96 Tercel

96 Tercel

OK so i drive my wifes 96 tercel because of gas prices and i drive farther than she does for work. so i was driving this morning and a vw 1.8t tried to get me to race him. now i know this is never going to happen. this thing at 80 is screaming. but i came up with a crazy idea. i was thinking about making it into a sleeper. i dont know much about the tercels or toyotas in general. but i was thinking of putting in a 4agze into it. now ive just started doing research on this so i dont know what tranny and everything else i would need. but to me it would be a fun project. people are telling me not to waste the money, but it would be different and thats what i like doing. so what do yall think, am i just crazy? what would i need to do this?

thanks for any info yall have, and your thoughts and comments are welcome.

Well if your driving the tercel for the gas mileage, anything else you put in there would defeat that purpose. You will get more power at the expense of your gas mileage.

when i get to this point i wont be worrying about the prices of gas, ill be on a bike by then. this is just something i was thinking about for the future.

well, first off welcome to the site.

tercel sleepers are great. easy to make into sleepers. first off what you wanna do is swap the motor. what you need is a 4efte. that would be a factory turbocharged 1.3L engine. you can easily make it a 1.5L by increasing bore to 82mm. the stock ct-9 turbo is tiny so upgrading that is a must, and you can easily archive 200hp with the right turbo, like ct26. and anything you bolt on will show gains since your boosting. and best of all its really reliable since it came like that from the factory.

sweet, thanks for the info. so dont go with the 4agze. what about tranny? what tranny do i need to go with? what computer do i need for it? where can i get both and the motor?

stick with your current engine and keep your 40mpg and put a bumper sticker that says "haha, i get better gas mileage than you"

If you were to swap, swap in a 4a. The 4e is not worth it cost wise.

Tercels have been done before. Sport Compact Car has featured a few in the past. Blown and everything.

i know a couple a people in puerto rico that have 2zz's in their tercels

4a's are good, but unless you know how to fabricate, stick with the 4e. plus the 4e's are a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the 4ag for the complete swap. you can go on ebay and get a complete swap complete with harness, ecu and tranny.