The Party Wagon engine swap thread

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irowiki
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by irowiki »

She lives! :mrgreen:

Soaked Buck's old carb in cleaner all night, then swapped carbs. Intake manifold was full of gas, had to get it out with paper towels. She'd start but only just barely, distributor was off a tooth or two.

Was really smoky at first, now it just leaking a little. Maybe I need to tighten the manifolds down some more?
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Gottolovem »

Yay :mrgreen:
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by irowiki »

She's really growly, throaty, low pitched, hard to describe. Compared to my other auto (T4), the T4 was really whiny at higher speeds.

The power is amazing (this engine has 20k miles on a rebuild). I don't know if it's the combination of newer engine and the FWD engine but she has a lot of pickup, even for an auto! Need to get a tach somehow to see how the FWD stacks up to the 4WD auto.
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87 Corolla FX16, 105k
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

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Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 197k
05 Avalon, 199k
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Gottolovem »

It's a great feeling to take a car apart and put all back together again hugh.
Does the wife have her own personal wagon now?
I can't quite tell but something in the video doesn't sound quite right maby just a funcky mic or a little tuning to be done.
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by irowiki »

Yes, it is the wife's personal wagon but she drives so nicely that I'm going to drive it whenever I can! So much power!


That was before I set the timing.

When we first tried to start it the timing was below 0 degrees, and adjusting the dizzy only let me get to 0. Wouldn't stay running! So I took the dizzy out, set it a few teeth more and I ended up at around 15 degrees, and the first attempt at starting her was on this video!

Set it back to 10 and tweaked the idle, she sounds a lot better. Will post a new video later!
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 197k
05 Avalon, 199k
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Petros »

sounds like it needs a muffler and it has a vacuum leak to me.

Anyway, otherwise looking good. you will end up with a really decent low miles tercel after all that work for not much money.

I have noticed on the two auto trans terels I have driven exensively that they at first seem sluggish, but that only from a dead stop. they are actually quite peppy from about 25 to 60 mph, so they drive well in traffice. It is just at the top end where the engine is screaming (no overdrive), and from a dead stop they are sluggish.

After our buick engine seized recently (and I am done working it, we sold it for parts!) we are on the hunt for a car for my wife, she does not want an older car (no matter how good condition it is in), and insists on a auto trans (though she is drives a stick very well, she just wants an auto). And something with 4wd because of where we live: that narrows it down to newer costly, heavy gas hogs. You are luck you wife likes something as inexpensive and efficient as a 30 year old Tercel!
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by irowiki »

Peter, what about a Rav4 from the late 90's? They are fairly small. Kinda a sibling to our tercels. The Toyota highlander seems okay too! Maybe a few gens back.

Or how about a toyota matrix AWD?

Hmm, interesting on your muffler comment, she has a muffler but maybe there's a leak somewhere...

We'll be in these wagons until we need shoulder belts in the back... then we'll need to find something else to haul the kids around :cry:
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Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
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95 Camry Wagon, 197k
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by rer233 »

Or figure out a way to put shoulder belts in the back??
if it aint there, there's a good chance it won't break!
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Petros »

you can always add something like this to the back seat:

Image

I think in some countries in Europe they required rear shoulder belts in our model year Tercels, so there might actually be mounts in the C-pillars behind the rear seats under the trim. you would have to find shoulder belts from another car that can be adapted, but I think adding simple adjustable ones like that pictured above would be simplest (and cheaper) than buying a newer car.

I like the early Rav4, but my wife wants more room, the visibility out the back of the Matrix sucks, and does not have much storage space in the back. The newest (largest) Rav4 she likes (a stretch version), but it is heaver and does not get as good fuel economy, and it is only introduced a few years ago so they are too new and pricy. Transmission reliably is not as good on the auto trans rav4s as the other Toyota models either. The newer rav4 gets about 24 mpg.

My wife likes the Higlander, it has excellent reliability, but you can not buy them that old, the model was introduced in 2001. So none are really that cheap yet, too new. They are also heavy large vehicles (larger than we need I think, but my wife likes the idea of hauling all that extra vehicle around just in case she wants to haul furniture once a year or so...), and the typical owner only gets about 16 mpg with them.

I recently drove the Suzuki SX4, what a fun and wonderful little AWD car, I love it. I was disappointed to learn that Suzuki had suspended all car sales in the USA two years ago. According to some experts they US sales were sinking because of poor marketing and mismanagement of their US marking plan. Too bad, they are excellent little awd cars, tough and very reliable. though my wife thinks it is too small for her to commute in it, another foot of length in the back for storage space would be nice, but it has reasonable room for storage with the rear seat folded down (but our Tercel4wd actually a lot more room inside).

I actually like the smaller 4wd or awd cars, but my wife seems to think she needs something that can haul a couch around as a daily driver. I can not seem to talk her out of it, so for now we will buy nothing, and she will be driving our AWD mazda mpv min van (even with 300k miles on it), needs a few things, but much less costly than a new Highlander, with about the same fuel economy.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Petros »

some day I would like to have a pair of these for my Tercel, but not likely they would ever get into a Tercel, and I am sure my wife would frown on it very much too.

Image
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by ARCHINSTL »

As to the belts - the anchors are already there. See https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php? ... 446#p11446

Petros - interesting comments about the Suzuki. My impression has been that the quality of the brand was not as good as even Mitsubishi (of which I have some experience, as does a daughter).
A kid who worked for me had one of the most useless cars I've ever seen - the X90: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_X-90
Another teen who also worked for me, albeit 10 or so years before that , had one of the dreaded Samurais. He had no probs with it - but he drove it sensibly, unlike several of his peers with the same car... Apparently they are quite prized nowadays for their agility offroad - and many AM parts are available for it.
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Petros »

my daughter has a suzuki esteem wagon, similar to a Subaru outback but for some reason they never imported the awd version of it. It has been a pretty rugged car, taking a lot of abuse and now has close to 200k miles on it, have done most of the maintenance on it for the last 100k miles since we owned it. I also know of many people that own and love their geo metro (suzuki swift) and the geo tracker, and have loved them. there are many metros around here with over 400k miles on them, they get great fuel economy and many are keeping them running because you can not buy such a high fuel economy car that is that low maintenance.

The awd SX4 replaced the esteem, and appears to be a very similar chassi and drive train platform so I assume it will have similar reliability. I am impressed with the design of the details of the Esteem, though not a particularly exiting car, it is well designed and appears to be very reliable. That may not be the case with all suzuki cars, but their motor cycles seem to also have a good reputation as well. The later and larger Vitara SUVs are also popular and very long lived, lots of them around here as well.

do you have direct knowledge of Suzuki cars being any less reliable?
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by irowiki »

rer233 wrote:Or figure out a way to put shoulder belts in the back??

Jarf has been looking for some for years, and has had no luck yet. Other forum member's have been trying too in recent years.
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Site administrator, if something is broken, PM me!

87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 197k
05 Avalon, 199k
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Re: The Party Wagon engine swap thread

Post by Petros »

If you can find those Toyota rear shoulder belts to bolt into the c-pillar mounts, that would be great. It would not be an easy job to adapt other seat belts from another car, though I am sure if you are cleaver you make the later corolla wagon or camary wagon back seat should belts work.

however, it would be much easier I think to just get the fixed length after maraket "off road" type seat belt, you adjust them to a fixed length and use them. that way you do not have to worry about keep the retract mechanism working safetly. there is nothing more safe than a fixed, bolted in place, 4 point seat belt. way better than having an explosive device go off in your face, over your head and on the sides.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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