1988 t4wd 300,000+

[JRI1988sr5]

hey im relatively new here i read stuff all the time yet i never ask questions until now. i have a 88 tercel with well over three hundred thousand miles on it so i bought a motor with a blown head gasket to rebuild if you folks have any advice for a young enthusiast it would be greatly appreciated!

[SynthDesign]

FelPro gasket kits are great, almost better than Toyota due to price and including almost everything for the block sans the Carb.

I'm North of you by an hour. Feel free to hit me up if you have questions. Also feel free to ask any type of questions on this forum. We have a lot of amazing people here who love to help. Or come talk to us in person https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7577

[dlb]

welcome, JRI. petros did a write up on head gasket replacement over in the repair guides section. might want to check that out.

this advice might be a little late since you already bought a spare but if you're going to replace the engine, you may as well put a 4A in and get slightly more displacement and power. it's a direct bolt-in, no mods required.

what are the zip ties for?

[JRI1988sr5]

thankyou for the advice but i think i got a pretty good deal for the engine at a local wrecking yard including a new grill front blinker lights rear 4wd mudflaps and the engine for one hundred and twenty dollars. the zip ties are to replace my clips to hold my grill on they broke sadly. i have done a headgasket before on an older dodge so i think it should be relatively simple.

[JRI1988sr5]

i also saw that a bunch of people on here were trying to do a rally soon i think that would be awesome i often go up in the olympics its a awesome drive it would be cool to get as many people as possible and make a little day trip on forest service roads let me know what you think

[Petros]

You will want to go read my write up on the head gasket replacement. I give a lot info on up-grades and things to improve the performance and reliability of the head installation that is not in the service manual.

Also, since you are going to do a complete overhaul, you might also want to get a Delta Cams (Tacoma WA) performance regrind, have the flywheel lightened and balanced, and perhaps open up and clean up the head ports if you want to get the most out of your engine.

You might consider saving some money over getting a full gasket kit (I rarely buy them anymore), compare just getting front and rear seals, head gaskets and intake/exhaust manifold gasket. Most other parts you can use Permatex, or reuse the old ones if you can get them off without damage (or make your own from waxy auto parts boxes).

I would also highly recommend replacing the exhaust valves, old ones are at high risk of failure and causing internal damage. You can reuse the intake valves, just have them reground. Of course have the machine shop check the valve guides on your core engine, if they are worn have them replaced as well.

[JRI1988sr5]

im sure you all will know better then i do the approximate price of the full bebuild. and how much would a 4a engine be and are they difficult to find?

[dlb]

4A's very common, more so than 3A's. they came in corollas from '82-'84 and chevy novas from '85-'88. here's the wiki page on them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_engine#4A

i'm not sure about the cost of a full rebuild though. are you planning on doing the bottom end?

[Petros]

A full rebuild can cost you from $400 to $800 depending on what needs to be done. If your cylinders are worn outside of specs for example, you will need to pay to have them over-bored and you buy 4 new over-sized pistons, if they are within spec you can just hone them and replace the rings only. If valve guides and seats in the head are good enough to reuse, you save money, if not you must buy new ones and pay a machine shop to install them.

You can go super cheap and just put in new standard bearings, replace the rings, and have the valves reground, than you only replace head gasket and front and rear seals (re-use everything else), for about $250, but if other parts are worn or marginal, you would waste your efforts and even most of the new parts you put in it.

The differenace between a re-ring job and a full overhaul can be $500. So it is up to you. If you are lucky you can get by with minimal machine shop work and only have to replace "soft" parts.

If your intention is to make it last a while longer, than you can go the low budget route (I have done that many times), if you want to build a super engine that will last you 200k plus more miles, go the full overhaul route (which I have also done on cars I intend to keep a long time).

[JRI1988sr5]

well i dont like to half azz things but i guess i wont know exactly how much work i need until i tear it apart

[dlb]

if you decide to go the 4A route, you can do a compression test if it's still in the car. that will give you a good indication of the condition of the rings/cylinders/valves. anything above 150 PSI i would keep as is. any lower and i would consider a rebuild.

in case you're not sure, check question #1 in the FAQ on how to do a thorough compression test.

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7442

[JRI1988sr5]

we do compression tests quite frequently in autoshop but i havent done one on my current engine where is the fastest way to disable spark?

[dlb]

just disconnect all the spark plug wires and remove all the spark plugs. since you asked though, there is a green plug on the distributor. just unplug it and that kills the juice to it.