Need Advice for 86 Tercel car?

[Canuckcountryboy]

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Canada Need Advice for 86 Tercel car?
I have a 86 Toyota Tercel station wagon car with 328,000 kms. on the engine. I have put in a new radiator,tires,front & back shocks,spark plug & wires,battery and regular tune-ups. My old Tercel developed a miss in the motor back last fall so I parked the vehicle for the winter. I checked the miss in the engine and have discovered very low compression in cylinder #3. I want to try to repair this engine and I seek advice from all the Toyota experts on this 'Forum'. I want to take the aluminum head off the engine and check for any burnt out valves and if there is have the aluminum head rebuild. Any advice that the Toyota experts can give me in helping me repair my
Toyota would really be appreciated by ME! Just a little note to add, I give my '1986 TOYOTA TERCEL wagon' more 'TLC' than I do my wife!!!

86 tercel #6.JPG

[dlb]

hey guy. sounds like it could be the rings, at least in the 3rd cylinder. to test for this, do a regular compression test, then remove the compression tester and dribble some oil into the spark plug hole and check the compression on it again. if the compression comes up considerably higher, it's the rings. i've never done rings but i believe the engine has to be removed for that job.

[Petros]

Usually rings wear more or less evenly, so all compression would be low if it was rings. The oil-in-cylinder test is good way to confirm, if there is not much increase in compression than it is likely the valves. Pretty rare on a Toyota you could melt a hole in the top of the piston, if it did this it would smoke a lot too. More likely a burned exhaust valve, pretty common actually. Pulling the head is a big job, but not too bad, much better than having to replace rings.

I recommend pulling the head, buy all new exhaust valves, and have the intake valves and seats reground. New stem seals and gaskets, you will will be good for another 300,000 km.

There are few teaks you can do during the head job that will also improve your power and economy a bit, if you do this job we can walk you through it. Do a search on my head gasket modification to improve head cooling.

If you are considering rebuilding the whole engine, a much bigger and more costly project, You might consider getting a used imported engine, these are similar low miles engines from Japan. These are usually excellent engines and way less expensive than a rebuild.

[dlb]

i actually had the ring(s?) in just one cylinder go on me. many years ago i bought an '89 tercel coupe because i thought it looked moderately sporty. i hadn't yet messed around with cars at this time so i had it checked out and the garage said it had low compression in one of the cylinders but said it wasn't too bad and that the car was still a good deal. i got it and it was very good to me for two or three years, taking me to and from the rockies and edmonton numerous times. the only sign was that it would puff a bit of blue smoke when i first started it, and this was worse if the car had been sitting for a few days. finally one day the engine just suddenly lost about half power while driving on the highway, and i took it in and the ring in that cylinder had gone. cost me a pretty penny, i was fiercely choked.

petros is probably right, but the more causes you eliminate the more likely you are to zero in on the correct one. i hope it is exhaust valves, for you and your terc's sake!

[Petros]

I have seen rings break, on a really abused engine. That prevents them from pushing out against the cylinder wall to make a seal, so it would also smoke, as well as have less compression. But I do not think that is common.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club!
This is OT, but...the "Mordechai" on TN who recommended our Club is moi. I'm "ARCHINSTL" on a number of car sites, but for ? reason am no longer recognized by TN with that nom de Net on any computer. I can't get on at all. So through another computer I signed on as "Mordechai." Maybe it's because my postings on TN's Tercel forum are usually invitations to Wagon owners to join our Club? Dunno - can't get an answer out of TN.
Tom M.

[Canuckcountryboy]

hello ARCHINSTL,Petros and davidlucassbarnes, I want to 'THANK YOU' for your wonderful advice and welcoming me to http://www.tercel4wd.com as a new member. I can see now this is the right place for me to seek out the information and meet and make a few new friends along the way as well. Just to add a little more symptoms to my condition with my Tercel, I can tell you this! The spark plug on #3 cylinder always gets fouled up after about 500 kms. running down the road. The car was running fine until late last fall then then I inquired a miss in the engine, I don't know if I mentioned this before or not.Also another little test I was told to do is remove one spark plug wire at a time from each cylinder while the engine is running. I did this to each cylinder and the engine slow down considerably on cylinders #1,#2 and #4. When I removed the spark plug wire from cylinder #3 the engine did not even slow down in RPM at all! Now with all your wonderful wisdom you valued members of http://www.tercel4wd.com have,maybe you can enlighten me on these new observations I have mentioned above?

[takza]

Sounds like the rings on that cylinder...you should try cleaning the plug and testing it to see if it fires. There are certain plugs that will fire in oil and also inserts that you put in before the plug to protect it from oil...but these are just temp fixes. Problem is that that cylinder is probably scored up pretty bad...just a guess though.

[blade]

that sounds like the spark plug is dead or the cap and rotter needs to be looked at.

[Canuckcountryboy]

that sounds like the spark plug is dead or the cap and rotter needs to be looked at.

I did some further checking of the spark plug on # 3 cylinder. I removed the spark plug from #3 cylinder and with the spark plug wire still attached I got my wife to crank over the engine.With the spark plug and attached spark plug wire I grounded the plug to the engine and was able to see a good strong spark. But again as I mentioned in the previous post the spark is badly fouled as well! Can anyone one tell me the next step I should proceed with?

[takza]

If the plug fires even though it's "fouled"...then maybe it's a valve? Do a compression test? Possible that the oil is from a failed valve stem seal? Take the valve cover off and check the valve clearances cold just to see if things are near where they should be?

[Petros]

I would guess valve as well, it fouls because it is not burning properly, not reaching proper higher temp. Could be blown head gasket too. Either way the head has to come off.

Do a compression test, or go ahead and pull off the head to take a look.

Or just live with it the way it is until you are ready for a replacement engine or to take it apart. You can not really do more damage to it now, it will just have less power.