to a 195 depending but don't quote me on that.

For injection stuff I think it was Chevy Tracker EFI stuff works, or you could do up something with just an injection kit as the stock ignition system on these works pretty good. You'd need to run at least a crank trigger, narrowband or wideband O2 sensor, and TPS if you were going to do TBI (I'm not sure how mission critical MAP/MAF is), and if you wanted to get fancy and do a full sequential injection you'd need a cam sensor. A good cheap ECU I've discovered is the Speeduino platform. It's very similar to Mega Squirt if you're familiar with that.
1987 Tercel Wagon SR5 4WD
1998 Honda Accord Coupe V6 J35 swap
1997 Acura CL (Sold for 4A-GE money)
RIP 2016 Civic (wrist pin recall)
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dlb
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My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by dlb »

Welcome to the forum, Bumblebee.

For bigger tires with no lift, some people on the forum have found that 195/70r14 fit without rubbing on full lock, although others have found that size does rub a little bit. You can use a tire size calculator to figure out comparable sizes in both 14" and 15" wheels.

I think one or two people have done throttle body fuel injection conversions on the 3a engine here but as I recall, those people were pioneering the entire conversion. It's not a common one, unfortunately. But do a search here for 'throttle body' and see what comes up.
aidanmahaffay
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My tercel:: 1984 Toyota Tercel sr5 4wd

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by aidanmahaffay »

Congrats on your New to you Tercel.
Today I put some 195/70r14 tires on my Tercel and have no rubbing lock to lock, only time it will rub is if the wheels are off the ground and at full lock which is rare.
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BumblebeeII_GB
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My tercel:: 1987 Toyota Tercel Wagon 4WD. Stock for now.

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by BumblebeeII_GB »

Thanks!!!
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by Petros »

welcome Bumble bee,

I have been running 195/70x14 for a decade without rubbing issues, but looking at your pictures, your springs look work and saggy. many think my Tercel4wd has been lifted, but they are all stock springs. Darn if I know why they have not sagged, it has 400k miles on them and I drive rough gravel roads daily to get home each day. if your springs have sagged, there may be rub issues with that size tire. you need to get it to at least stock ride height.
'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)
BumblebeeII_GB
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My tercel:: 1987 Toyota Tercel Wagon 4WD. Stock for now.

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by BumblebeeII_GB »

Thanks for the input. This car only has 92k miles, but the previous owner used to use it to haul bags of corn out to his deer feeders.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by Petros »

there is a thread in the archives about someone who adapted a simple TBI injection system from a Chevy sprint, or Suzuki swift. the problem is those cars have their own cult following and finding them, or their parts to salvage is difficult. a much simpler way to adapt a better set up is to install a weber, reliable and, adjustable and easy to adapt. otherwise you might consider just doing a 4age or 4afe swap, and get all the efi parts from a doner car from a wrecking yard or buy a wrecked parts car. You also eliminate the weakness of the 3ac engine, which it has many. But it would be a big job to get it all work, including a fully custom exhaust, but well worth it if you want reliable EFI.


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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simon84
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Location: Banff, Alberta, Canada

Re: Bought my 1st 4WD Tercel!

Post by simon84 »

I have a cherry bomb muffler on my tercel. It's not much of a muffler really. With no catalytic converter, I found it too loud. Now with the cat installed again, it's much better. A little louder than stock, but not enough to be annoying.
Driver: 87 Tercel SR5, white, 4ac, weber carb (aka the Tercedes)
Road Tripper:95 Mitsubishi Delica L400 2.8L Turbo Diesel
Motorbike: 94 Kawasaki Ninja ZX6
Project Car:Red 68 Plymouth Sport Fury III
Previous Tercel:Orange 84 Tercel 4wd (aka the pumpkin)
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