Taking the plung, Weber Carb

[bleakhorizon]

so whats the number on them there bearings

[gatemaster]

I hope to move to Oregon one of thses days. I like the fly fishing.
here's the link for the bearings. http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/produc ... RecID=5949

[skyerunner]

So I couldn't figure out exactly what you did. What does the coil do - is that the black block on the firewall there? And what is the ignitor - is that the round silver thing "bolted to the back of the dist."?
How does this improve the ignition system and is it worth doing?
Thanks!

[gatemaster]

The black block on the fire wall is the Jacobs ultra coil. The igniter is what was inside the 84 dist, the one with the coil under the dist cap. both types of dist use the electronic pickup, that stays in the dist. The igniter is on the back of the dist because there isn't enough room inside the 80 dist. When I can afford an msd unit then that will replace the igniter thats on the back of the dist.the igniter is what fires the coil. Yes it is worth it. The stock coil is not up to par. The stock coil is about 30k volts in prime working condition, most are operating at something less than that. The ultra coil puts out 65k volts. the result is better gas milage, faster startup, cleaner emissions, plus the people that sell webers will state that the ignition needs to be upgraded when installing a weber carb. I finished and installed the adapter spacer yesterday and passed emissions today with flying colors, plus the car has never idled or run as good as it does now. My car now accelerates up hills that it used to slowly lose speed on. the other benefit with the phenolic spacer is that before after the car had been driven for a while the carb was too hot to touch, now it is only warm, the gas doesn't boil out of the fuel bowl anymore.

[SirNik83]

So, Its only been 2.5 years since I started this thread. And I'm finally getting around to giving the Tercel the time it needs. Have a problem with the front differential. The axles move side to side by about 1/4 inch and there is a horrible sound coming from the diff. Shortly after that diagnosis my 84 Mercedes 300SD had then engine star spewing oil. so I spent about a year going throw the engine in the Mercedes and then modifying the car to be a 4 speed manual... anyway, back to the Tercel. Its time for the Tercel to get the same treatment as the Mercedes. engine is out as is the transmission. Now that the holidays are over I'm going to get to work and repair the trans and clean up the engine and install it. from what I've learned in this tread I've bought the Weber (its in the mail, I can't wait!), bought the older distributor, coil pack, and found the igniter pack at the junk yard. Figured I'd drag this thread up from the depths and hopefully post some pics as the work goes on.

My mom moved to Texas a while back and left me with boxes of her stuff, which is stacked around the Tercels engine and trans, so this weekend the garage gets cleaned out. baby steps.

[SirNik83]

Weber came today!

[ARCHINSTL]

You got a CD with it?
I hope mating the Redline adapter to the carb and to the manifold goes smoother than mine did back in late '08...what a PITA to file, smooth and "reorient" the holes. I also smoothed the top and bottom with emery cloth taped to a marble surface.
Moving the fuel inlet pipe was easy and worked better, as I have the regulator and gauge on the strut tower side.
Tom M.

[SirNik83]

CD was just on my messy desk. lol
I'm pretty sure it was your build I read years back I picked up a regulator and gauge that I also plan to mount to the strut tower. I have a cabinet in my garage that is the Tercel cabinet. its full of all kinds of goodies that need to go into this project. they've been sitting for years. Its about time to get started.

[SirNik83]

Got the engine up on the stand this weekend. pressure washed all the grime off. also pressure washed the transmission. here are some pics of the engine after i took it down to a long block (kinda) got more to take off... but this it where it was at before the pressure washing.

[SirNik83]

Got her stripped down even further last night.



looking at the cam exposed like that I'm tempted to have it reground by Schneider... Anyone have any thoughts?
http://schneidercams.com/naturallyaspirated.aspx

[dlb]

i know peter likes the delta cam performance reground cam because it gives more power but i also talked to synth about it and he said that, while he also liked it, that his fuel economy did suffer a bit for it.

