Just bought a '91

[Novice_cardude]

Yay! So now i've got 2 Camrys! Well, the '91 us my girlfriend's... But i'll be doing all the work on it...

And it needs work...

We picked it up for $1,000. It's a 4-cyl 5-spd, with 214,000 miles. I know i'll need to replace the struts and mounts, half shafts, and possibly the lower control arm bushings. I'm not too worried about that, because that's the kind of work I do all day. I just hope the right side axle is easier to get out than on my gen 3... ugh.

Other than that, she runs like a top. I just have a few questions for those of you who have had a gen 2 for a while.

First, the lifters are noisy at idle. Like really noisy. They go away as soon as the engine gets above 1k rpm, but still. I don't know if this is a good thing, bad thing, or just a sign of age. I was expecting some noise for an engine with 214k on it...

Second ... and also last ... I was following my girlfriend back from picking the car up, and I smelled it from about 5 car lengths away on the freeway. It smells like it's either running rough, or burning a little oil. My only concern with this is that it might not pass smog inspection... Again, it's something i was expecting from a car it's age, but I just want to make sure none of this is signs of an early death.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and it's good to be the caretaker of another old Camry.

[aych]

the noise from the engine seems normal. mine has 300clicks on it and its quite loud too at times. just give it a good warmup in the winter..

as for the smog, try a can of seafoam. it'll clean things up, if not, you might want to check for oil leaks etc.

[Tom 2000]

When I had my gen2 with what I thought were noisy lifters, I found that the bearing in the timing belt idler pulley had gone bad. With a new pully and timing belt, it wa quiet again.

[TBayToyotaBoy]

You've probably just got valve noise, which is to be expected from a high-mileage 3S-FE. The oil burning might also be explained by leaking valve stem seals...does the car give a big puff of blue smoke when you first start it? That would be an indicator of stem seals.

If you're comfy enough with such things, maybe a top-end rebuild is in order. You've paid a fairly high price for the car to begin with (considering the mechanical problems), so you might want to spend a bit more and make it last a couple of years more. Replace the head with a low-mile unit and be done with it, perhaps...

[fredk]

how much oil does it go through?

[Novice_cardude]

I took a closer look at it today at the shop. The only things I really need to do with it are suspension repairs. Totals under $300 to rebuild everything I need.

It doesn't smoke at all, just smells like an old engine when it runs. It's not going through any oil that i've noticed so far. I believe it's just letting some unburned fuel out with the exhaust, or running a little rich. I also noticed that a small tube coming out of the fuel tank (maybe a vent hose?) is leaking at the hose clamp, so I might just be smelling that.

The reason I think it's the lifters making noise is that as soon as you bring the engine above idle, you don't hear anything but motor. There's no more knocking or clicking around 1200 RPM. I will be checking the timing belt pretty soon to see what condition it's in though, and when i do that i'll check the belt tensioner.

Thank you all for your input. I was driving the '91 around today to get lunch and stuff and realized to my surprise that I actually enjoy driving it more than my '96... hmmmm.