Preparing a stored engine

[irowiki]

So I have a 3-AC out of an 82 Tercel with 162k miles, and 20k on a rebuild. It was stored for several months with no oil, so I assume a bunch of seals will need redone? Or can I leave the seals alone?

What should I do while the engine is out of the car, before I install it?

Front and rear main seal will be replaced if they're needed. What about the cam (?) seal, valve cover gasket, stem seals, distributor O ring, etc?

Everything external from the blown 87 will be swapped over, carb, intake/exhaust manifolds, IIA, probably the pulleys and such from the front? New belts. I have a reman alternator that will be going in.

Should I replace the water pump? Timing belt?

Do I need a new A/T equivalent of a flex plate? (the name escapes me)

Another thing I am not sure of is if the oil pan changed between the two, will find that out when the blown engine is removed.

[Petros]

several months should not cause any harm as long as no moisture got into the cyclinders (it can cause the rings to rust to the cylinder walls). Squirt some oil down the spark plug holes before you turn it over, it will protect the rings until you will run it. All of the seals should be okay if indeed it only has 20k on a proper rebuild.

however, the rear main seal is easy to get to when the engine is out, if you wanted to be cautious you can replace just that, all of the others are fairly easy to replace. If you want to go one step further you can replace the front main seal and the timing belt (they are cheap and much easier to do with the engine out). Cam seals rarely leak, and it is easy to get at, like the water pump, and can be done easy enough if they should go bad in the future. I would not leave the cam seal and water pump unless I had a reason to suspect them.

Personally I would not run a remanufactured distributor, I have had way too many bad ones (causing much waste of time and effort later). A used factory one is much more reliable than the remanufactured distributors any day. Do not assume it is good just because it is clean and shiny and came out of a box.

[irowiki]

The engine was down in phoenix in a garage, hopefully the rain they've been having didn't get any water in there (via humidity)!

I'll be using the distributor out of the 87 that is currently on the blown engine, assuming it still works.

The alternator is what is remanufactured, the PO bought it for me off rockauto because he gave away the factory one! (Unless you meant to say the alternator and not distributor). Figures that the sedan and Pokey use an external alternator and the 87 is internal.

Would you by chance have part numbers for the front and rear main seals? Browsing on rockauto and other parts stores is turning up all sorts of seals and gaskets, and I have no idea what actually applies!

Going to start taking apart the blown engine soon, my engine hoist finally arrived in the mail! Exciting, but daunting, to be doing an engine swap.

[marlinh]

I have the numbers for the cam seal: Beck Arnley 053-3178. Front crankshaft seal, also called oil pump seal: Beck Arnley 053-3179. I don't have the rear main seal part number. Distributor o-ring: Fel-Pro 72438. Hope this helps.

[Petros]

re manufactured alternators are not nearly as much of a problem. It is the re-manufactured distributors that I have had lots of issues with, I have had personal experience with two of them, both were bad (100 percent failure rate). Several other list members have had issues with brand new reman distributors as well. Seems about 50 percent bad out of the box based on a limited sample. I would not buy them. compare that with pulling about 16 very used factory distributors from the wrecking yard, or having them on my cars, and not one bad one. A few on this forum had had the bearings go bad, and I think one internal coil. I do not recall any signal pick-ups going bad.

I do not know why you have difficulty with the seals, there is only one cam seal for the 3a engine, one front main seal (sometimes called the oil pump seal), and one rear main seal. there are lots of companies that make good seals for these engines.

[irowiki]

Petros: I just wanted to be sure since rockauto has the seals under several different categories, and this is my first time around the block

Today the search worked properly and I got this for a rear main seal: Beck/Arnley 052-3258



Yesterday I was only getting a smaller donut with two large gasket things included.

Front seal:





Does the brand matter on these seals? Toyota OE better? Or just get whatever aftermarket seal?

[marlinh]

I am not sure about different manufacturers. I am going to experiment with them. I have noticed in one application, rear pinion seal, that National made a far superior seal than one I had removed at that time. Not sure the brand of the one I removed.

[irowiki]

This is sorta fun. Putting in a big rockauto order, here's what I have so far:

Front/rear crankshaft seals
timing belt
spark plugs, rotor, distributor cap, vacuum advance
valve cover gasket
intake/exhaust manifold gasket
exhaust flange gasket
thermostat and gasket
cooling housing gasket
radiator cap and upper/lower hose
alt/PS/AC belts
fuel filter
some sort of fancy airhog reusable fram air filter


Already have a new fuel pump.


