3E-E compression

[white86tercel]

I just noticed a 92 Tercel forsale. The price is great and the pictures look awsome. I called the owner and asked him a few questions. He told me that the car had being inspected recently and that 3cylinders had compression of 210 and one was at 175. The mechanic supposedly said that the engine was starting to show it's age, this was pretty common for this generation of Tercel, and that the engine probably had about 4 years left in it.

How do these numbers sound to you guys?

[Tercel GTS]

Sounds like it could use a seafoam treatment. The rings may have carbon building that the seafoam may loosen and allow the rings to seal properly again. How much for the car?

[ToyotaTechGeek]

the 3E is notorious for needing the valves adjusted every service interval (like every t-belt service interval or so). could be a leaky valve. a leak-down test will help.

[NickR]

Those numbers (the 210's) sound too high. I don't have my Haynes on me, but isn't that higher than original?? I am sceptical of those numbers. I believe the 175, and it's fine, but not the 210's.

[ToyotaTechGeek]

210's= high carbon build-up...most of these cars don't get the 'proper' daily flogging.

[white86tercel]

I haven't actually seen the car. So I'm rellying on the information in the ad and the stuff the current owner told me. In away, it sounds like a dream come true: the car only has 225,000KM on it, it seems to have been maintained reasonably well (it has a new timing belt...), the body / paint are execellent condition, the engine is probably in good enough condition for me to drive it while I save for a 4EFTE/5E and the owner is asking 1800OBO (Canadian) which is very good for my area (Victoria, BC)


On the flipside, I spent a little bit too much moving so I'm not sure if I can afford the car, I'm too busy with school and work to test drive it before next week, and I suspect this vehicle is going to cost me more to maintain than my 86Tercel.


You can find the ad at
http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified-ad/326189



Here are a couple pictures as well

[NickR]

Haynes gives the standard compression as 184 psi, and 142 the minumum. If I remember correctly, my daughter's 92, with nearly 300,000 kms read about 170 psi. ToyotaTechGeek could be right about the carbon build-up, but that's fixable.

But $1,800 does not strike me as cheap, for a car that age with that mileage. I could be wrong, but check around first. Though if the body is good that counts for something.

[ssl]

my 91 coupe with 248k on it cost me 700 to altogether, buying it and getting it on the road, but the body on its gone to hell, even looks to crap under the hood, but runs great so i dont care. my 93 sedan that i crashed before ran me 3800 6 months ago, car was clean, under the hood looked new, had 98k on it and AC, body was mint cept for a small patch of surface rust on teh drivers side fender

so 1800 sounds alright to me, as long as everything is in good working order and the car is as clean as it looks, even with that mileage, its a toyota, should last for twice that

[white86tercel]

1)Cars last much longer on the west coast because we get almost no snow and don't salt the roads.

2)Used cars sell for significantly more in Victoria and Vancouver than the rest of the country.

3)The car is sold.

[drehtwnftbl]

yeah i just noticed that the car was sold...sorry dude, but from the looks of it, as long as they werent hiding anything it did look like a decent vehicle....hey, if you wanna drive to lake superior, there's a 94 in our paper, but they want 3000 for it....i called on it to see what was so special (they dont even book that high, even w/ 131,000 mi on it) and there was nothing at all. they just wanted 3000, so i said "good luck" then i hung up.

[tyler88]

Originally Posted by white86tercel

1)Cars last much longer on the west coast because we get almost no snow and don't salt the roads.

2)Used cars sell for significantly more in Victoria and Vancouver than the rest of the country.

3)The car is sold.

Speak for yourself buddy. Up north here we get anything so mucyh as a dusting and the roads are a salt block, beach, and slippery as hell all at one time.

[kamesama980]

i vote for what everyone else has been saying...the 175 is good, the others have carbon build up in the combustion chamber causing the compression to rise...seafoam and whatnot.