1985 4WD SR5 w/ ~100k

[BrownBadger]

Thought I would start up my official profile here. After owning a beautiful 84 SR5 in college I got the itch to own one again about 6 months ago. Spent a lot of time looking around and found an 83 SR5 w/ sunroof and picked it up. About 3 weeks later I found my new baby listed here, an 85 SR5 with 104,000 original miles. It took about 3 weeks to get it shipped to Sacramento from Socal. It is a great looking Tercel, and all original. Unfortunately, what the PO said was a bad CV axle sounds to me like a rod bearing. Unfortunately, I've never heard a motor with rod knock before, so I am not certain. However, if I unplug the 4th spark plug and rev it up the sound isn't there, so I would guess that is what's going on. Also, the motor it currently has is a 3-ACL, which means it is on engine number 2 with 100k, which seems kind of weird.

So that sucks, but now I get to do my 4-AC upgrade sooner. I am, at best, an amateur mechanic, so I will definitely be looking for some help from you guys on this. Have already done a lot of research and am looking forward to diving in.

Here are some photos of the Terc in it's home for the winter, the garage. Hope to have it up and running by Spring.

[dlb]

that's a big bummer about the rod knock. pretty big difference between a CV and that. that's one of the reasons i only buy vehicles locally now. i got tired of driving far and investing so much time and money only to be frustrated and disappointed with the true condition of the vehicle.

despite the knock, you did manage to get a real beauty of a terc. congrats, man. i'm sure there will be lots of help for you here when you start swapping in a 4ac.

[scrapz253]

nice shape. these motors are pretty cheap to rebuilt at least.

[ARCHINSTL]

Looks really clean - at least you won't have (apparently) many body/interior probs to worry about.
Read the links on painting the bumpers and trim.
Tom M.

[Petros]

the number 4 rod bearing is the first to go if run low on oil, it is the furthest from the oil pump on the front of the engine and has slightly lower oil pressure than the others. So it looks like the guy had a hard time figuring out where the dip stick was, that is about the only way to damage the bearings, run it with out oil.

[BrownBadger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9uhIwRD ... e=youtu.be

Here is a link to the video of it running. You can hear the noise when I rev it up. Then I unplug the #4 plug wire and rev it again and its pretty much gone. Just hoping you guys can confirm my suspicions before I pull it out. Sourced a 4ac locally for $225. Condition unknown, but rebuildable according to the dismantler.

[Petros]

It is hard to tell by the sound listing on-line (cheap computer speakers), it does not quite sound strong enough to be rod knock. it usually is a strong "bang, bang, bank" like a hammer hitting the block. however it could piston slap, worn bore with too much clearance and allows the piston to slop around with each power stroke and makes a kind of a "clap, clap, clap" noise.

Either way, when a "bad" sound goes away when you pull a spark plug wire, it means it is internal to the engine and it has to come out. You could struggle through and drop the oil pan without pulling the engine (you loosen the front engine mounts and raise the engine as far as you can and remove the pan bolts, the oil pickup, and than wiggle it out of the way). with the pan off you can remove the rear rod bearing cap and inspect the bearing, and even replace it if necessary (and there is not too much damage to the crank journal). It is piston slap, you have to over bore the engine and use oversized pistons that fit tight in the bores (only 0.003" clearnace typically). If you allow piston slap to go on it will fail the piston and risk doing damage to the head and the block.

Either way the engine has to have be removed and gets some heavy maintenance.

[BrownBadger]

Well, picked up a 4-AC from a local wrecker. Looks to be in ok shape externally, we'll see how everything else is when we open it up. I'm currently looking for an engine shop around Sacramento to help out with the rebuild. If anyone had any suggestions let me know. Should start pulling the old engine in the next few weeks. I'm going to start working on my list for the build. Anyone have any suggestions for the build? Most important are durability and economy, but a little extra power would be great as well. So far I'm thinking a cam grind, maybe a slight overbore, ... who knows what else? Not looking to go crazy, but I tend to be of the "do it once, do it right" mindset.

[Devin]

That's a clean looking motor. You may not have to do much to it. When I pulled mine apart the machine shop said the bores were worn so I had to get .020 over pistons. Hopefully yours will only need to be honed. I would recommend not getting a big gasket set when you buy your parts. The one I got from ITM was poorly put together. The front seal was the wrong size and there were a millions gaskets I didn't need.
Good luck. Post pics!