[v8440]

Hi all,

Another car of mine got stolen, so at least for a while, the '95 prison is my daily driver again. It's in pretty good shape-everything works, no rust at all. It's a base model 3 spd auto with almost 275k miles on it. I'm curious about a couple of things though. Structurally, how are these engines built? By that I mean are the cranks and rods forged or cast, etc. I know they're not known for bottom end problems, and mine is showing no signs of developing any. However, I drive 100 miles a day round trip to school and back. At that rate, it's possible either the engine or transmission will wear out. What is a good place to look for these besides the local junkyard? Just on a whim, I checked the price of a replacement a131L trans from LKQ; they wanted $700, and that's my work price. (I work at advance auto, and we get a considerable discount.) I was stunned-$700 for an ancient 3 spd auto that started being made by the hundreds of thousands if not millions in 1984? Hell, the one they quoted that price for had over 100k on it! Anyway, I'm just looking down the road to see what my options are if trouble arises. If I happen to find either an engine or transmission cheap that's known to be good I might snatch it up just to have in reserve. I don't see myself scrapping this car because of an engine or trans failure-it's paid for and has been too reliable to do that. I have the ability to easily change both engine and trans if needed, so labor isn't a direct financial consideration.

 

[Chris94]

Sorry to hear you had a car stolen. What components have you replaced already on the engine? 275k is pretty respectable.

 

[v8440]

The water pump, thermostat, timing belt, cam and crank seals, and I think the exhaust manifold cracked and was replaced with an aftermarket one. Oh, the O2 sensor was done a few years ago. Neither the engine or transmission leak a drop of anything. I changed the differential fluid and trans fluid a couple of years ago. The car has been mostly parked, I probably haven't put 10k on it in 2 years.

 

[Chris94]

Sounds well taken care of. You might want to keep a good OEM distributor on hand just in case because they tend to go out and give lots of symptoms that can be misdiagnosed.

 

[v8440]

I handled that already. I relocated the module to inside the air filter box so that it gets blasted with a constant stream of cool air. No more overheating of the module and pouring water on the distributor to get to the next auto parts store.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Sorry to hear about your car getting stolen, may the thieves find themselves being eaten by maggots from the inside out.

With that many miles, i'd replace the rod-bearings. And maybe even a pre-emptive headgasket job. Use the later all-metal headgasket from the 7A-FE.

 

[Pete Suhman]

I wouldn't touch it. Just maintain it. You'll go through brakes and tires, but if you keep all of the fluids full, I'll bet it'll go another 200,000whatever with no big problems.

 

[v8440]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Danno, why should I replace the rod bearings? They're showing no signs of going bad-there's no startup knock or anything. Same thing with the head gasket, no signs of trouble there either.

 

[cipher93]

I am a big fan of not touching stuff unless it really needs it. I'd say fill it with high mileage motor oil, put a good filter on it, and keep driving. Only thing that may seriously cause issues if ignored is if your fuel filter which could clog. Otherwise I think you have everything covered.

 

[v8440]

I actually run 0W-20 synthetic in it. I started that when I took a trip up to Ohio in the winter and wanted to make sure the oil wouldn't be molasses in the pan on cold startups. I just never stopped using that grade, and it seems to be fine. I changed the fuel filter shortly after buying the car, about 25,000 miles ago. It should be fine for a long time.

 

[Apples555]

Did you figure out why the A131L is so expensive?

 

[v8440]

No, I have no idea. I didn't ask LKQ, in fact, I didn't deal with them directly. Thankfully, mine is doing absolutely nothing hinky.

 

[wallytoo]

i wouldn't do anything to it, either. just run it and do normal services. 100 miles per day is nothing, and is better than only putting 10 miles per day on it.

wally

 

[v8440]

You know, over the time I've had the car I've had several offers to buy it. Something told me to not sell it each time. I'm sure glad that's the case, because I'd be driving my '98 dodge diesel dually lacking 5th gear if I had sold it. Or maybe the insurance company would be putting me in a rental car...

