Correct weber carb for 87 tercel sr5 wagon?

[Winterwagon]

In the search for a low priced vehicle I can daily drive to work at the mountain I stumbled across the tercel. Shortly after I ended up at this site and read myself into the tercel market. Yesterday I bought an 87 tercel sr5 wagon with the 6 spd tranny and am loving it. I'm now looking for a few performance upgrades but don't know much about carbs. So my question is, I found a weber 32/36 carb on craigslist but I'm not sure if it's the correct one and would appreciate your input.


Here's the description in the ad:

32/36 DGAV Weber Carburetor
Two Barrel Progressive Carb,
Water Choke Linkage Rotates Counter Clockwise

Thanks again for your help and any other ideas for somewhat innexpensive performance gains would be awesome. I'm already planning on advancing the timing too.

[ARCHINSTL]

Welcome to the Club!
The DGAV has a choke operated by hot water from the cooling system. Perhaps it can be adapted to our cars, but I don't think anyone has (or at least reported on it).
The DGEV is the easiest - you just hook up the existing choke electric wire.
There is also the DGV, which uses a manual choke - you'll have to rig up linkage; I think it's been used, but dunno.
Go with the DGEV.

Many/most have also used a fuel regulator to drop the pump's pressure - some of us have also used a gauge. You will also need the Redline adapter, which can be a PITA to install*, despite being designed for our cars. You may also have to modify your hood for clearance with the supplied air filter - some of us have had to and some have not.
Do some Searching here - lots of info available.
Since you mention "the mountain," you might also ask for advice on the jets to install - Weber has different ones for different altitudes.

Since you do not mention your location - some states (like CA) are "kinda funny" about non-OE carbs.
Better ask before buying anything.
The Weber solves a lot of problems and, in my opinion, is totally worth it. My mpg stayed about the same, and the power was increased a bit - but the real gain, to me, was flexibility and the elimination of the OE carb's hesitation and drama - and - I was running a reman carb before the Weber.
Tom M.

EDIT:
* By "install," I mean it is a PITA to adapt - at least mine was. It took a lot of redrilling and filing and grinding to make it fit both the OE manifold bolts and the Weber carb's holes. Since it was designed for the carb, you'd think it would at least fit the carb. Not all have reported difficulties with it, though.

[dlb]

welcome, WW. the other easiest upgrades for these cars is to advance the timing from 5* BTDC to 10* BTDC and move up to 14" wheels but stick with roughly the same overall tire diameter--i like 185/60R14s. advancing the timing gives slightly more power and better mileage (you can do this with both the stock carb and the weber) and the bigger wheels improve handling by decreasing body roll. some of us have lifted our cars but i'm not happy with my front end lift yet so unless you feel like doing some experimenting i would hold off on that until some of the gang here come up with a reliable spring/insert combo for the struts.

the only bummer with the weber carb that i have found is that it's prone to carb icing, or i think that's what it's called. after running for 5 minutes or so in cold weather, the engine will want to stall on idle unless you give it extra throttle. this only lasts a few minutes but it's annoying. anyway, as tom mentioned the weber has a lot more positives than negatives so i can look past this.

i know that one member here has a DGV with a choke they set up. i haven't seen anyone use the DGAV. i second tom and say stick with the DGEV. there is lots of info on installing it here. as tom also mentioned there is a clearance issue with the top of the air filter housing and the engine hood. i added a hood scoop to make room up top but some members just delete the phenolic spacer. if you go this route you will need to adapt a new port for the PCV valve to connect to but most of us have followed splatterdog's design of converting the old EGR port into a PCV-receiving port. do a search for weber installs and you'll find more info than you could possibly need. i think deejay did a good write-up with lots of pics.

last bit of advice: i wouldn't buy a used carb unless i knew for a fact that it ran well. too much that could be wrong with it without pulling it all apart to find out. that's just me though, it's up to you.

