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[wmschaefer]

Handle:
WmSchaefer

Location:
Portland, OR (USA)

Tercel(s):
1983 Tercel SR5 4WD Wagon (White)





At some point in the last five years, I became obsessed with the Tercel SR5 Wagon. During this time, my girlfriend (now Wife) and I were not in a financial position to own a second car, nor did we have a great need for one.
After moving back to our hometown (Portland) and finding new jobs that were now miles from our home, I had been borrowing others cars to commute to work which is stressful for me and their respective owners.

In May my brother found a Craigslist post from middle-aged woman who had owned the car since the late '80s. She had to stop driving it as it began making quite a bit of noise and smoking heavily, resulting in it being unable to pass emissions tests. After contacting her and receiving the address of the car, I drove by three, four times in an afternoon -- It had to be mine. I drove to my wife's work to tell her we needed to buy it.

The next morning we met with the woman, my wife was insisting that I not grin like a maniac when we approached. It was clear that the owner loved the car -- she had recorded all repairs and maintenance made to the car in her Owner's Manual.
She gave it to me for a song (550USD), along with a trunk full of replacement lights, wipers, and a set of chains. I'm sure it was the smile on my face that let her part with the car for so little.

Now the details,

The interior is almost completely intact & pristine minus the driver side windshield pillar, heavily worn (Leather?) shift boots and repaired sun visors. The body is mostly untouched aside from a small dent in the driver side quarter panel, worn decals, minor rust streaks and wax stains on plastic body accessories.

Last weekend I finally got a hold of an engine hoist and with my brother's guidance, removed the engine. It turns out that the 3rd cylinder's piston skirt broke away -- I'm lucky that the piston hadn't disintegrated and thrown a rod.

The current project:
Over bore cylinders & purchase a set of oversize pistons.
Clean & paint engine (Yellow?)
Paint car (Tan?)
Sew new shift/brake boots and sun visors. (Olive Drab Cordura.)

I look forward to sharing my project with all of you.

-Will

[splatterdog]

Welcome!

It seems #3 is the weak link in our engines. Both my "new" 85's came with problems there. First one the rod was thrown out. Latest one is knocking and goes away when the plug wire is pulled. Was supposes to only need a clutch, but it was free!

The previous owners attitude is not surprising. You would have a very hard time finding a current/former T4wd owner who didn't love their car. Hopefully your wife's on board. At least you are past the first date! With some people, the coolness of the T4 takes a while to sink in...

[Petros]

Welcome to the list.

My first Tercel4wd, a 1983, had the same problem with the piston skirt. When I pulled the head the piston top would flap back and forth about 30 degress, and it still ran!

Since these are so underpowered I went to 1mm (0.040") overbore and used flat top pistons from Sealed Power. I suggest replacing the exhaust valves since they can be a problem too, the intakes can be reground, and take about 0.020 off the head to resurface it. When the head is apart you can also open up and clean out the ports to improve performance. I also got a performance regrind cam from Delta Cams in Tacoma WA (only about $60 exchange). I also lightened the flywheel (the stock one is WAY too heavy) and had everything balanced. With these mods the engine has noticeably more power, and the economy is improved slightly too.

[ARCHINSTL]

Will - Welcome to the Club! There are a LOT of very helpful folks here.
Great story - I especially liked your line about "... my wife was insisting that I not grin like a maniac..." I felt the same way when I arrived in Nashville to collect Goldie in '05, as I had owned a new '83 and never forgot it.
And you even have the luggage cover! She must have cared for it!
We do have a FSM for d/l here, if you have not noticed.
Amazing how many have survived in the PacNWST - what do the road authorities use instead of salt?
Tom M.

[tercel4wdrules]

Welcome! We are happy to have you on board...

It's interesting that you have an '83 SR5, basically the same car that ignited my interests in these cars ever since I was a little kid. Oddly as well, I too became obsessed with these little beasts. There is some special quality about these cars that just grows on you. It may be its peculiar (or is it the weird styling?) looks...

I now have grown since then and I have acquired two for myself. In the 12 year period that I have known these cars, I have come to learn so much about their weak points and about cars in general. I have also fulfilled several items on my list that I had since my father had the '83 SR5. On the top priority was driving it out in the snow, which I finally had the opportunity (a good one as well), there's a thread in the gallery forum that outlines my experience this last winter.

[Neu]

Welcome to the club.

Just to let you know, we're having a meet up in washington in august, so if you'd like to join you most definitely can. it's for the 16th and 17th i believe. There's a thread over in Meets.

[wmschaefer]

According to the ODOT website (http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap.as ... inRoadMain) they do not currently use salt on the roads during snow/ice. That being said, I'm not sure that the previous owner took the car out in such conditions (The chains that came with the car appear to be unused.)

I'd love to join you guys, and while I'll be in the area around that time, I'll be in my Wife's Kia, and I'm sure she'll have no interest in the meet.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

-Will

[toughtercel]

Guess that would be same as for Washington state too , they dont use salt as well , dont know if they use sand , got two TERCEL 4WD fron Washington very little rust and also many nice oldie cars driving around with 40 years old licence plate on thier car that are still insuranced.

[Petros]

Yes, WA uses sand on the roads. They sometimes use salt in Seattle, but only on the rare occasions when there is a lot of ice built-up (not often cold enough for that). The eastern part of the state gets more freezing weather, but they use sand, and try to clear the roads quickly.

The only time you get a lot of rust is if someone parks their car under a cedar tree. Any little nick in the paint or bare metal will rust away very rapity. Park a car under a cedar tree every day for 2-3 years, there will be few body parts worth salvaging. And we have a lot of cedar trees in western WA. You will find more rusty cars around the Puget Sound (where it does not freeze as often) than in eastern WA.

[ARCHINSTL]

Excuse my ignorance (HS & collitch Chem was a loong time ago - there were only 94 elements then...) - but does water react with cedar tree needles/leaves/fronds to produce some kind of acid?
Tom M.

[takza]

I'd think it was the difference in humidity...west of the Cascades is humid and wetter than east of the Cascades?

[toughtercel]

So that how rust came from , I bought tercel last March 2009 from BLAIN ,WA . it was rust free outside and under-neith so drove the car home ,give a good wash all the ceder tree needles off , to my weridest surprise that on top of firewall theres few small rust holes and couple other sitting areas and one at above passager door seal (2 inches of rust) are rust ,back then trying figure out because I have three of Canadian tercel are rusty but all the the firewall are in mint cond. so Mystery are solve.

[Petros]

Yes it is much wetter in Western WA, but the real culprit is near the waterfront you have salty warm air, or the Cedar tree. You can also get a lot of moss build-up, even on a car that is driven daily, it will hold moisture against the metal in lots of hard to reach places.

I think the Cedar is high in tannic acid, which is what preserves it. Just because it is "natural" does not mean it is not toxic. I do know that Cedar dust is toxic and can damage your lungs if you breath the dust while cutting or sanding Cedar. Although it preserves the wood, it kill or corrodes most things that come in contact with it. There was test a few years ago to measure the toxicity to sea life of heavy metal treated fir piers vs. "natural" cedar piers on a commercial dock. After a year they found there was more sea life living and flourishing on the treated logs than on the highly toxic cedar. So the state outlawed using treated piers, in favor of Cedar, of course.