V 8 swap into 84 tercel 5 door

[bcjason]

hey there. Im a 33 year old Canadian and I'm new to this forum, and kinda amazed there is a dedicated website to these cars. must be loved by a bunch of people. Anyway, as it sits the car is in need of mechanical repairs, and I want it to be a kinda different street/drag car. Plans are for a sbc swap, maintaining the stock rear-end and driveshaft assembly for now. Of course the driveshaft will have to be altered. Anyone else done this?

[toughtercel]

Hi, I am 100% support on you ( REAR WHEEL DRIVE IDEAS) I was considering doing that few years ago , I have few idea , there are couple member here help me too , but for the record most of them (98%) are sharing information stricky on 4X4 Tercel Forum .
You are considering V-8 , COOL ,I once measure Ford 302 motor for Tercel but it little to big except damage the firewall .What kind of V-8 are you think of, remember the old days " Vega and Pinto with V-8" are almost all gone , to much torque for those little car's frame.
Right now, I'm trying to get a "T4WD body " to start the project.
I live N-Surrey and where about you live .

[bcjason]

I'm in kamloops. The idea is to swap in a junkyard 305 or 350. I despise 305's but it would be easier on the rearend for the time being. I had a friend and he had a v-8 vega, it was tight but it worked. Planning on some bracing and such, as there is no way you cannot brace a car like this tercel.

[Petros]

Welocme to the list!

Why are you thinking v8? There are much lighter engines that are a lot less trouble to adopt.

No way you can use the stock rear end in the tercel4wd with a v8, it is way too light. It is good for only about 100hp, after than they tend to break apart. You can either consider a rwd Corolla GTS rear end (very hard to find, but there are three brands of limited slip diff you can get for them, good for about 300hp). Or even better is to cut and weld in a Celica supra rear end, later years are IRS. They also have LSD available for them, factory option. You should also adopt the Celica supra front suspension, much heavier engine in that car and it should handle a small block v8 just fine.]

The whole drive train is way too light to put in a larger engine of any type, you would grenade the trans almost instantly and the damge the drive shaft u-joints, and grenade the rear diff. YOu have to change the whole drivetrain, and I highly recommend using the Celica Supra suspension and drive train. Use the Supra brakes as well, the Tercel brakes are totally inadequate for any extra weight, and barely adequate for a stock Tercel.

Sounds like a fun project, but you will have to essentially replace the whole drive train, suspension and brakes. It can be done, but I think best bet would be find a wrecked Supra, and than get a matched v8 and trans to go with it, and than adapt the supra drive shaft to join your trans to the rear diff.

Keep us up to date on this project, it will be fun for the archives.

[Tercel__jon]

Isnt the 1uz toyota v8 smaller and lighter?

I had the thought of putting a 429 in my cressida the other day, lol.

I dislike chevy motors...they are in EVERYTHING from the worlds 2nd fasted car to motorized couches. With that being said, it is your build, so its your choice.

Before you even think of what motor your going with, do a couple other things first.
Roll cage...it will help keep the body from flexing.
Reinforce EVERYTHING.
I would go with a ford 9inch rear, cut down to size if need be.

And remember, these cars were built to have 62hp in them. Not 200+, so things will break. Likely it would tear apart like you ripping a tin can in half.

Maybe build a custom tube frame and sit the tercel body on it? That would be the best way to prevent the car from ripping itself apart and allow for a better front suspension as well.

[lannvouivre]

For my next trick...Petros, what kind of work would it take to put the Supra powertrain and suspension, everything, onto the 5-door FWD red hatchback I have (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11266)? I can't even remember if the thing has a "tunnel" for a driveshaft.

[irowiki]

It does not have a driveshaft tunnel.

[xirdneh]

V8 would probably blow out the tranny on first shift