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[PreLunatic]

Alright guys, I had a 93 tercel back in the day, when i was 15 i think, now im 18. it was a fun car and all but it was slow, so i got a honda prelude. but now, my thoughts have changed, i am starting college in 3 months, and i would really love to start a nice little project with a tercel. my plan is to get rid of the prelude, i have a guy thats interested for 5k. right now at my work i make around 1k a week working as a technician. so in about 3 months, i can save up around 5kish and plus if i sell the lude would leave me with about 10k. so the deal is, i want to buy a tercel, preferably the 91-94 model. just get one with a decent body, do the 4e-fte swap, suspension, rims, do some body work, tune it, and do some mods on the engine to make it breath better. i have found a few tercels for around 1kish around my area in really good condition with about 200k miles on em, which dont bother me much. do you guys think this is a crazy idea? worth it? the car would be used as a daily driver basically to college, which is about 5 miles away... and then just around town. would it hold up good? and if so, where is a good place to get the swap done, or if i should do it at my friends garage? cuz hes got all the stuff i need... thanks in advance.

[Dolanite]

Hey man, welcome! I'm also from the chicago area. I say do whatever you want, it's your car, a turbo tercel is pretty sweet in my opinion though. As for shops to do the swap, BYP (http://www.back-yard-productions.com , I guess the site is currently down) are the specialists but they're in florida. I guess just call around the area, I heard of a shop in Palatine that has done swaps in paseos but I never really looked into it.

[TdotTercel]

a 4efte pwoered tercel makes a sweet daily driver
and 91-94 is the best genereation for so, so many reasons, so i think your on the right track
You seem to know what yer talking about, and what things to expect with a swap

Im driving 1992 tercel with 5EFHE swap as my daily driver and I LOVE IT

I say go for it!

[AstroVannin]

Might be worth contacting BYP to see if they have any completed swaps for sale too.... That way you can start with the funs stuff. I thought Fire was for sale for around 5000ish

[PreLunatic]

heh thanks for the input guys, yah, i loved my first cel that i had, it only had 70k miles onit, and it was a 93... pretty sweet. and sold it for 2.5k which was even better lol... also, last year i was interested in this and talked to dr tweak i believe... is he still around? so how much money you guys think this whole setup would run me? car + swap + suspension + rims + exhaust + ...some other shit like injectors, boost controler, ect...

also, what is Fire? dont really know much about that, or w/e it is lol... thanks

[TTercel]

Id say do with the newer body style 1995+. Your gonna most likely find it in better condition, and well in my opinon looks better. Man 10K dropped into a Tercel wow this thing is gonna be sooo fast LOL. So what you looking at drag car, track car, or a combo of these. So far there are not many fast drag Tercels out there the fastest ive seen is a low 13 through the quarter. Well to tell you how much its gonna cost you is gonna be hard because we dont know what motor you want to use there are several...Stock 5EFE, 4EFTE, 4AGE/20 Valve, Ive also heard crazy ideas going around about boring out the stock 5EFE block to 1.6L and using Corolla parts. There is one last one no one has done yet and I want to do in the future and its a 7AGTE.... Basically its a hybrid of a 7AFE bottom end and 4AGE top end plus a turbo. So there are many ways to go with this. NOW PICK ONE!!!11!!

[Donald]

Originally Posted by TTercel

Ive also heard crazy ideas going around about boring out the stock 5EFE block to 1.6L and using Corolla parts.

I had asked about this before and was told it wasn't practical since the cylinder walls were not thick enough. If anybody knows for sure I would really appreciate any information on this mod. What would we call that ....... 6E-FE?

[PreLunatic]

yah im thinking of going 4efte because i see some people that have it and dont really see many problems with them. im thinking of going with the older model because i like the body style ALOT more than any other cels. i just want to keep it very stylish, you know, no crazy stupid shit, maybe get a lip kit that i saw on this one cel, rims, drop, and a few other accesories, but nothing major, just keep it sleeper, and i want to make the motha fucka fast., tight around the corners too =) so now my search is begining to find a pretty cheap cel with good body, and w/e engine.

[ShowCarTercel]

91-94 look best and swap best too. In 97, Tercels went to a returnless fuel system, so that would have to be changed to run a 4efte. And the newer ones are OBD-II, so you may run into emission problems.

Have you put any thought into a turbo'ed 5efhe? That's something you may want to look into as well.

And of course, welcome back to the Tercel world.

[TTercel]

Originally Posted by Donald

I had asked about this before and was told it wasn't practical since the cylinder walls were not thick enough. If anybody knows for sure I would really appreciate any information on this mod. What would we call that ....... 6E-FE?

Its possible to do you just have the sleeve it i believe not sure its thats the right term. Id love to see a "6E-FE" running.

[Donald]

I think a bored out 5E-FE would be just the thing I need for more bottom end torque. I wouldn't have to worry about cutting the frame or building engine mounts for swapping in a 4A-GE, or a 7A-FE.
If my calculations are correct a 6E would be about a 1.8L engine. The 5E stroke is 87mm, the 4A piston diameter is 81mm.

< pi x radius sq x stroke x 4 = 1793cc, approximately > Who hooooo!!

I am going to start looking for a machine shop to do this soon.