1997 Toyota Tercel Bird Cars .

Someone please clue me in on the Toyota Tercel of the mentioned vintage . I have read they came with a twin cam 1.5 Liter I4 and had somewhere in the neighborhood of 93HP . I have yet to see a curb weight of one also . Is there an aftermarket for these cars ? Has anyone ever seen these things on track before ?

I looked up them up in the SCCA GCR roadracing spec line and they weren't there . So to me that says no one has petitioned SCCA to build one as a racecar yet .

So were these were a close cousin the Paseo ?

Might help fwiw:

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1997/toyota/tercel/696/specs.html

make sure youget the Tercel STD too (not kidding)

Why the standard ? Lightest ? Did it have the same drive train as the higher models ? Must have been similiar in class to the Civic STD ?

It doesn't seem like any of the Tercels came with a different engine; the Paseo appears to have a somewhat hotter motor. They appear to share platforms with the Starlet / Glanza sold overseas, so that might be a source for suspension parts. There were factory turbo JDM Starlets, but that doesn't help much if you want to go road racing.

The 95-up Tercels had a distributorless DOHC engine, called the 5EFE, shared with the mechanically identical Paseo of the same vintage, rated at 93 hp. The 90 (I think) to 94 Tercels had an SOHC 3EFE engine rated at a blistering 80 hp or so; when I put the Stealthtercel back on the road this year, I did what lots of people do and replaced that with the same-generation DOHC 5EFE (that DOES have a distributor) rated at 100 hp. Whee! Good news: instant 25% power bump. Bad news: still lagging behind a new Accent.

To help your searches, 95 up is Gen 5 for Tercels and Gen 2 for Paseos; Gen 4/Gen 1, respectively, preceded them, obviously. What you are looking for is info about EP91 or EP92 Toyota Starlets. A Toyota 4EFTE turbo engine drops right in, as does the somewhat rare NA 5EFHE with variable induction and tougher internals (con rods, etc.)

www.tercelreference.com is an excellent source of data, as are www.tercelonline.com, www.torontopaseoclub.com, and others. The mother lode of Starlet stuff appears to be Toy Tuning in the UK.

Oh, and some low-end Tercels had 4-speed manuals instead of 5-speed. tercelreference can give you the ratios, I believe. (Automatics, if that's an issue, were 3-speed in the Gen 4 Tercel, 4-speed with O/D in the Gen 1 Paseo.)

Wow , StealthTercel .

Thank you for all of the info . I do currently race a 1985 Honda Civic and have in the past raced a 1991 Civic in the SCCA's Improved Touring- C class . These were a standard Civic , 4 speed and definatly not the HP ratings that the Toyota has . I think the car may have some potential in the same class if I can get it put on the list .

Are these cars readily available ? I'm in Mi so most older cars have the usual Mi patina . Rust . Or should I be looking for a Paseo instead ? Lighter ? Better braking abitliy ?

You're very welcome!

Tercelreference quotes curb weights for a Gen 4 1992 Tercel as ranging from 1950 lbs to 2085 lbs, while the 1992 Gen 1 Paseo was 2075 to 2160. The two would probably be almost the same if you gutted them. (I don't know if that's in your plans.) One thing you might want to check is helmet clearance in the Paseo, which I find to be a significantly lower vehicle than the Tercel.

The only rust information I can offer is anecdotal, and I would say that they both rust less than Hondas, but obviously after fifteen years in Michigan (or Ontario, where I live) you want to check carefully.

As far as "readily available" is concerned, there always seem to be half a dozen for sale around Toronto. (At their current age and price point, Craigslist and Kijiji may be a better bet than AutoTrader.) Paseos are relatively rarer than Tercels, but we're not talking unobtainium here.

I don't think I've ever read anything on the boards comparing the stock braking performance of the Paseo vs the Tercel. Maybe you could glean something from old R&T or C/D road tests? As far as I know, none of them ever came stock in North America with rear disks. However, brake upgrades using Toyota or aftermarket parts are widely discussed on line, and you should be able to find information quite easily if your race classes would allow such things.

David

I've always been suprised that these things have absolutely no aftermarket compared to civics. They've gotta be nearly as light, and i would think Celica or other hot motors would be an easy enough swap. And i've always kinda liked the way they looked - for an econobox, anyway.

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Man, I remember in autoshop we were smogging a tercel and I was surprised by how light they were. I remember commenting with some suspension work they could probably be a fun little car, and getting nothing but strange looks from the recent highschool graduates in class with me.

I love this forum....

I've replaced a half dozen 3EFE's in my lifetime. Don't think much of that motor.

