Tercel history question regarding carburetors

[Ace]

I have a 1983 Tercel wagon, original 3AC engine with carburetor. I'm wondering how long carburetors lasted on Toyota vehicles until superceeded by fuel injection? Did mainstream Tercel production during 1983-1988 for USA market all have 3AC engines with carburetor? I know from my 1983 FSM that the Canadian Tercels had 3A engines, basically the same but with simpler emissions hardware.

Admittedly I got too lazy to research this, I figured some people here know this info right off the top of their head.

The only vehicle I've owned with fuel injection was a 1994 Toyota Tarago van (Australian version of USA Previa) with 2.4L engine. It always started effortlessly compared to a sometimes balky carburetor system.

[dlb]

It was different from country to country. Here in Canada, I believe the 88-92 Corolla wagons were all EFI but it seems like some of them were still carb'd in the US. But yes, from everything I've seen all the second gen Tercels in North America were carb'd.

It seems like Toyota's 'nicer' vehicles came with EFI sooner though, because I think most of the 80's 4runners here were EFI. Same with Camry's.

[Ace]

Thanks for the info, dlb.

It just occurred to me, I think this is true, that the "C" in the "3AC" engine designation indicates catalytic converter equipped?

[Mark]

I had an '84 Camry that was fuel injected. Same with my '85 Toyota van. I think the 3rd gen Tercels still had carbs.

[Nordical25]

European Toyotas had carburetors until 1989 at least. 2E engine and 4A-F had carburetors until 1989 meanwhile updated ones had fuel injection (2E-E & 4A-FE).

Some market areas had carburetors maybe even during 1990's.

[Ace]

Thank you all for your responses.

Some interesting trivia here:
https://www.motortrend.com/features/las ... nch-seats/
Automotive Lasts: The Last Cars With Cassette Decks, Carbs, Bench Seats, and More
(also: last vehicles with vent windows, T-tops, hidden headlights ...)

The 1994 Isuzu Pickup earns its place as the last new vehicle sold in the United States with a carburetor.

More info here about last vehicles with carburetors:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/0 ... r-vehicles

By the time the OBD-II legislation was passed, however, automakers had already converted nearly their entire U.S. fleets to fuel injection. Those cars and trucks still using carburetors typically were the automakers’ oldest and/or least expensive models. In fact, we only count 12 models that made it to the Nineties without switching to fuel injection.

Of those 10, we have the barely-worth-mentioning 1990 Toyota Tercel with its 3E 12-valve single-overhead-camshaft 1.5-liter four-cylinder that dated back to 1987. The third-generation Honda Prelude used the B20A3 12-valve single overhead-camshaft 2.0-liter four-cylinder through 1990 as well; it appears to be the last multi-carbureted engine available in the United States with its twin sidedraft Keihin carburetors. The last four-barrel carbureted engine available in the United States, the Quadrajet-topped LV2 Oldsmobile 307, soldiered on into the 1990 model year in the Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, Buick Estate Wagon, and Cadillac Brougham.

Two car models continued into the 1991 model year with carburetors, and both lay claim to the title of last carbureted cars sold in the United States. While the 5.0-liter V-8 in Ford’s LTD Crown Victoria had switched to fuel injection in the mid-Eighties, the 5.8-liter remained available with a Motorcraft 7200 variable-venturi two-barrel carburetor for fleet sales and in Canada. Meanwhile, the Subaru Justy’s EF-12 three-cylinder engine switched from its Hitachi two-barrel to fuel injection sometime late in the 1991 model year.

The same year, Chrysler wound down production of the Jeep SJ Grand Wagoneer, which had by then been reduced to a single power plant: the Motorcraft 2150 two-barrel-fed 360. With LTD Crown Victoria production wrapping up in Ontario, the Toledo-built SJ Grand Wagoneer reportedly is the last U.S.-built passenger vehicle to come with a carburetor.

With just a couple model years left until the OBD-II mandate, you think that’d be it, but there’s more. Up through 1993, Mazda kept a two-barrel on the 2.2-liter four-cylinder in its B2200 pickup and Isuzu continued to offer the carbureted 4ZD1 2.3-liter four-cylinder in the Amigo. That 4ZD1 2.3-liter, however, remained carbureted for one more year in the base-trim two-wheel-drive TF series Isuzu Pickup.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the Isuzu Pickup was the last vehicle ever built with a carburetor. Note that the phrasing we use above doesn’t include motorcycles or recreational vehicles in our purview. Also note that we’ve concerned ourselves to this point with passenger vehicles sold in the United States, which was the first country to fully implement OBD-II and, effectively, ban carburetors. Carmakers would continue to build and sell carbureted vehicles elsewhere around the globe until other countries eventually adopted their own versions of OBD-II.

Determining exactly which vehicles remained carbureted in which countries, however, is somewhat more difficult to nail down. The above-mentioned B2200, for instance, remained carbureted at least through 1995 in Australia and New Zealand, but we’ve also heard reports that the Suzuki Swift remained carbureted there through 1999 and that the Australian version of the Mitsubishi Express van used a carburetor through 2003. In Canada, one could reportedly buy a Lada Niva with a carburetor through 1996. In the U.K., it may well be the same Subaru Justy mentioned above. In the rest of Europe and possibly in Japan, the Honda Civic continued to use the carbureted D13B1 and D13B2 four-cylinders through 1995. And then there’s Russia, where it appears the Lada Riva still had a carbureted engine as late as 2012, the same date that NASCAR switched over to fuel injection.

There could very well be later examples too, and we’re sure we’ll hear about them in the comments below. For now, though, and especially in light of the coming prohibitions against sales of new internal-combustion-powered cars around the globe, it’s at least worth exploring the topic just to illustrate that nothing lasts forever, no matter how used to it we have become.

[long quote from Hemmings]