[Petros]

Synth had used a Schnider cam first, way too much cam for this engine. It is also very costly, and it affected fuel economy. The Delta regrind I use delivers about 32-34 mpg hwy, and I get about 28-29 mpg mixed daily driving, it also idles nicely. Which is about what a stock engine delivers. And the regrind is much less costly.

[SirNik83]

Sent an email to Delta Cams and Schneider Cams.

No reply for Delta as of yet.

Schneider replied with this.

I've got a 256-60F that I do for the wagons that need low end. The grind wakes up the sleepy little engines quite a bit. The price is the same as the others online. You'll need to print a regrind form and send it in with the cam. Payment can be either credit card over the phone, or PayPal. If a check is your only option then I'll need your shipping address before you send it in so that I can give you the total price with shipping.

This grind is not listed on Schneiders web site. maybe they have done more work on the cams for our cars?

I'd really like to hear from Delta Cams before I make any decision. Any idea on the cost for Delta to grind the cam?

Schneider has a regrind listed for $112.99 and they have new dual valve springs listed for $68.99. I was thinking of getting the whole thing from them... but my mind is not made up. any thoughts on changing the valve springs?

[Petros]

If I recall the Delta regrind is $59 with your old core cam, plus shipping. Somewhere I have the Delta cam specs. I have used the stock springs without issue. I have, a number of times, over reved it to well over 7000 rpm (going up steep snowy hills, can not stop to shift!). For a low rpm street motor I see no reason to buy double springs.

the double springs are necessary with wild cam grinds to provide more seat pressure to prevent valve bounce or float, it will force the valve to follow the cam profile. With minimal piston clearance if the valves float you wreck the engine, but that is not the case with the 3a, the valves will clear the piston even when full open. They provide extra safety to prevent dropping a valve if one of the springs should break. I have never seen a broken Toyota valve spring, and for a low rpm engine (and cam) that is not likely ever going to be an issue. Also on high rpm engines the double spring cancels out a natural harmonic that can be destructive. We used them on the race cars which red lined at well over 9000 rpms.

When I rebuilt any engines I tested the strength of the valve spring. Most auto machine shops can do this for you, or you can rig a device that compresses the spring the manual specified amount and you measure spring pressure. the easiest way is with a drill press, you put a large bolt in the chuck, set the depth of compression, put a good bathroom scale (a digital one works good) on the work table, and than with the drill off!, you compress each spring and read the pounds on the scale. I had two engines worth of springs and took the best eight springs. Even if you buy 8 new factory springs they should be tested to make sure they are all within spec and all similar in strength. One trick is to order 16 springs, pick out the stiffest 8 and return the other 8. I do not thing OEM springs are very costly, but I have used the old ones from my engine, despite having a pretty extensively modified engine.

And I have observed a number of exhaust valve failures on the stock 3a engine, including several times on my own engine. The stronger valve springs puts more stress on the valve stem, meaning that it is likely a stronger spring will cause the stem to stretch or fail (pulling the valve head off the stem, this will trash the engine). The exhaust valve runs at very high temps, so extra stress from high strength springs would be detrimental to the exhaust valves. Unless you go to a high performance exhaust valve I would think you do not want stiff springs. I would not even know where to get performance exhaust valves for the 3a (you would likely have to have custom ones made). Keep the spark timing at 10 or 12 deg before TDC (rather than the stock 5 deg BTDC) will result in cooler exhaust temps, longer valve life and slightly better power and fuel economy too.

BTW, if you go with a more aggressive came it will affect the fuel economy. A mild performance cam will have little effect, and sometimes even improves fuel economy.

[SirNik83]

Well, this weekend I went to the junk yard and got myself a cam to use as a core for a grind. cost me $30 after tax and BS fees. Called Delta Cams today and they had a cam for the 3AC on the shelf. $65 + shipping. 20 of that 65 is a core... I'm not sure its cost effective to mail them the cam I pulled from the junk yard. I can't take the cam back to the junk yard so maybe I'll ship it to them just because its something to do with it. any ideas on a super cheap way to ship a cam from Sacramento CA to Washington state?

Anyway, I'm excited to get the cam