I have just inhereted my first Tercel. It is a '91 Tercel DX 175,000 miles 5 speed with the 1500 Engine. I finally have the body cleaned up, touched up, detailed and a bunch of small things repaired, now for the engine!!!

I have a low idle and stall out some when you shift. I keep thinking that it is idle-related so therefore I started with vacuum leaks. After I turned up nothing on manual inspection I goth pretty liberal with Carb. Cleaner searching some more. I did not detect anything. Engine runs good past idle. It burns some oil with blue smoke out the tail pipe (planning to seafoam clean and then use a oil additive to combat this). You do get a slight knock from the head at times on an initial rev. Engine supposedly has a fresh tune-up but I am going to check the plugs and such myself tonight.

I am not anything near a mechanic but totally a D-I-Y-selfer and am hoping to figure this out.

It does have some smoke that 'escapes' in the joint before the Catalytic Converter. Is it possible for the Catalytic Converter to be clogged, therefore, causing my stall out at idle? Can I cut the darn thing off and pipe in between or is it necessary for health of the engine to have the converter?

Any ideas or comments related to the above would be appreciated. I still can't believe that my dad had this car for 14 years... It makes me wonder how many years I will be able to squeeze out of it myself.

Thanks in advance,
Stu

I have a 91 tercel DX & I cut my converter right out a few years ago & my car still runs great and idles fine. So if you're thinking about cutting it out all together, it doesn't seem to hurt it any as far as i'm concerned. Gives it a little different sound though.