Other cars similar to ours?

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 4:01 pm

lol... I hate plasti-wonder-cars.

Gasoline Fumes · Post by **Gasoline Fumes** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 11:11 pm

Adelard of Bath wrote: Since this is a Toyota group, I might get blasted for saying that I figure a honda is going to be no more or less reliable than a toyota...toyotas are legendary for durability but so is honda...maybe not quite as much actually

If I had a Honda, I would die before i had a farty muffler...in fact, that would be the first thing to go if I bought one with that on there! I would be at an exhaust shop Day Two, if not Day One. If I was on a roadtrip, I'd pull into the first Midas and be like "hey man chop chop"

Where did you find those specs Fumes?

That thing doesn't look quite as off-roady as the tercel does though
but i'm sure if you lifted it a couple inches and put the tires on there it would be just fine heh
as long as it was crazy light!

But I have to be honest, the idea of a fuel injected engine is really making me purr right now....did any of the tercels come with FI engines, in their later years, without doing a swap?

If maintained, a Honda and Toyota are probably about even in reliability. But if I was going to pick one to weld the hood shut, I'd go with a Toyota.

The specs were in my head, I have way too many car specs memorized.

I guess I probably saw them first in an old Motor Trend, if you want to get picky.

The car in the picture is probably just a 2WD, I think the 4WDs were a little higher.

tercel4wdrules · Post by **tercel4wdrules** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 1:19 am

Typrus wrote: Can't remember the model but I was sure I saw a Z or T on there and was shocked to think it was "charged"... but I saw no chargers.. I'M CONFUSED!!!! GAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! lol

Well it was probably not on the suffix. Like my dad's Corolla has a 1ZZ-FE, but is not "charged." You probably saw something like this.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 11:12 am

I think it was a 2ZZ-FE or something maybe 2ZE-FE

DaveG1 · Post by **DaveG1** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:29 pm

I just bought a super charged previa all trac and the engine in there is a 2tz-fze engine and the non super charged models had 2tz-fe engines. any body dialed in on super chargers? I know nothing about them.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:35 pm

Depends on what kind of super it is. If its a centifugal supercharger I can tell you some, if its a screw-type, all I can tell you is that are more complicated than our simple friend the turbo. Plus you have engine RPM limitations. Turbos don't have that issue hehehehe...
Pretty much a cen. super is half of a turbocharger with a pulley instead of an exhaust spool. They are the more simple of the two. A screw-type has 2 corkscrews turning at very high speeds pulling in air.

DaveG1 · Post by **DaveG1** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 3:30 pm

do they whistle when you accelerate? can you make it stop? if I open up the exhuast will it go faster or get better mpg? if I take it off will I get better mpg?

ThreeEyedBandit · Post by **ThreeEyedBandit** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:40 pm

How about the eighties era subaru's. They are cheap, reliable and easy to find.

Matt

3A-C Power · Post by **3A-C Power** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:14 pm

Those are indeed nice cars, but are more conventionally shaped than the Tercel. With the Tercel's tall roof, you can put a mattress in the back and sleep in it in comfort as long as you aren't really tall. It is good to know that there are some good older Subarus around at least somewhere. Where I live we don't have too many and they rusted as bad as the Toyotas. Now the Justy is one nifty little car, I wouldn't mind snagging one of those.

ThreeEyedBandit · Post by **ThreeEyedBandit** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:48 pm

Ive' never had a problem sleeping in the back of one, just need to lay diaganally due to being 6 feet tall. The justys are very neat cars, but they just need a low range.

Matt

Adelard of Bath · Post by **Adelard of Bath** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:12 pm

I am at a disadvantage; I have never seen a Justy....

but I was drooling over this 2-door rav4 I saw in a parking lot, the older style, before they redesigned them and made them bigger circa 2000 or 2001...but I was reading something today and found they didn't have any kind of low-range gearing. Well, those are out for me.

