87 Tercel 4wd questions/help needed

[rodsax]

I supposedly have a low mileage replacement Japanese engine and 6 speed. The valve cover says 3AC-SCV. It sure acts like it is a lot more powerful than 60 horse or so. Any ideas on how the Japanese maintain these engines? The owner that put it in only got about 40-50K on it and the front main seal is leaking like crazy. Since I am going to have to take the front of the engine apart, does anyone know if I should replace the tensioner spring and where might I get a new one? I plan on replacing the belt and tensioner because I don't want to have to mess with it again. Anyone have an opinion about being able to tow a trailer that grosses about 1200 pounds? May need to upgrade engine and clutch for that...
The way the economy is going I may need to rehab this and use it for a couple of years and will need to get at least 30K more miles out of it. Anyone with any success at repairing the rear window deogger? Pretty sure it is the grid. they used to make paint that restored the contact. I would like to put an SR5 instrument cluster into it. Anyone have a source for those? Thanks for your help in advance, Rod

[tercel4wdrules]

Since I am going to have to take the front of the engine apart, does anyone know if I should replace the tensioner spring and where might I get a new one? I plan on replacing the belt and tensioner because I don't want to have to mess with it again.

I would replace the tensioner spring, I did when I replaced the timing belt and tensioner on my car. You can get it from the Toyota dealer, I can't remember what I paid for it, but it's not much. The old spring was very worn, it was a lot easier to stretch than the new one. Hope this helps.

[Mattel]

Hi, I would look at replacing the water pump and gasket if you are unsure of them, and all aux belts while you are there. The SR5 clusters sometime pop up on here or wrecking yards and are fairly easy to replace, keep checking in and you will find one.

I had a 3a-scv on my last car and it was a JDM replacement. It seemed a bit more peppy than this Terc that I have now (normal 3a) but that may be due to my present engine being 220,000kms old. The japanese tend to replace cars often due to the the rigorous testing regime on old vehicles and tend not to look after them mechanically, you may find that your engine has 50,000 kms of hard core urban driving and never had it's oil changed in it's life - or you may get a good one. I would flush the engine out with some cheap light oil a few times and change the filters often for a bit. Try sea-foam even (you can do a search on this to find Typrus's excellent article).

For Towing make sure your tow bar is rated (does it have a support bar that goes to in front of the fuel tank!) and that you have good rear springs on the car (there are heavy duty ones made by Pedders amongst others) I would try for a braked trailer if poss. Also use good synth oil in your gearbox as a preventative - it has transformed my car and may save yours if you are testing out the gearbox with the extra stress of towing.

Good luck!

[GTSSportCoupe]

I think the 3ASCV has 90hp @ 6000rpm and 89ftlb @ 4000rpm. Compared to the 3AC 62 @ 4800 and 75 @ 2800. 3ASCV has higher compression and different cams; it's built for a higher rpm power band.

[Petros]

I have heard two different stories about how good the imported engines are, one from a Japanese national: cars are so costly to own, and they have so many regulations about safety and maintenance, that most people take good care of their cars. They are required by law maintenance intervals where they have to replace a certain number of parts each time it gets serviced (and they must show the records to get it registered each year), that it becomes cheaper to just replace the whole engine rather that repair it after only 4-5 years (40-50k miles). Almost like owning an aircraft here. Since these cars are really designed for the US market they last much longer than that so a number of companies make good money importing these low mile used engines to sell in the US.

Most are pretty good engines that I have had experience with. One person told me that since they replace them at such low miles anyway, they do not take care of them. That was an American who said that, but I think he thinks like an American, not a Japanese who's culture is conformance, obedience, diligence and responsibility (unlike Americans).

I would replace the seal and the belt, but usually the factory water pumps last 100K-150k miles, and I have never replaced the idler and tension spring on any of my rebuilds. Both of these are easy to get to on the Tercel, so I would not bother replacing anything else unless you suspect they are bad. Rotate by hand both the water pump and the idler with pressure on them, if they run smooth (no roughness at all) they are likely good. You can also inspect the seal on the water pump of any sign of leaks, especially from the drain hole usually on the underside of the water pump shaft. If the seal leaks than just replace the whole pump, lifetime guaranteed pumps can be bought at NAPA for only about $35, it only took me a total of one hour to replace.

BTW, I know my tension springs are stretched, so when I set the belt tension I "help" the spring by putting some pressure on the idler pulley before I tighten the bolt, that puts proper tension on the belt (when new they tend to relax pretty fast anyway). That is why I have not bothered to replace the spring, I "manually" tension the belt.

I am not sure I would want to tow a trailer that heavy. The brakes on these Tercels are inadaquate the way they are, with that much weight I think it would be almost certain to warp or blue your rotors. I would limit it to 800 lbs max, and then be VERY cautious.

Good luck,

[Mattel]

ditto to what Petros said, you should get a good idea on the engines condition and how much care has been taken while doing that front seal, good luck