1986 Cressida problems ? help!

[mike260]

My old 4th grade teacher is giving away his 1986 cressida. The car dosent run he says, but its been sitting for a few years. according to him It wont pass smog because of the timing?and something electrical? whats really wrong with this car? could it just be a dead battery? or sparkplugs? im not concerned with it passing smog because where i live there is no smog requirments. I would love to have this car, but not if it needs too much work.

[kamesama980]

how the f*** should we know what's wrong with it? LOL there could be 2 things wrong that'll cost $50 to fix or there could be 50 things wrong that costs $2000 to fix. You aren't gonna know till you take posession and start cleaning out the cobwebs. Since it's free, go ahead and get it but don't register it till you get it running. that way if you don't get it running you can sell it to the junkyard (or a more masochistic cressida enthusiast) for a profit

My guess would be (for starters and in order of difficulty/order you should do it in)
-new battery
-see how it runs and pull codes if there are any
-full ignition tune up (sparks, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, set timing)
-change ALL the fluids. oil, coolant, ATF, PS,
-timing belt & 4 front seals if not a whole upper gasket set

once it actually runs, attack the suspension and brakes:
-after sitting it will likely need pads and rotors. you *might* be able to salvage the old
-see if the bleeders move. if they do, flush the whole system
-check the wheel bearings, tie rods, bushings, etc.

all of that assumes that nothing ends up being a problem to solve before moving on to the next item

[jacsr]

excellent reply and suggestions. You sound like you really know your stuff.

[kamesama980]

Originally Posted by jacsr

excellent reply and suggestions. You sound like you really know your stuff.

I've been on forums and fixing my own cars for um.... 6 years (jeez, really that long?) and going to school for it and working professionally at it for 1.5 yrs. had one cressida or another for 5 of them

[Menace_121]

ya, take the battery down to autozone and see if they can recharge it, if not get a new battery and do a full tune up on the car if you plan on keepin it ie all of what kamesama980 said and do lice pcv air filt ect, usually that cancels out alot of problems it may have, also with sitting you may wanna run a fuel system cleaner, perferably seafoam, to clean the build up out of the injectors, and also run 92 for the 1st tank, the car will really like the and with a good octane fule with a tune up will get it breathin again

[kamesama980]

the 5mge runs fine on any octane, the only advantage to premium is the detergents added to it will (very slowly and only partially) remove some of the buildup in the fuel system and ports. and if you have lots of buildup in the cylinders themselves it will reduce knocking/pinging

[Menace_121]

for a retune with 92 it will like it alot, theoretically all cars should run 92 but meh haha

[kamesama980]

5m is made for regular unleaded (usually 87 or 89 octane here in the states. 91 or 93 RON???) If you advance the ignition, yes I'd suggest premium but stock you won't gain anything.
7m is tuned for premium on the ignition curve but will run just fine on regular unless you have the ignition advanced past stock.

[skullraze]

ERG valve and various timings were the reason my 86 failed a smog test. Last I remember it was like $650 of work. Ran better afterwards though.