how to visually tell between 4A engines?

[dlb]

the rings in my 3A are going so i took a look around and found a carbureted 4A engine nearby. i thought, "well, that was easy" but now i'm wondering if it's the correct 4A. i've been reading on wikipedia and googling images of the different 4As (-C, -ELU, -F, -FE, -FHE, -G, -GE. -GZE) so that when i go back to pick the engine up tomorrow i can make sure that it is indeed the one i want. the most obvious difference seems to be that the -C, -F, and -G are carbureted, so it must be one of those. next, the -F and -G are 16-valve and they seem to like to advertise that on top of the engine. the engine i looked at was carbureted and did not say "16 valve" anywhere on it and actually looked a lot like the 3A wearing a 4A sticker, so is it a 4A-C?

next question: the wiki page mentions 4A, 4A-C, 4A-L, and 4A-LC all in the same breath, and does not clarify the differences between them. the only info i found online is that the -L means the engine mounts laterally. i'll take a guess that this means that when i'm looking at the engine in the car, the spark plugs would be in a row from side to side, rather than from front to back as per usual with a 4WD terc. i'll further guess that the -LC is a laterally mounted 4A with california emissions. in other words, the -L and -LC are useless to me unless i want to mod the sh*t out of it, which i don't want to do.

all this means that if i don't want to make any big mods, it has to be either a 4A or a 4A-C, and that either of those engines should be apparent because the engine will be carbureted, will not say 16 valve on the valve cover, and will pretty much look exactly the same as my engine except it has a sticker that says 4A on it.

someone please let me know if i've solved this problem for myself or if i've made a huge error and just bought a big ugly over-priced yard ornament. thanks!

[4wdchico]

You can use a 4A-L(C) long block assy fron a front wheel drive Corolla in a t4wd. You must change everything that hangs on it: int. and ex. manifolds & ect. from the t4wd are different.

The nice thing about getting a 4AC from a RWD Corolla is that you can just about pull the engine out of the donor car complete and drop it in a t4wd & drive off. Pretty sure that you need to use the flywheel from the t4wd.

Of course doing the front & rear main seals, cam seal, water pump, valve stem seals, valve adjustment, timing belt and idler along with a new clutch assy would be icing on the cake while the replacement engine is out of the car.

[Petros]

Any 4a engine with a carb and a single overhead cam (like the 3a or 3ac) will work with little trouble. IF the head and valve cover looks like your 3a engine, it will fit. The other versions are very different looking in the head area.

All of the others can be made to work, but will take a lot of custom fabricating and messing around. See the thread on the 4age swap for example. Not an easy swap, and not recommend unless you know what you are getting into.

Good luck.

[dlb]

thanks guys, that's what i thought. i took another quick look at the engine today before handing the money over just to be sure, and i was right. i'm jazzed to put it in next month. till then i'm going to do the seafoam treatment on the 3A and see if that helps it to run a little smoother. i'll post something with pre- and post-seafoam treatment findings, and will take pics of the engine swap for those interested.