The curb weight is less than I thought. Impressive.

Are there decent struts/shocks for these things? I found a set of TEIN springs online, along with some other less impressive brand names, but all I've seen for bolt in dampers are KYB GR-2's.

Not sure how much they share with the newer Echo, but I know of at least one that was in NoVA with a lowered suspension, TEC 3 and turbo. That little thing was a beautiful sleeper. Cornered fairly well for a FWD econobox. Ok, it cornered amazingly for a FWD econobox. He scared the crap out of me more than once.

www.toytuning.com offers four pages of suspension stuff (click on "chassis"), everything from coilovers to bolt-in cages. (Yes, that one surprised me, too.)

This was written by me Tobey over years of Research on these cars so enjoy.

Intro: to all with these cars you might learn something here.

There are different engines for a direct drop in upgrade. Here are thier names by enine code. All these engines are called E series The 3ete,3e,3ee,4efe,5efe,5efhe,and the 4efte

The 3ete is a 1.5 liter 12 valve single cam motor with a factory turbo not availible in the states,this motor was said to put out 127 hp. The 3e is also a 1.5 liter 12valve single cam the carburated version of the 3ee(12v) EFI(electronic fuel injection).both these engiines were avilible in the states. These motors were said to put out 82 hp. This 3e family was is considered to be the not so reliable relatives to the 4e and 5e families.

Then you have the NONTURBO 4efe(76hp) (7:6:1) 16 valve 1.3 liter dual cam,really tall domed pistons taller than the 5efHe but smaller engine. and too tall for the 1.5 without smacking the valves.

And its turboed version the 4efte(135hp) the t is for turbo these motors were not avalible in the states.

Ok back to the 1.5 class the 5efe,and the 5efHe the (H) is for high out put. They share the same head as the 1.3 4e but minor and major changes had been made. The minor changes happend to the 1st and 2nd gen 5efe heads like different valve cover changes and little things.

The 108-110 hp 5efHe is known to be named (the school yard bully) high compression pistons (9:8:1) more agressive cams and multi butterfly tuned intake manifold and 4-2-1 exhaust.When turboed people have gotten 300 hp out of this great engine. This engine was all by its self in Japan.Not availble in the states.

The 5efe 1st gen (105hp 91fts tq) and 2nd gen (91hp 100fts tq) both are 9:4:1 The 1st gen has a distributor and slightly domed pistons and more chamber volume. This is a great turbo modding engine with the 2nd gen flat pistons and huge chamber volume at 9:0:1 and the 4efte componets swaped over. first gen 5efe

4E-5E share the same head the only difference is the height of the block.

The 2nd gen has a D.I.S (distributorless ignition system) flat pistons and less chamber volume. but the 2nd gen has more n/a power poteintual because the head has more meat on it and less chamber volume.2nd gen 5efe::: 5efhe pistons and the 2nd gen 5efe head and the first gen 5efe head gasket this sick combo will put th motor at high compression.

So far all I have is the pistons the 5efhe pistons will bring 9:8:1 compression to the 1st gen 5efe. If I were to use those high compression pistons in a 2nd gen 5efe the compression will be around 10:5:1 +.

Some where close to that range or higher as far as I know no one has done this mod yet. People have had theroey but nothing set in stone.

I measured the head gasket on the 1st gen 5efe(pic on the left) in my car and had .045 clearance with the head still attached. This should mean if I use the 2nd gen head(pic on right) I could shave the head down about .035 with the 1st gen head gasket on the 2nd gen head. Dome clearance on the 5efhe piston measured to .0555 so no on the 2nd gen hg. Witch also means I can still shave the head and use the 1st gen hg @ 1mm

i just got a toyota tercel 4 door '91. I want to make it faster! I was thinking about an engine swap, but dont no wat engine would fit my car. Im new to the racing scene nd was wondering wat i should do..n e suggestions?

I've secretly thought about looking for one of these to play with just to see what they would do, I had no idea that there was this much info on them available, I love the interweb. The only thing that has kept me from seriously searching for one of these is the fact I've never touched a Toyota, other than to seriously look at an old taco that had serious amounts of rust, and to check my old boss's oil for her in her rolla. oh yeah I did do a clutch job on a starlet once, that turned me on in a serious way once it was done and the owner took me for a ride in it. But it is a toyota and you know what that means.........no drivers side carpet for YOU!

This reminds me of a few years back, when I was at Brands Hatch in the UK for some club racing. I was talking to a GTI racer, who remarked that he was having trouble with two competitors in Starlets. he said the Starlets had a big advantage over the rest of the class because they could hold a gear for up to 9000 rpm, reliably.

m