You don't necessarily NEED a "low" on a transfer case, but the sixth gear or however you want to call it is a must if you plan to do any pretend rock crawling at all

in my opinion! either that or alot of practice replacing clutches

Retroloc1 · Post by **Retroloc1** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:52 am

VW 4-motion isn't a true "Inegral" as the Quattro were. I write "were" because the A3 and TT do have a 4-motion instead of a Quattro.

They have an Haldex differential that's similar with viscoclutches.
To be concrete, it doesn't transfers torque till the front axle spins and let you on 2WD when decelerating (for not to interfer the ABS).
So, it's useful if you live in a snowy region to help you climb. It's not useful when you go down the hill nor if you want a sport use of a torqueful engine.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:28 am

The centri-supers will whine a bit, not as much as a turbo though. Haven't heard a screw-type so dunno. Opening up the exhaust won't make much difference with the turbo itself as it drives off the crank versus exhaust flow. It'll help roughly as much as it would on a Naturally Aspirated engine, plus a little extra.
Like any perf mod, it'll kill mileage if your foot is in it, but it should help when you are gentle.
I don't know if your can make the whistle stop. I doubt you can as it is just an aerodynamic effect. A compressor spinning at 20k RPM's tends to make some aerodynamic noise. Turbulence reduction might help though (ported casings for Centri's, dunno about screws)
One evil and dangerous noise is called surging. Basically it is air back-flow into the charger causing MASSIVE MASSIVE turbulence, potentially knocking the compressor against the housing. Not good. Get a pop-off valve for that. Those make that cool whoosh noise when you let off the throttle. You can buy ones engineered for silence or super-loud whoosh. They take that increase in pressure that would cause backflow and let it out into the atmosphere or back into the intake. Turbochargers could do with them but often are not employed.
I really think a turbocharger is a more efficient deisgn, but again, thats me.
I like how 4Motion will not allow 3 wheels to spin while one sits of that dry spot of pavement.
I prefer those Mitsu and Eagle AWD's for that zoom-zoom feel.

Post by **Mattel** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 6:27 pm

I'm looking to update my rusty roofed '83 which is starting to look really tatty and rust all through the roof (what the hell) with something more modern!

I did rent a Subaru Forester recently when I went to West Oz and even though the rental agreement said no off road we took this little thing everywhere and cruised through sandy patches to a surf beach with 4 people inside that on one sandhill took a nissan patrol took 3 goes at! didn't even have it in low range! I love driving rings around those big four wheelers

I love the big tyres on the things as well. you do not have to rev the shit out of it like the tercel due to great torque curve but with all those electro gizmos you would be hard pressed to fix it yourself on a dirt road (unlike the terc) also the packaging is not as good.. there is just not the same amount of space in a Forester specially in the back seat.

However...I just rang up regarding a Tercel in the classifieds. an '88 with only 140,000 km's on it (less than 100,000 miles!) for $3,500 aus (less than $2,500 US!) I'm inspired... I want to see the body first though and give it a magnet test

So I'm in a bit of a bind right now.. I don't have access to a block of land that I can leave a spare car on for parts because unfortunatly I live 1km away from the centre of Melbourne.

I'm thinking that the Forester is the spiritual ancestor to the Tercel.. anyone else driven one?

I'd love to try one of those GT Foresters with the Turbo.. lower gear gets to 60mph quicker than a WRX! pity they don't have the dual range gearbox

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:22 am

I drove a Forester. They are very zippy, especially with that turbo (whoosh) but I was dissatisfied with the lack of simplicity and room. I dunno about the Terc being ancestor to the Forester, but they were pretty close in comparison. Those Subarus are supposed to have a pretty good longevity record as well. I've seen a few with over 300k miles and still running well. I have a friend at church who has an Outback and says the engine and tranny are fine but he's had to have the viscous coupling replaced twice and a differential rebuilt. He's had it 35,000 miles and it has 95 or so thousand.