[danzo]

Welcome to the club, Double Dubya. I have the DGEV on my T4 but I wouldn't pass on the water choke version, esp if it's a good deal. If I'm not mistaken the water/electric/manual choke units are interchangeable, but you might check with http://www.piercemanifolds.com/category_s/47.htm . It's easy to pipe the water choke into our cooling systems. Like dlb said just make sure the particular carb you found on CL isn't junk - no rust/pitting that would render it unrebuildable. Remember a new one is only $250 which is the route I went. With the shorter air filter I don't have any hood clearance issues.

Larger wheels/tires are very adviseable if your car still has the 13's, but I wouldn't worry about keeping the stock diameter (no offense dlb). I've found our speedometers read a bit high, so a larger tire diameter will make it more accurate or even read a little low. No big deal unless you are paranoid about the pigs. The plus side is more ground clearance which sounds like a concern for you with all the mountain driving you do. Right now I have newish 195/60/ 14 and 185/65/14's on the front of my car and the speedo is very consistent with my GPS.

Where are you located? I have a spare '87 grille if yours is busted.

[dlb]

danzo, i'm right choked! just kidding. the only reason i suggest a similar overall diameter is so that you have a more wheel/less tire ratio. my winter tires are 185/70R14 and while better than my big old 13" tires, they roll a lot more than my srping/summer/fall 185/60R14s. i don't worry about the speedometer much since i drive like a granny anyway.

[ARCHINSTL]

If you order a new Weber - be sure to get the Redline adapter which I mentioned earlier - and also ask for the short air cleaner housing and filter. Some will sub the short for the tall one which comes with the WK741 kit (DGEV) and some will not. I went to two vendors back in 2008 before going with Carbs Direct, as it would sub the short filter for free (others wanted an additional $30 - and no sub).

Also look at threads here on reusing the OE Aisan linkage instead of the POS Weber linkage.
Tom M.

[Winterwagon]

thanks for all the input guys. it was $85 new on CL but its gone now so im just ordering a new DGEV online next paycheck. as far as the tires/rims go i bought the car with 205/60/14 and the previous owner said it was a option to get the rims when he bought the car new? not sure but im going to get new tires and probably drop to 195.

im located in Enumclaw WA so my daily commute is up crystal mountain and i might actually be interested in your grille danzo mine has a slight lean but i have to look to see if its from core support damage (looks like it was in an accident and hastily repaired) or if the grille itself is broken.

figure i would add a pic of it to get a verdict on whether those rims were actually an option or not? and im in the process of prepping it for paint today. either going flat navy blue or flat olive green....so indecisive haha.

[dlb]

looks nice! those are not stock rims though, they look like ford escort wheels. lots of members here run those too. funny the PO would tell you they were an option.

[Winterwagon]

thanks, yeah i was expecting 13" steelies and saw those was a bit confused. as far as the previous owner......he also told me the stereo didn't work and after about 15 mins with a multimeter i found out the switched 12v power on the deck was soldered to the positive right rear speaker wire. i guess he wasn't aware red doesn't always mean power haha.

[dlb]

WW, here are a few links to threads featuring olive green tercs, just in case you wanted to take a look before you threw any paint on it:

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8& ... een#p51033

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8& ... een#p33596

[Petros]

Nice looking TErcel. The factory allow wheels were 13" as were the stock steel wheels. 14" alloy wheels actually make the steering more responsive and improves the handling. the 13" steel wheels have a lot of flex in them I suspect.

Sorry to say, that is not an SR5. the trim and the paint on the window frames indicate it to be a DLx. No matter, you can put an instrument cluster in and get most of what you want of the SR5. Fabric seats would be nice too.

[ARCHINSTL]

Ww - look at the EDIT I made to my original post re the Redline adapter from the WK741 kit.
Tom M.

[Winterwagon]

Thanks for verifying about it not being an sr5. It actually does have fabric seats I'll upload a picture tomorrow and see if those are what your referring to. I'm somewhat disappointed it's not an sr5 as it was advertised as one and I feel I may have paid a bit more than I should have for it being a DLx