My Blow By

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SoCal
Newbie
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon May 14, 2018 7:28 pm
My tercel:: 1985 4WD

My Blow By

Post by SoCal »

A few months ago I went to our local pick n pull as they said they had a 1984 Tercel that came in. I went down there to retrieve the windshield, I cut it out and got it off without breaking it. I looked at the motor and it seemed really really clean so I decided to pull it. My motor had a cracked cylinder so I threw the dice I bought it for $275. I took my old motor out and installed this new motor. At first when I started it up it sounded great until I looked under the air filter and saw a mass of oil pooled on the bottom. Oh crap! I pulled off the head and it looked great, almost new. I decided to pull the whole motor again and try to install new rings. When I pulled out a piston I checked the gap between the ring ends and they were easily 1/4 inch apart after inserting into the cylinder. Somebody had put wrong rings in this motor causing horrible blow by. Bought new rings and checked them, BINGO! The ring ends had just a few millimeters between them which is within specs. I’m putting it back together now and hopefully it’ll run like a champ.
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SoCal
Newbie
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon May 14, 2018 7:28 pm
My tercel:: 1985 4WD

My Blow By

Post by SoCal »

Ive owned this for 20 years, shes a total creampuff although she has 208,000 miles
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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: My Blow By

Post by Petros »

looks like you may have over sized pistons in that engine, the wrong size ring will not just have a large gap, but will also not have the outward spring pressure on it to help it seal against the cylinder walls.

as I recall the ring gap should be something like 0.007", which is less than " a few mm", but I d0 not recall. It must be at factory spec.
'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)
xirdneh
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 2121
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:38 am
My tercel:: 87 tercel 4x4 wagon w/reringed engine, 83 tercel 4x4 wagon w/salvaged engine and 4.1 Diff's
Location: seabeck, washington, USA

Re: My Blow By

Post by xirdneh »

I hope you honed the cylinders
Love those Tercell 4x4 wagons but they sure suffer from road noise.
SoCal
Newbie
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon May 14, 2018 7:28 pm
My tercel:: 1985 4WD

Re: My Blow By

Post by SoCal »

Yes I honed the cylinders, no bad scratches so this is a good block. I just found out this is a 1982 motor, I bought new rod bearings for an 85 and they are not the same. The little dent on the bearing that fits in the slot so they dont spin were backwards. The dent was on the right side instead of the left. I just had to go order new bearings for another 50 bucks :(
I guess they made revisions for the 1984 motor and flipping the bearings were part of that. I tried to look up the motor number but couldnt find any information on motor serial numbers.
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xirdneh
Highest Ranking Member
Posts: 2121
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:38 am
My tercel:: 87 tercel 4x4 wagon w/reringed engine, 83 tercel 4x4 wagon w/salvaged engine and 4.1 Diff's
Location: seabeck, washington, USA

Re: My Blow By

Post by xirdneh »

The torque on the rods is different too. One has 12mm nuts and the other 14mm
Love those Tercell 4x4 wagons but they sure suffer from road noise.
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