Coolant in Oil and Cylinders...

[fancypantsmcgee]

Hey all, update
Since the tercel was running pretty well (outside burning some oil) I borrowed it to my partner in crime since his volvo is having transmission issues.
His wife drove it around and ran it out of oil and now it has a rod knock.
(I suspect)
So i've been looking around this morning at options. I can get some rings and bearing for ~$100 on eBay and do a poor-man rebuild.
I've also been looking for a 4AC but can't find one in my area.
My caveat is; If i pull this engine I would prefer to not put it back in. I've been looking at high HP options and converting it to RWD. I realize this is blasphemous and counterintuitive to the premise of the vehicle to begin with.. but we've all got scruples. maybe I've been reading speedhunters too much..
so $750 later I still have a dead tercel. my wife thinks it's a money pit at this point. I'm still in good spirits.
Any suggestions?

[GLet71]

You mean other than not lending your car out to friends? Why not just look for a same era Corolla wagon? I believe they are rear wheel drive...

[xirdneh]

Info
I recently took apart two 3AC's that were ran with low oil one to many times
both knocked
neither had bad rod bearings
both had lots of bad pistons including cracked #3 piston on one and #4 on the other
all pistons had shiny wear patterns

I also took one apart that was a good engine when it was parked
but after sitting for two years the guy tried to start it and used a lot of starter spray fluid
it knocked when it started
he shut it down right away
i took it apart
bearings looked good
three pistons looked the same
#3 had the shiney wear pattern just beginning
the machine shop measured the piston and said the skirt was collapsed
due to knocking around in the cylinder
speculated the piston wrist pin to rod connection could have been tight after sitting
not allowing piston to float free
or starter spray in combo with sitting for two years erased oil from that cylinder

[fancypantsmcgee]

thanks xlrdneh, this is great info. would you mind expounding on "shiny wear patterns?"

[Petros]

usually the cylinders get worn until you get piston slap, soon after the skirt collapses. I had this happen on two tercel engines. but if it was ran low on oil it is likely the number three connecting rod bearing (it gets oil starved first and gets wipped out). I have been able to fix these by just replacing the rod bearings, seldom was it bad enough for the mains to go.

if the engine is otherwise good, you can just replace the rod bearings (after hand polishing the journals with 800 wetndry paper), and it should be good. If you want to do a complete overhaul, than replace them all, along with rings and exahaust valves, seals, etc. make sure the cylinder bores are within specs. or you need to over boar the block and used oversized piston.

An engine swap is an option, but it will cost much more, and take a lot of messing around to get everything to fit and work proplerly, especially if you are switching to EFI. the 4ac engine swap is an easy upgrade, if you can find one. But I have done a complete rebuild/rering in one weekend, I had all the parts I was going to need and started friday night, and drove the Tercel to work on monday.

[fancypantsmcgee]

I was able to horse-trade for a parts tercel over the weekend, apparently the only thing 3A/4A powered in a 250 miles radius.. oi. The car has been sitting, but the engine purrs nicely. So for now i'm just going to do a straight swap to get it back on the road, and hopefully get around to a full build on the knocker since the head is ready-to-go.. I'll definitely do a full tear down to ascertain exactly what what wrong with it..
there's a set of .030 over pistons on eBay i'm thinking would be a good way to get started.
..I also came across a jdm 4AF while perusing eBay. seems legit; cam driven DOHC, carburetted, 95hp 95tq. any thoughts on using this engine?

[Petros]

it is a good engine for this car, but you would have a number of costly issues in order to adapt this engine. the distributor location is off the back of the head (direct cam driven), so you either have to convert it to distributorless or cut a hole in the fire wall to make clearance for the dist. (unless the JDM model already had the more modern distributorless ignition, you would also need the spark ecm for it).

The other is you might need to mess about with the coolant hoses and heater hoses to make it work in the Tercel engine install, this engine is likely set-up for stransverse in stall, not problem for the mounts since the tercel mounts should bolt to the 4a block. Also you will need a custom header made, pretty costly, with full exhaust you are likely looking at about $1000, unless you can make it yourself.

[fancypantsmcgee]

update*
Pulled the engine and got it down to block and crank. the knock was clearly the #3 rod bearing. almost 1/8" of play up and down.
the horse-trade fell through so i'm rebuilding it.(because #1 psi was ~90, which caused the low oil) i'm taking the block to the machine shop this week to verify it's good before I go buy anything, the plan is to bore it out.
I posted a want-to-buy in the parts section; if you've got anything I can use instead of buying new that you'd like to unload I may be interested next week.

[dlb]

where are you located, fancypants?

[fancypantsmcgee]

sorry, Heber Utah 84032.