1994 xle camry buying

[ro9beam2002]

hey guys.. happened to come across a 1994 camry that was next door to my shop.. the car has 150k miles, a dent in the drivers door and the handle is broken... she wants 300.00 cash for it.. ofcourse there are a few problems ... cosmetic wise everything except the dent and handle are in pretty good shape.. few cracks in the leather but otherwise looks very good.. but for 300.00 bucks there is a major problem, the car evidently over heated on the guy... he started taking off the timing belt cover ..water pump..and removed everything in that area and that is where it stands.. i have never owned a toyota before , but was thinking of getting this for my daughter to drive... i have heard of these engines having a problem with warping the heads or blowing head gaskets etc... are these year camry's worth putting a another motor in if the rest of the body is in prety good shape.. or am i looking at a money pit.. i do have a friend that can the work with my help... by the way what model v6 should this one have?

[davemac2]

Not sure if it is worth the hassle. That's your decision alone. You can probably drop a new engine in it for $1500-$2000 with labor, but then you need to fix the door (new door?) too. So after all that, you are in the range of what this Camry would go for used, ~$2.5K in my area anyways. It may or may not turn out to be a bargain. Now if you can do the work yourself, you may potentially salvage the existing engine and just redo the head gaskets and resurface the heads for maybe $300-$800 depending upon the condition of the heads. This is assuming though that the block or its bearings haven't been ruined by coolant contamination in the oil. You would have to take a quick sample of the oil in the pan from the drain plug to see if coolant is present. Besides the engine though, you have no way of knowing if the transmission is in good shape unless you put the engine back together. (do they still have all the parts?) Then there is the condition of the struts and suspension components. Does the A/C work well or is it broken too? I'd say buying a non-running vehicle like this is a kind of risky. I would try to put the engine back together first before I even bought it just to see how everything else is.

dave mc

[ro9beam2002]

that was my thinking.. all the parts are still there .. not knowing about the other stuff could be a nightmare though.. was thinking of buying it.. putting a new water pump and timing belt etc.. and see how it does.. struts..a/c..tranny.. motor..etc.. if it doesnt look good.. i should be able to part it out and make some money actually.. then scrap the rest to the scrap yard.. the catalytic converter is worth almost 140.00

[Andrew Liu]

Hell I'd pick it up even if the engine were fubared.

$300 for an entire car full of spare parts, if the car isn't worth fixing...if you end up with another gen 3 camry, you can swap parts as they break. Or just scrap it for more.