Hey what's the best way you recommend to clean the head?
1984 Toyota Camry / Vista with 1.8l turbo diesel 1C
- Thread starter Mike NXP
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If it's full of oil and sludge it's best to get a machine shop to hot tank it. It will of course need new valve seals after this. With the low compression you really to get valves checked, the seat may need recutting, or you might need new guides pressing in. Neither are expensive jobs.
Well I might be able to get new valves and seats they are kind of pricey and getting them head machine flat shouldnt be too costly either but in the meantime can I just get a laping compound to lap the valves so they hopefully seal up better?
According to the vin this was originally a true Turbo-D it also came with a chargepipe with a wastegate on it in the trunk. I will have to check if the engine is original, unsure where the vin would be stamped. I wonder if it was swapped for a 1c and they just reused the old turbo manifold. Originally my plan was to try to reinstall a turbo because its cool but that might change things.
>>Its been around 40-60 degrees recently during the day. It needs help wicking over even in the higher end at 60 degrees. I suspect ive got some glow plug problems.
>>I do have a block heater but i have not tried it yet as I dont have an exterior plug at my apartment. When ive cranked it in the past, the glow plug light does not turn on when the key is in the "on" position. It will however occasionally flash while cranking but only for a moment. I pulled the glow plugs to check resistance and to my knowledge they are good, I think im going to go through the service manual troubleshooting steps to see if i can find the problem.
>>My coolant is seemingly fine albeit dirty, the white smoke only happens at startup and it seems to run like a champ otherwise. I was told the white smoke could also be injector related? My first old diesel so learning a lot!
>>I really only have had this thing up to 60 but it seems somewhat happy there.
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I think that's exactly what happened - the original 1C-T blew up and they found a 1C long block and put that in instead, complete with turbo exhaust manifold but a NA injection pump.
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I wouldn't waste my time putting it back on until it has been skimmed. If the valve margins and seats are a bit burned up then they need to be polished/ground. Lapping paste is to get two machined surfaces (valve seat and valve margin) to seal perfectly. It's not a substitute for machining.
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- #488
A bit spendy but I know you like these rigs @AirheadNut
kalispell.craigslist.org
1983 Mercedes Benz 300 D diesel for sale by owner - Columbia Falls, MT - craigslist
Beautiful original 1983 Mercedes Benz 300 D Turbo Diesel sedan. Pearly white. Drives great! Odometer is broken at 236,886, could be closer to 300,000 miles at this time. New battery, good tires....
Looks pretty nice! Wouldn't mind having one of those at some point once I'm done with my W116.
I've been passively reading through this thread for the past couple months not realizing til just now when I got to the end that it was still active. Thank you for this trove of information, I recently picked up a 1984 diesel Corolla with the NA 1C-L and any info I can find helps!
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- #491
Hell yeah.. I forget, What is the 1C-L ? Is that a non-turbo version?
So cool, post up some pics when you get a chance....How is she running? Any engine issues?
Mine has been my daily driver...It's got a few inches of fresh snow on it this morning but will fire right up when ready...Studded snow tires and a few sand bags in the trunk have me pushing through the snow with ease
I think I'm due for rear brakes and a front wheel bearing soon, going to just ride it out for now and think about it in the spring time....
Yes, the 1C-L is the regular NA transverse motor. The Corollas came NA while the Camrys got the turbo D.
After a new battery she runs pretty well after a few glow plug cycles, and after replacing the clutch slave and fixing the somehow bent clutch pedal she drives good too, but needs a bunch of small work like replacing the glow plugs (the previous owner broke one off in the head). I plan to road trip this car so I'm slowly going through it over the winter and fixing what I can without getting too ahead of myself and tearing the entire car apart. Current priority is putting the shifter assembly back together after replacing bushings and fixing the minor front end damage of unknown origin, but I definitely plan to replace the timing belt and upgrade the cooling system as much as I can once I get to that part
Hey mike the braket that holds the idler pulley on for the Ac pump and the powersteering pump i lost mine is it possible you could take yours o and measure it? so i can get one made. i have been unable to track one down anywhere im willing to give you some cash for the time it might take to get to the bracket itself. and to measure it
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- #494
Damn dude this is sick, I didn't realize you said Corolla at first. Hatchback!? dude back in 1984 you would have been the coolest kid on the block..
Nice, looks like you have a lift to work on stuff that should help....I have an extra shifter cable if that does anything for you. I recall the guy saying he replaced the cable but used an old land cruiser shift cable that was the same length ( I think that's what he told me )
So the bracket seen below for adjusting the idler pulley? I've pulled mine in the past to try and get the idler replaced along with that left hand bolt but had no luck at the time......This part wouldn't be something that is easily measured / re-created due to the shape. But sorry man, I'll help when possible but its snowy and cold outside and I can't spend time wrenching on this, I drive it every day...
