The agony of choice

tercel_iceland · Post by **tercel_iceland** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:37 pm

I'm in a pickle.

The engine in my Tercel gave up yesterday. The head gasket is blown and some piston rings probably too. Anyways it doesn't run or start so i am considering my options. The car it self isn't worth anything, at least not with a dead engine but in Iceland you get 15.000 krona (about $230) for bringing your car in for recycling.

Rebuilding the engine is to expensive and takes a lot of time so I've pretty much ruled that out. I'll take the head off tomorrow and check things out. If its just the gasket, maybe I'll just fix it.

I have another 3ac engine in my parts car. It hasn't been driven for maybe two or three years but it turns and cranks (slowly). I can simply swap that one if it starts and runs ok. Pretty simple and doesn't cost me a lot of money.

What I've always wanted to do is to swap a 4age into the tercel and if there ever was a time to do it... But that could become costly since these engines are a bit hard to find in Iceland. Also I've heard of some mechanical problems regarding adapting it to the tercel gearbox. If someone could enlighten me that'd be super.

So what should I do? Fix, swap or simply toss it?

Post by **Petros** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:34 pm

I am always facing this same dilemma since I hate the old carberator and want more power, allow me to share with you my own thought process:

If you are going to upgrade to 4age you must know it will be costly and a lot of work, you should have the whole parts car available so you can get all of the necessary components. It is a lot more work than simply switching engines. The engine block actually will bolt up to the Tercel trans and engine mounts, but that is not where all the problems are. It will require a custom exhaust header that must fit between the starter and the steering shaft (I presume you drive on the right side of the road as in the USA). Also there may be issues with the distributor location, you would have to go distributorless ignition (there are generic conversion kits available), or get the head that has the distributor off the side (as in the 3a engine) which is less common and I am not familiar which model cars use the side distributor mount. You may have to convert your flywheel to fit the 4age crank (welding and redrilling the holes are required). The 3a flywheel is a smaller diameter and you have to use it on the 4age engine so your starter will work. A 4afe will not require the flywheel mod (the 3a flywheel will bolt on to the 4afe crank). The 4afe is more common and it gets better fuel economy (but it has less power). There may also be an issue with the intake manifold, typically the transverse engine set-up puts the throttle body too far aft to get an induction system installed on these Tercels because it puts it up against the firewall. There may be some models of the fuel injection manifold that will fit within the Tercel engine compartment, but I am not familiar with them.

Needless to say, this is a major conversion and only worth it if you are going to make your car a custom "project" car, and the car's condition is good enough you do not have a lot rust and body damage to repair. By "project" I mean I would only do if I also invest in custom wheels, suspension mods, a full custom exhaust, custom interior and paint, a sound system, etc. to make it special. Of course, this makes the whole project much more expensive and time consuming. Even rebuilding your engine would be less work and cost than doing the 4age engine swap.

If you intent to keep the rest of the car stock, it would not be worth the effort IMHO since there will be nothing remarkable about the car after the conversion.

OTOH, doing the least expensive thing possible to make it run and drive will allow you to simply keep driving it just the way it is. Pulling the head is a lot less work than pulling the engine, but if the head needs rebuilding (valves, seals, resurface, etc.) then swapping the engine for a good running one is much less expensive. If the body and interior are rough, I would just opt for the less expensive repair and drive it the way it is. You will not regret the extra cost and effort for the conversion no matter how much better the 4age engine would have been.

There is a "middle" option that I have done and do not regret. I rebuilt my engine with a number of inexpensive performance mods. It improved the power significantly (and the fuel economy improved as well), and there was no problem fitting the engine into the car, and I got a "zero" time engine with a lot of new internal parts. It cost me about $600US to rebuild it with the mods. I think all the mods required to make a 4age fit a Tercel would be more work and more expense than that, not counting the cost of the new engine itself. If you simply want to get rid of the stock carb, you might consider installing throttle body injection system on the 3a engine from a Suzuki Swift/Geo Metro (there is a thread describing the installation). This is a lot less work than getting a 4age engine to work in the Tercel.

Good luck,

CASE · Post by **CASE** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:55 am

the 3e injection system looks like it would go on to a 3ac with minimal hassle, yet I never hear of this conversion. Is it a crappy system? or do people just wanna squeeze out more horses for the effort?

Post by **Petros** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:26 pm

The 3 e engine has a different head, it has 3 valves per cyl. (12 valve head). and the 3e head also puts the distributor at the back of the head. So I doubt the manifold would bolt on to the 3a head, and the 3 e head might bolt okay on the 3a block but you will have the distributor and other conversion problems.

I have not heard anything bad about it, it just does not have as much power as the 4 afe or 4age engines.