1980 Civic Burns Oil After Adding

Same here, especially the TE72 Corolla that's WAY overdone. But there are people who say, "There's no such thing as a Japanese Classic. To them I say...

Should have told me you were interested; I sent an '83 AWD Tercel wagon to scrap a couple years ago.

It still ran quite well, with 210,000 on the clock, but I had already repaired the rust once, and wasn't into it a second time...

Thing was like a TANK, though!

Now I know you're pulling our leg!

These were actually pretty cool little cars. The Stellar wasn't quite so cool. It was basically the same car with a slightly larger body that wallowed in the corners.

I was going to get a Liftback (1980) but went with the Coupe, which in Japan was the Treuno (and the same model as my 1985 "Hachiroku" Corolla GTS) and was the first Toyota I took over 200,000 miles...WELL over. In Japan it got an earlier version of the DOHC engine asan option.

They might not be "old" compared to most classic cars, but it's the scarcity of some of these cars, particularly imports, that makes them worth preserving. The first-gen Toyota Tercel (1980-83), for example, is probably one of the hardest to find (it's very similar to the Civics of the same era, which is why I have any interest in it) Sentiment is largely what fuels my interest in these old Hondas. My parents and grandmother each drove second-gen Civics when I was a kid, and those two cars helped make a lot of happy memories. Had it not been for that, I'd probably be resting comfortably rather than trying to save something that otherwise would have been turned into beer cans or something by now.

In 1991, the day my parents traded in our 1982 4-speed 1300FE. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing many of them around in the 80's either. If one of these were to be prominently featured in a movie, they'd probably become a hot collectible. I mean, look what Back to the Future did for the Delorean.....

Just a quick update.... I tried pulling the sparkplugs (recently replaced with new ones) and noted that one was perfectly clean and dry, two were black but dry, and one was black and dripping wet (with gasoline). Maybe a combination of valve and ignition problems?

Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@e86.GTS:

I had two of those, an '81 and an '82. Both were Liftbacks, just one of a staggering SIX body-styles for that generation.

I don't know quite what got into Toyota in the late '70s that they would spend the money for six body-styles, but for me, they got the Liftback dead-on, with:

1) frameless hardtop-style windows, adding just a soupcon of coolness; 2) two doors (a bit more coolness); 3) a rear hatch that was fairly vertical, but "not quite" vertical enough to belong on your Dad's four-door Rambler station wagon; 4) serious practicality, with a non-intrusive rear suspension that allowed a ton of cargo space for its size.

They reminded me a bit of a sixties 2-door Chevelle wagon. Which I one day want to buy.

"2000GT" was Japanese for "Ferrari".

"Fellalli"? That sounds bad...

"Chris F." wrote in news:4b510892$0$5345$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

They rusted out like nobody's business.

Earlier Hondas were absolutely awful for rust. I still remember the original '76 Accords. They rusted so badly that, if my memory is not deceiving me, there was actually a recall for badly-rusted unibodies.

And what "Cars" did for the Hudson Hornet, one of Hudson's big mistakes.

But I don't think that's actually going to happen. Those old Civics were slow, cramped, quirky, and, well, Japanese.

Love it for what it is to you, and don't consider what others may think.

Just resign yourself to the fact that whatever money you pour into it is lost forever; you'll never get it back on a sale.

"Chris F." wrote in news:4b51077a$0$5340$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

I saw, to my utter shock, one of these in my town of 15,000 people. I didn't get a look at the VIN plate, but I'd guess it around 1980. It's the ONLY one I've seen in at least 10 years.

And last week I saw a Hyundai Pony. Really. It was moving under its own steam down the highway. And a few weeks before that a Plymouth Horizon, again from about 1980. And just after that, a ~'75 Mustang II, with sprayed-on primer, yet. To my tooth-gnashing frustration, these things pass by far too quickly for me to get out a camera and capture them.

You southerners be quiet. In the Rust Belt, older cars are extremely rare, especially in winter. Those like me cherish every sighting.

"Chris F." wrote in news:4b51099f$0$5350$ snipped-for-privacy@news.aliant.net:

Check to make sure you've actually got spark at that plug.

Do you get solid continuity through that plug wire, even when you wiggle it around while testing?

What does the distributor cap look like inside? Any signs of carbon tracking?

I saw a MINT Chevette back in the fall. Guy never drives it in the winter. There's also a mint Citation X-11 around here, too.

Hmmm...a G series engine, eh?

Have you posted any pictures of this project of yours?? I have to admire your dogged determination to keep this Honda on the road.

I'm working on a 69 firebird. It's 41 years old yet it really doesn't seem like an old car. It's always been my feeling that right around the mid to late 60's there was a major shift in car design that separates two epochs, the "old" and the "new".

I saw a real running not particularly beat up Chevette on the road a couple weeks ago. It had been a LONG time since I saw one of those. And a couple months ago I saw a Yugo being driven around.

To me it seems to have happened in the early 70's, about the same time as we got the smog motors etc. Everything got color-keyed and plushified. I still prefer the older stuff, myself, even though I'm not old enough to remember it new. My dad still has my grandfather's old '73 pickup and he knows I'll put him in the crappy nursing home if he ever sells it :)

nate

Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@e86.GTS:

I did consider the Coupe (which I found better-looking), but its steeply- sloped rear hatch cut down significantly on cargo capacity, so the Liftback it was.

Yup. The 2T-GEU, as I recall.

Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@e86.GTS:

A T-series engine with a twin-cam head.

The nomenclature, decoded:

2T = T-series engine, second revision

G = "Performance" twin-cam ("F" would be "economy" twin-cam)

E = "Emissions-controlled" (or maybe "injected"; not sure)

U = JDM engine

Our Tercel has a 5E-FE engine. Our old MR2 had a 4A-GE. You can work it out from there.