Worth repairing es300 4th.

[skippymikowski]

Hi All; This is my first thread and I desire advise. I bought a 97ES 300 and it has leaky valve guide seals as evidenced by a very large puff of smoke that shoots out when cold starting. Also it burns a quart of oil every 500 miles. I am assuming I need new rings to stop the oil burn. There are no oil leaks that make it to the ground. I'm trying to decide if I should rebuild the engine or if there are other options. I saw a website that will sell you the front half of low mileage japanese cars for about $3000. The body is in excellent condition. The previous owner took poor care of the mechanics as evidenced by no transmission oil change in over 65,000miles. The trans oil was "the worst oil I have ever seen" said my mechanic. The car still gets 30 mpg at 65mph on the highway. Any thoughts. Mike

[ASG14]

Worse comes to worse, you can always swap the engine/tranny with a low mileage used one. It was the same engine as the Camry, Solara, and Avalon, so it's redily available and fairly cheap.

[the94camryman]

if u are burning oil at that rate then your vale stem seals are very bad. the good thing though is they are very cheap to replace and if you have the proper tools them they are easy to replace. I would just say google a DIY and replace them on a saturday. it would be much cheaper and easier than replacing an entire engine

[skippymikowski]

Thank you for your input. I would rather repair the engine unless there is more than just valve guides to fix. I am concerned that the rings might be bad too. How can one get a better idea on the condition of the rings? I know a compression test that reads too low would tell me that all the rings are probably bad. But if that test is good how do I figure out if it's just valve guides or oil rings too? I am assuming if the compression test is bad that a used engine is a better option than a rebuild. I don't have the set up to rebuild an engine myself. I can get the trans completely rebuilt and installed for $1200. Do engines cost many times more to rebuild than tranmissions or are they equivalent? Thanks again. Let me know if I should simplify my reply next time.

[new echo owner]

Beside a compression test, you can also do a cylinder leak down test and a crank case pressure test; all together will give you a pretty good indication of the general health of the engine. The next thing to do is to remove the front valve cover and take a look inside, to check out the cleanliness of the inside. Sludge or lack of sludge will give you some idea how the engine was maintained previously.

N.E.O.