So we finally dropped the engine back into the car this evening.
I've had this '83 SR5 for almost a year now and only drove it the 2 miles home from the previous owners'. I'm probably about $1000 in on it now ($550 for the car, $450 in parts & labor.)
I think we should have her up and running on Saturday, I hope to post some more pictures and video.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates." Mark Twain
As we were installing the new spark plugs (SO CLOSE! ) I discovered a small drop of liquid near on the engine near the oil return pathway (?). My brother believes the head must be warped. Going to pull it tomorrow and have him take it to be milled this week.. Totally bummed out.
you had the engine apart and did not check if the head was flat before you put it back together? Learn the hard way I guess. I have done more than a few really big F***-up on my cars (I still do sometimes!). Hopefully you only make that mistake once.
Petros wrote:you had the engine apart and did not check if the head was flat before you put it back together?
...
Looks like a nice car, where are you at?
Good luck.
Yep, minor oversight on our part.
But there is good news -- I got the head back from the 'head shop' today.
They machined the gasket surface, trued the camshaft seats (not sure if this is the proper nomenclature), ground the valve seats and gave it a soothing bath.
While I had spent at least two hours scrubbing at the thing in a solvent tank, I felt my efforts were mostly wasted -- whatever they did cleared all of the discoloration and carbon build-up. It's absolutely beautiful.
It looks like I should have her up and running by the 13th.. I hope..
Yes, they likely hot tanked it (heated chemical bath), it takes everything off, even old paint. Very toxic, all kinds of regulations on having one, wish I had one....sometimes they show up on craig's list, but much too large for a home shop.
It looks nice and clean. Since it is apart have you considered putting in a Delta Cams reground performance cam shaft. They are in Tacoma WA, only $60 exchange. They deal through the mail but you can drive there from Portland and pick it up in person in only a few hours (bring your core came to trade-in). It can be changed anytime since the cam is not too difficult to remove when the engine is in the car, but since you have all apart it would be a good time to install it now.
I wasn't aware of such a cam -- right now my goal is to get my car running before the closing date on our new house, so that I can drive it there, rather than having it towed. But I will definitely keep that in mind for future projects. What sort of performance increase might one expect from such a cam?
They claim 15 hp, but I think that is wishful thinking. I have one and it can not be anywhere near that much. It is a mild performance regrind. Perfect for street, it idles normal and it does not decrease fuel economy and keeps the power band low, in the 3000-5000rpm range. I would guess it is more like 4-5 hp but I have not tested it.
Schnider cams makes a more aggressive one, I think perhaps too much for this motor, it pushes the power band way up to 6000+rpm. It also costs about $250, affects economy and it idles poorly.
Congratulations on the new house, is it your first?
Yeah, first time buyers.
I grew up in Inner-SE Portland, so making the move to North (St.Johns) is going to be different. Already spotted another Terc about 2.5 blocks from it. A good omen, I'm sure.
So we have her running, and I've been commuting to work for the last two days. A couple small concerns -- the shop manual had us set the idle at 650rpm, which we found to be incredibly low. The other issue is warm starts -- it doesn't seem to like them. I should have a video of it idling up later tonight. Any feedback would be awesome.
I have found that 650 is too low as well. I use about 800+ rpm. I think and old worn carbs allows some air leakage past the throttle shaft and elsewhere, but otherwise runs good. Have you looked for any vac leaks (which is also very likely on an old carb system), even small vac leaks will not allow it idle down, but will otherwise not affect drivablity.
All carbs I think have the warm start problem. The fuel system heat soaks after shut down, and it messes up the fuel air ratio until you get fresh air and water circulating through the manifold. Mine starts good cold, and after it has cooled a bit, about 20 min. But a hot shut down, and restart in the 5-10 min range is always troublesome. I hold the pedal all the way down and crank it until it starts, about 30 to 40 sec of cranking when it is hot like that. It is worse in summer.
Also took the pressure washer to the car today -- wanted to remove all the moss that had accumulated over the past 11mos.
It yielded mixed results --
1) Discovered that the chrome trim is not in-fact chipping, the crazy black crap that is coating the chrome is chipping away.
2) What I thought was a minor rust issue was actually a hole near the rear passenger side window that someone had cleverly painted over.
3) Pressure washer wins against decals.
wmschaefer wrote:Would a Weber alleviate the warm-start problem?
Not necessarily...
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates." Mark Twain
) I discovered a small drop of liquid near on the engine near the oil return pathway (?). My brother believes the head must be warped. Going to pull it tomorrow and have him take it to be milled this week.. Totally bummed out. 
