New guy here

[alex16]

Hello everyone! I am a very long term classic Toyota enthusiast. I am very familiar with the 3AC from working with ae86 4ac's . I have cam'ed, weber'ed, port'ed, and other misc to 4ac's for more power. I currently own a 86 Toyota Pickup and a 92 Paseo (newer tercels cool brother).


I found her off of craigslist a while back and I finally got some money paid back to me expectantly that gave me the extra cash to buy this tercel. It has a insane amount of miles (261,000) but I have no fear, its very smooth and idles almost perfect. I can tell the condition of a car and this one is nice. I've been a long term wimp when it comes to mud and off roading. I've always been interested in off roading but the colossal amount of times I've gotten stuck has made me afraid. I took the tercel out last night to a few mud spots and incline/decline areas where cars should not be driving. I couldn't make it up any of the slick hills at a angle without a looooot of momentum, but with 4wd it spun up the hill with ease. I started mudding in 2wd and it would be quick going in but would barley make it out. I did a big no no and I stopped in the middle of the mud. I tried to take off like normal and there I was stuck. Put it in 4wd and it slowly started moving forward but it quickly became faster and then out of the mud. I then tried the same thing yet in 4wd the whole time. I stopped and started back again and it had no hesitation (both front and rear tires were spinning) and it made it right out. I also had fun with the inclinometer I got to 20 degrees very slow creeping in EL gear. It was crazy and a lot of fun. The 4wd would not disengage when I was checking the car out with the previous owner but not that I have used it a few times it gets easier and easier. I can finally disengage while driving normal. The cargo space is unlimited compared to the Paseo. The power is fair, although I expected much much worst out of the 1.5L. The torque is right on the dot and provides a nice low end power band. The a/c works which is also a plus! I can't wait to find ways to increase the stiffness and the ride height slightly. I'm about to be moving into another house and this car will prove to be sooo helpful, especially since it already has a hitch for my 4x6 trailer.

[alex16]

A few pictures to hold you off for now.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the CLub!
Thanks for the pix - while I think we're already pretty familiar with the smooth lines of a T4Wd, it never hurts to see another!
I'd think your AC-engine familiarity will come in handy for all of us...ever experience trouble with hot restarts?...Goldie has been visiting that on me recently.
Tom M.

[takza]

These are GOOD all purpose vehicles....can't beat the combination...decent mpg...4x4...room to carry stuff. If you adjust your timing to just under ping...you will see more torque.

They probably don't impress too many people who see them...they impress me at the gas pump though.

[alex16]

The hard starting is vapor lock most likely. My Tercel does it hit or miss. Pretty much you press a little on the gas petal to fire her back up. Toyota had solved this problem but I believe the device they used is not working anymore. My stock 4ac with a re manufactured carb also started up like a fuel injected engine, hot or cold. The fuel pump on the block is what normally heats up the fuel causing the vapor lock process on most engines. In most cases an electric fuel pump solves the problem but I do not trust any electric fuel pump for anything more than a track car, with the exception for the carrier fuel pump which is a industrial pump that pumps fuel up 10 feet in the air 24/7. I've noticed no vapor lock in my early days of running a weber carb on a 4ac, but it turns out I was running a little too rich or the idle adjust screw was off. If all of the mixtures are dead on or a little lean with a mechanical fuel pump theres a very good chance you have to give your weber setup a little gas when cranking.


I've done dyno runs constantly with the weber, header, cam. The weber gives about 2-3 whp after being well tuned. A header will give 3-4hp with stock carb. Please note I tried a bolt on and dyno run with the weber without changing jets and it was less hp than stock

The thing about the 3ac/4ac is the extremely restrictive intake manifold and cylinder head. With my stock baseline hp on my 4ac around 46whp, this isn't completely stock either. This was with a 2'' catback and high flow muffler. The hp @ 6000RPM was 16-17whp.

Even with weber, header, porting work,cam,double valve springs, intake manifold porting, ect. you still will get 60-65whp.

It's not worth it plain and simple. BUT there is hope. Soon I hope to put the light on for the 4AG. Yes I said the dirty word.


The 4AG head flows pretty good, the valves can handle 7k rpm, simple head swap. The problem lies with the EFI or sidedrafts. They are both complex. Even with efi your going to need wiring harness, sensors, intake manifold off a rwd corolla, ect. I plan on finding a way to produce a intake manifold that is a simple bolt on for the 4ag that allows a weber carb. This would prove to get similar fuel economy with similar driving habits yet give you a lot more hp on the top end. You would lose some torque with the carb setup and you would have to modifiy the exhaust but the top end gain would be a way to achieve more hp without too much work or risk for damage.

[ARCHINSTL]

Well - the hard (lengthy!) restarts when hot is something totally new with Goldie; I mean, after 3+ years, this just reared its inconvenient head two weeks ago.
I'd just solved the leaky /problem GSP halfshaft situation when this happened.
The fuel pump was making a noise, so I replaced it (the now-unavailable lifetime warranty from Advance still applied), the filter (the previous AutoZone one was as flexible as a piece of TupperWare), and all associated fuel hoses: that worked just once.
Then I noticed the gas cap had no more "loose parts" inside (my term for the venting mechanism). So I replaced that and it seems to help, as apparently the tank was not venting. Seems to work, but this was just done last night.
While under working on the halfshaft, I noticed (new) fuel stains on the chassis apparently from the vapor canister: So - I'm going to remove that today, check it, and renew the hoses.

Incidentally, if you concur, I'd like to move this thread to the General section, as it's getting nuts-and-bolts, but not techy enough to move to the Repair Questions section.
Tom M.