GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Powertrain and Drivetrain
1.5L 3A-C engine (the A family is the predecessor to ZZ family; 3rd A engine; Carburetted)
5-speed manual transmission with 4WD

Mods
32/36 DGEV Weber carb (kit k740)
Blocked off EGR and California pipes
0.5mm oversized pistons
Fancy engine paint based on Toyota's current WRC livery used on their rally Yaris
1ZZ crank pulley bolt
Exedy clutch kit

Looks clean. See the struts are out, planning any other upgrades, or just easier to work on, with the front drive line dropped down.

Impressive work!

Awesome! I must get a picture of the local one I mentioned on FB!

Found this during a recent falling into the Retro Review youtube rabbit hole, figured I would share...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNKAGRHJi7Y

It's getting a lift. I'm going to have to have pipe welded on to extend the All-trac strut housings because they're too short for the MR2 inserts that supposedly work. They use a funny system where you replace a shock cartridge instead of the entire thing.

Thunderbird shocks in the rear, Nissan Pathfinder springs in back, and Corolla All-trac struts and springs in front.

So beautiful! But now obscured by rubber protectors.

Got it running after hours of electrical diag. These things have this stupid box that's tired to the main stud on the alternator. Had to figure out how it hooked up basically with no help (I showed some pictures to someone, but my phone is a potato and he did not recognize the part).

Let me tell you. It snorts like a pig rooting for food right now, without the exhaust bolted to the manifold. Runs pretty well, but I need to adjust ignition timing and tune the carburetor (always a favorite task next to an unbearably noisy engine). I haven't even touched a distributor with the engine running since the red Tercel shocked me across the forearm, so I feel a bit of anxiety for my impending misery.

Oh, and the stupid thermostat housing WON'T STOP LEAKING. Gonna have to hit it with a hammer until it learns some respect.

Will you tune it with the exhaust bolted on? I've found you get a better tune with everything on it as normal.

Oh, and teach that damn thermo housing a lesson!!!

If the hammer doesn't work, I've found grinding/sanding the housings where they touch just enough to get rid of any warp worked for me once before.

lannvouivre wrote:
So beautiful! But now obscured by rubber protectors.

Those are the sweetest battery cable I have ever seen! Where to get some?
Thermostat housing. Lay a piece of 180 grit and up on a flat surface and drag the housing flat surface across until you see a uniform scratch surface or throw away the gasket and use Black rtv. If you have one, you can also use a belt sander. Mount it in a vise with the sandpaper side up and holding the housing assembly as flat as possible touch it to the belt until you get a uniform scratch surface. Be careful.
Easiest way to avoid getting shocked is get a helper and have them turn the distributor. Works every time.
Like your project. Nice engine details. Like to see the face of the Mustang owner that gets spanked by a Tercel! You can tell them Tercel means "mouse with heart of lion" in Japanese.

Nah, the Tercel can't even spank a bus. 0-60 in 16 sec back when they came out.

I instead caked the gasket in fresh RTV and that seems to have done the trick.

Today I plan to fill the transmission and differentials, bolt on the driveline, torque the axle nuts, bleed the front brakes, and go on a test drive to warm it up enough to tune the carb and distributor.

Terminals: http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Straight-B ... 00GYRJV9E/

Only $12.68 with prime shipping. Gonna get those coming.

Fixed the camber issues up front with some "shims" (washers) that make the all-trac struts fit the narrower Tercel steering knuckle brackets. The Tercel can now sit on the curb!

Awesome. I dig the last pic w/both cars.

Haven't even watched it myself, yet. The one in the vid is also an AWD model. Still, kinda relevant and thought you might be interested if you haven't seen it already.

https://youtu.be/eNKAGRHJi7Y

Piggy looks kinda good with new wheels even though the sidewall is a bit narrow looking with that much lift. I couldn't take a picture from the other side because Mom always parks really close when I need to work on it, like she has some kind of premonition whenever I need to do anything with ANY car.