Greetings from the new guy

[wouldntyaliktono]

Hello All.

I have a question for you guys if you dont mind.

picked up a 1990 Camry LE V6 Auto for next to nothing, and Im preparing to do some major repair work on it.

the back story:

Im a college grad with lots of debt, no job, and little money, so i need cheap wheels for the forseeable future

failed my emissions test and had the car serviced. high nox, so they replaced a coolant temp sensing vacuum switch for the EGR and put in a new cat. now the thing smokes when its warm, badly. its not oil, i know because its white, not blue, and it doesnt smell like oil. I have good compression according to the last guy to work on it... Also, its not seeming to be coolant, although it has a slight coolant smell. the mechanic at the shop i had it worked on says i either have a bad head gasket or a burnt valve, and that there is raw fuel being smoked as it leaves teh exhaust by my new, very hot, cat.

also, i have valve noise from what sounds like the #1 cylinder, and i think i have a lifter spacing issue. I checked this with the tissue over the exhaust trick and it alternates suck and blow of the tissue... so there's something not right regarding that.

my plan is this:

pull the heads off, inspect the valves for burning/damage, deck the heads, replace all seals, springs, and re-shim the lifters, replace the head gaskets, reassemble and cross my fingers. heck of a lot cheaper than having some dude in a shop charge me 80 bucks an hour for it.

I'm going to check the oil for coolant, but last time i checked it seemed normal, the car runs cool as well. she really runs great all things considered.

anybody have any ideas?

oh and thanks for having me, its been a while since i posted on a forum like this, and it was a ford forum, so there was a considerable amount of toyota bashing. (i love mine, btw, its my second)

[white90dx]

If you have a burnt valve, it wouldn't have good compression - something is fishy there.

If you have a blown head gasket, it could very well still have good compression (depends on where its leaking).

If there is any of that sickly-sweet smell of coolant out the exhaust, you need a new head gasket (ok, two).

As for the rest of it - good luck. Its a challenge to get a neglected car back up to where it should be.

-Charlie

[270+Camry]

if you are going to pull the heads, get a hold of alldata or someone who has access to alldata so you can find the proper detourque sequence for ur heads and see if they got twist/bow. also, if u are goin to pull em out, u might as well give a 3 angle grind or cut. if u want to find out if u got a blown gasket hook it up to a preassure cooker (i think u can even borrow one from like autozone or something) and pump it up to where the radiator cap says it holds (pounds wise) even if you don't have a head leak it helps you find other leaks if you have any. just a thought.

[wouldntyaliktono]

OK, so I took the plunge, pulled the heads, and found that a shim on an intake lifter on the #1 cylinder had gotten dislodged somehow, and that the cam was riding directly on the lifter itself. it got torn all to hell. this, combined with the fact that the valve was burnt led to poor or no compression, and a dead cylinder.

after considerable toil, and some bloody knuckles, I have replaced the heads, and gotten everything back together nicely. the car starts and idles beautifully now, and there is no more resonant shaking at speed from a dead cylinder. I'll see if I cant pull up some pictures of the process, so you can see but all's well that ends well.

oh, and for the timid observers, i managed to save over 1900 bucks in labor and parts markups by doing it in my garage. total cost of the project is just over 400 bucks including having the heads rebuilt and decked professionally.

thanks for the input all

[wouldntyaliktono]

[wouldntyaliktono]