Should I replace the engine/motor mounts? I assume those are rubber.

[marlinh]

You should replace the o-ring behind the water pump housing. I would change the water pump too. Also the o-rings for the bypass tube. I was able to match the tube o-rings from a kit. You can probably do the same with the one behind the housing. A new pump I ordered came with that o-ring. It was a Cardone brand.

What about valve stem seals? Or are you getting the head rebuilt?

Also distributor o-ring: Fel pro 72438.

[ARCHINSTL]

irowiki - don't forget this link: https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... ock#p70206
Sorry if I'm second-guessing you.
Tom M.

[irowiki]

Marlene: I bought another set of bypass tube o-rings, can't see the other o-rings on rockauto? Or what kit should I be looking for?

How long do water pumps generally last? I also have one available that has 61k miles on it, but that has been sitting a while too.

Added the dizzy o-ring, thanks!

Was just wondering if I should replace the valve stem seals since it has been sitting.

Tom: Ah yeah, I have a code too, as I've been ordering from them on a normal basis! I always put tercel4wd.com into the field too.

Just remembered carb gaskets!

[Petros]

the motor mounts are pretty durable, I have never had to replace them. sometimes they get damaged and need to be replaced, but if not torn or separated, you can reuse the motor mounts.

I would not bother with reusable filters, the paper elements do a better job of filtering the air and are inexpensive.

New water pumps last about 100k miles, remanufactured ones can fail at any time (including on first start up). Replacing a water pump in the car is easy, I would put a new one on now (they do not cost much) but it would not be that big of an operation to replace it a year from now.

Your valve stem seals are likely okay if they were replace 20k miles ago. I would leave them. these too are no more or no less work to replace when the engine is in the car. If you suspect them after driving it for several months you can replace them later. Or leave it until later since the consequence of leaky steam seals is more a nuisance that a durability or safety issue.

I have not seen a noticeable difference in seal quality from brand to bran. they are sometimes slightly different designs, but I have not noticed that any are more durable than the other. the modern neoprene seals are very durable, my first few cars (many years ago) had old felt seals, you can count on replacing them about every 30k to 40k miles. All the neoprene ones last well over 100k, most over 200k miles, so I just buy the cheapest of the known name brands. I do not want to risk saving a few $ on an unknown brand made by communists, too much work to have to do over again.

Last time I ordered seals from Rockauto for a Tercel4wd, they sent me all I ordered, most were good except the front one that had the correct part number, but was clearly the wrong size. I went to a local O'rilley's and got another front seal (at about 4 times the cost), same brand, same part number, different size seal in the box. Not Rockauto's fault I would assume, but it is something to watch out for. This has happened to me on other parts as well, both from Rockauto and from Autozone, NAPA, etc. the parts suppliers are just slopply (which they will deny, but how else do you explain the wrong parts in the correct box?)/

[irowiki]

Peter, the airfilter is actually the same one you put in the wagon I bought from you, "Fram AirHog performance air filter", and it is on sale on rockauto for the same price as the normal paper ones ($4 ish), plus a $4 rebate if I buy an oil filter! That is why I was getting it, I figured it was a good filter!

New motor mounts are $6 each, so I'm debating it. The fun thing about this order is they're going to ship all this stuff for one flat fee. I want to replace any cheap item that could wear out (within reason) so I only have to do this once! Any little thing I add to the order doesn't raise the shipping cost so it is an overall savings!

Found a Cardone water pump on RA for $25

I'm sticking with Beck/Arnley or Felpro for most of the seals.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframe ... 8d1334472e

There's my cart, not all of this is for the 87, a few things are for the other Tercels. I still need to test the vacuum advance to see if it needs replacing, and double check the radiator hoses and engine mounts.

[marlinh]

The kit I was talking about was an assorted o-ring set. The o-ring behind the pump is larger and I don't know what they would call it. If you pull the housing off, you will see the o-ring in the recess on the block. I carefully pulled my brittle old one out and am going to match it when I get to a parts store. I used the new one I got with the pump. Wanted to get the car together right away. I took some measurements but it's hard to be accurate when it's so flexible. ID approx. 1.379", thickness .1". The Cardone water pump may come with the o ring you need.

[ARCHINSTL]

New motor mounts are $6 each, so I'm debating it.

SIX dollars each?
AutoZone has them for $39, so I'd imagine Advance and O'Reilly are similar.
See my OE list: https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6478
Note my last line in that post about RA and trans mounts...
Tom M.