 

[DannoXYZ]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Danno, why should I replace the rod bearings? They're showing no signs of going bad-there's no startup knock or anything. Same thing with the head gasket, no signs of trouble there either.

For the past couple years, i've been helping a friend make a living by buying older cars that need TLC at a discount, fixing them up, and selling for a profit.

He picks Hondas as that's his specialty, and I spot the Corollas. We do a car about every 3-weeks roughly depending upon what deals are out there. The Corollas are typically of two types, blown headgasket (mostly 1.6l 4A) or rod-knock.

The headgasket cars are typically in the 200-250k range where I suspect the fibre-material compresses over time and relaxes the head-bolt tension. This eventually allows combustion-pressure through which burnts a path through the gasket. The 4A easily outnumber the 7A 10-to-1 in bad headgaskets even with simiar mileage. I suspect this difference is due to the superior all-metal gasket in the 7A.

Rod-bearings seem to go around 250-350k-miles. By the time you hear rod-knock, it's too late. The bearings are toast and you may have irreparable damage to rod & crank.

I did the rod-bearings in my car around 220k-miles because I felt the telltale mid-range "fluttering" of the engine. When I pulled the bearings, they were definitely worn beyond the service-limit specs without any rod-knock.

 

[v8440]

Wow, that's pretty convincing! No one else I can think of has dealt directly with that many of these cars recently. The buddy I got the car from mentioned putting in the 7a headgasket, mainly for the compression boost. It seems like that wouldn't be that hard to do-pull the head, leaving the manifolds attached, drop oil pan, remove rod caps, replace bearings, put it all back together...

 

[94RollaDad]

Write a DIY, @DannoXYZ !

 

[DannoXYZ]

Write a DIY, @DannoXYZ !

heh, heh...

Wow, that's pretty convincing! No one else I can think of has dealt directly with that many of these cars recently. The buddy I got the car from mentioned putting in the 7a headgasket, mainly for the compression boost. It seems like that wouldn't be that hard to do-pull the head, leaving the manifolds attached, drop oil pan, remove rod caps, replace bearings, put it all back together...

The rod-bearings are darn easy, just an extra 15-minutes on top of doing a pan gasket job. On the 4a, you have to drop the crossmember too. The 7a needs to drop it about 2" to get to the #$*%!#@ sideways bolt that bolts the oil-pan into the transmission. Here's my rod-bearings @ 220k. The wear I suspect was due to my wife taking it to places with cheapo oil-change specials. They most definitely did not use synthetic oil. The resultant oil-burning, clogged rings and low-oil levels did cause the oil-light to go on many times, indicating low-pressure. That combined with occasional off-roading probably didn't help. Not visible in the photos, but close-inspection showed the tiniest shade of copper showing through.

With the MLS headgasket, you have to make sure the block & head are flat to within 0.05mm (can get away with 0.1mm). And the surface has to be smoother than RA=60, I prefer 80. That's because the gasket doesn't have the soft fibre to seal minor imperfections. Combustion will be contained by the raised compression-ridge just fine, but scratches will weep coolant. Good idea to spray 3x layers of Coppercoat on each side of gasket before installing.

Not sure how much the MLS gasket would increase compression. Going that route, I'd bump it up to 10.5:1 like the 4A-GE. The 4A-GE really wasn't that special until the last generation with the highest compression. A high-comp 4A-FE would be more knock/detonation resistant than GE because of the flatter more compact combustion chamber that wouldn't require a dome on the piston.

 

[v8440]

I don't mind getting the head surfaced at my local shop, but I don't want to have to mess with the block. If the block will prevent the use of the 7a gasket without special treatment then the 7a gasket won't be used.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Yeah, simple check with straight-edge should be fine. Most likely block is straight, I've never seen one that needed any decking. Heads may be warped from overheating/blown headgasket. But replacing it beforehand, should be fine.