You'll need to keep your eyes on car-parts.com and wait for an engine / car to show up and ask them to pull the bracket and idler for you. Otherwise you could work on getting everything put back together and drive without PS or AC for now.
I appreciate it. This is exactly the kind of small fun unusual car I was looking for and the hatchback is super cool. Having a lift is definitely a game changer, the two best tools I've ever bought were a lift and an electric ratchet.
Good to know about the shifter cable. Mine's a 5-speed manual and the cables seemed to be screwed up at first, but after removing and inspecting them it it turned out just the outer plastic sheathing was deteriorated and the cables and inner sheathing are fine. After finding out new cable sets are around $400 I opted to just wrap mine in speed tape and call it good since they still work just fine.
I also realized my shifter cup bushing was fine and replacements don't existed, but the spring was incredibly weak so I cut part of the spring off an old grease gun and now there's zero play in the shifter housing. I need to pull the old shift cable bushings off the transmission linkage and put the new ones on, hopefully this weekend when I have some free time again
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- #496
Sick, two tone gray interior. extra classy
Yeah I think I've got one of those cables in the parts bin, guy claims an old cruiser cable worked.... I'm going to see if I can find it and pull a part number for any others who may need it
My shifter is also a bit sloppy but got a lot better when I replaced this little square bushing under the hood on the shift linkage and it helped a lot.
**** I wish I had more time and skills to wrench on a few more things on this car but for now I think the name of the game for me is keep it cheap, drive it, and have fun.....I don't want to dive too deep down the rabbit hole
A part of me almost wanted to list and sell it recently but it just doesn't seem worth it.
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- #497
Been driving her everyday. Going a bit slower than usual for the past week since the roads have been snowy and its barely burning any fuel. Got around 42 mpg last fill up.
Starts easily down to 32F . Once it dip into the 20s I need to half throttle it but it starts up easy and then it idles fine. Once temp gets into teens or less I plug it in....still running 15w40 oil
Isnt it weird that this 40+ year old diesel tech is getting better fuel MPGs than most all modern engines? I truly dont understand that.
Future issues I hope to repair
- Squeaky PS/AC belt or pulley
- Rear brakes are starting to make noise
- I think my FL wheel bearing is starting to groan
Starts easily down to 32F . Once it dip into the 20s I need to half throttle it but it starts up easy and then it idles fine. Once temp gets into teens or less I plug it in....still running 15w40 oil
Isnt it weird that this 40+ year old diesel tech is getting better fuel MPGs than most all modern engines? I truly dont understand that.
Future issues I hope to repair
- Squeaky PS/AC belt or pulley
- Rear brakes are starting to make noise
- I think my FL wheel bearing is starting to groan
ok i get why yaa dont wanna be wrenching on that or the mount rn if thats how find the car in the morning
I definitely recommend the grease gun spring in the shifter stick housing, no more play on that end from the stick popping out of the bushing since it has more pressure holding the bushing around the ball of the stick now. the aftermarket polyurethane/brass/etc shift cable bushings for a lot of other Toyotas measure out to be the same size on these cars as well and that's what I bought for mine, I'll have to report back on the end result. The one thing that's throwing me for a loop is the side-to-side shifter movement is really stiff and sticky on my car to the point that the stick doesn't return to center when released, which is what made me initially believe the cables were bad and seized inside. I traced that back to the linkage coming out of the transmission itself and tried checking the detents but there only seems to be one for longitudinal stick movement. I know you mentioned the square bushing on that linkage and I'll have to check that this weekend, but idk what else would be making the shifter stick like that and I'd rather not pull the trans if I don't have to
so i got good news i got the head for my car back today from a local machine shop and its fixed!
As you can see the head surface has been cleaned up and machined . into shape again, it was not cracked just serverly warped, the machinist told me it was about 6-10 thousands out of allignment which is pretty bad. and he also pressure tested it and he pulled 30inches of vacum on it and it held it for 10 minutes.
he found a section of one of the (valve guides?) its pictured below there are grind marks on where the cups sit in the head on the intake of the third cylinder from the left not sure if defect or it its been ****ed with before
As you can see the head surface has been cleaned up and machined . into shape again, it was not cracked just serverly warped, the machinist told me it was about 6-10 thousands out of allignment which is pretty bad. and he also pressure tested it and he pulled 30inches of vacum on it and it held it for 10 minutes.
he found a section of one of the (valve guides?) its pictured below there are grind marks on where the cups sit in the head on the intake of the third cylinder from the left not sure if defect or it its been ****ed with before