Three Questions on an '89 Camry

[VancouverVan]

Good morning -

I've three questions regarding my niece's 1989 Camry - a 4-cylinder automatic, four door, auto-everything. It's got 265k on it, with perhaps 20k on an engine replacement.

1. Spark plug wires #1 and #2 are oil-soaked at the ends when you pull them out. It runs fine and doesn't appear to be missing, and there's no visible oil leakage around the valve cover gasket. #3 and #4 are dry.

I assume some part of the valve-cover gasket has failed, but is it a serious problem?


2. On starting, the car blows copious amounts of white smoke. There is no froth in the oil or white gunk visible at the filler cap, and it doesn't appear to be losing water. Other solutions? I have not yet tested the compression.

3. Where the transaxle and the motor come together, there's a bit of tin on the lower portion of the bellhousing; towards the rear, about a third of the way up (at "4 o'clock," say), there is a small weep-hole. There's another larger hole at 6 o'clock.

Oil runs out fast from the 4 o'clock hole - a running leak producing a 6" diameter puddle in a matter of minutes. Lying under there watching it, there were very fine droplets spraying out of the whole every so often.

Reading up on main seals, I learned that such crank seals are not meant to withstand pressure in the crankcase - they only guard against splash; the idea is to make sure the PCV is working, and to maybe even upsize it as the vehicle ages - to relieve more pressure as the rings age.


Anyone else run into this? Any advice? I am debating whether the kid just should sell this beast and buy another car - but she's in college, so it's a tough purchase to finance....

Thanks!

[es250nut]

Regarding #1: It's not your valve cover gasket that is the problem with oil getting into the spark plug wells, the well tubes at the base thread into the head, most likely the oil is getting past at the base of the tubes where they screw into the head.

If, as you surmise, the crankcase pressure is too high you may need to clean out the intake & throttle body with seafoam where the pcv tube leads to unplug the passages.

[wonger]

number 1 .. valve cover gasket like u said.. would get it done.. not hard .. might cause car to missfire

number 2.. valve stem seals.. ( common on toyotas)

number 3.. rear main seal? is this auto? is oil or trans fuild coming out?

[VancouverVan]

Interesting, on the "well tubes." They were loose, a bit - there's a large-ish nut revealed when you pull off the plug wire; I just tightened them, but it's too soon to tell if that'll be effective.

On the white smoke - valve seals? Wouldn't burning oil be blue or black? I feared water - but am not loosing any. And, I am losing LOTS of oil....

...mostly onto the ground. It's oil coming out, not tranny fluid. It is an automatic.

So, I guess the question is whether to repair it fully, partially, or with a sign in the window.

*
Is the main seal best accessed by removing the tranny? Looks like it, but it occurred to me that removing the motor would also make it pretty easy to replace the front seals and the timing belt, as well.....

[wonger]

the rear main seal would be the seal between the engine and tranny.. and u can get to it by removing the tranny

if the front main seal is leaking too than u can get to that once u removing everything on the t-belt side..

u know if it is valve seals if u start ur car up for the 1st timing in the morning after its been seating overnite.. have someone in the back of the car see if white smoke come out of the tail pipe.. its hard to tell sometimes.. since if it is cold out.. the tail pipe will have whtie smoke anyways..

[marc780]

So, I guess the question is whether to repair it fully, partially, or with a sign in the window.

I wouldnt do a patch, those rarely turn out satisfactorily; i'd say it depends on the condition of the rest of the car, it is almost 20 years old after all - so if you wanted to keep it i think i'd consider a used japanese engine and several days of work to swap it in. If you do it yourself (make damn sure the engine is the exact same before you buy it!) i think it would all cost you about $1000 to 1500 to replace it.

[GTO MAN]

Originally Posted by VancouverVan

Interesting, on the "well tubes." They were loose, a bit - there's a large-ish nut revealed when you pull off the plug wire; I just tightened them, but it's too soon to tell if that'll be effective.

On the white smoke - valve seals? Wouldn't burning oil be blue or black? I feared water - but am not loosing any. And, I am losing LOTS of oil....

...mostly onto the ground. It's oil coming out, not tranny fluid. It is an automatic.

So, I guess the question is whether to repair it fully, partially, or with a sign in the window.

*
Is the main seal best accessed by removing the tranny? Looks like it, but it occurred to me that removing the motor would also make it pretty easy to replace the front seals and the timing belt, as well.....

I would ck that first.