just scored a free camry! - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Chris Crash · 11-08-2009, 09:54 PM

so i bought my 97 for $700 because it's totalled from the massive body damage and bent frame.

i rebuilt the engine and replaced the clutch.
this weekend i was at my roommates parents house and i noticed this car sitting in the neighbors driveway

all four tires are flat and my roommate told me it's been sitting about four years. so i walked over and inquired about the car.

i was told it had a bad bearing in the engine, but the transmission was fine.
body and interior are flawless.

they told me they were about to junk it, so i offered to tow it away for free and they accepted.

i plan to swap my current camry's engine and manual transmission (since the autos are no fun). i know i have seen threads of people documenting both tasks, but are any of them actual write ups?

i've never swapped engines and have no idea how to tackle this project. haha.
also, if anyone will need some parts from a gen 4 aside from body parts, i will be willing to sell.
i'll also be selling the auto trans from the free condition which in allegedly in working condition, though i can't prove it.

Chris Crash · 11-08-2009, 11:52 PM

hahaha. i think i'll be alright without him, though i'm sure having him around would do wonders.

i mean, it all sounds pretty straight forward. i guess i was just curious of whether it's worth my time to do this project or not.

whip_cracker · 11-09-2009, 12:27 AM

Think of it this way - a Camry for $700 in good working order (hopefully).

You'd probably wanna do a decent service on the engine... replace seals and gaskets, new coolant... oil... etc etc. Prob looking around 900 bucks? That's fkin unreal in my books.

Obviously, this is where knowledge is power. If you know what to do, go for it. If not - get Adam LOL! Sure you might be able to do it by yourself over a couple of weeks or whatever.... want it done in a couple/few days? Get ol' Adam onto it.

abew330 · 11-09-2009, 12:34 AM

i agree with whip. replacing seals and what not....

since your taking out the eng/trans i would take the extra time to replace necessary maintenance parts while its out the car

Quote:

Originally Posted by whip_cracker

Think of it this way - a Camry for $700 in good working order (hopefully).

You'd probably wanna do a decent service on the engine... replace seals and gaskets, new coolant... oil... etc etc. Prob looking around 900 bucks? That's fkin unreal in my books.

Obviously, this is where knowledge is power. If you know what to do, go for it. If not - get Adam LOL! Sure you might be able to do it by yourself over a couple of weeks or whatever.... want it done in a couple/few days? Get ol' Adam onto it.

hill8570 · 11-09-2009, 10:48 AM

Looks like it'd swap over easy enough (just swap over the engine, tranny, and computer, and you should be good to go). Should be able to recoup a good chunk of the costs selling off the tranny from the rig you just acquired.

Chris Crash · 11-09-2009, 01:35 PM

appreciate all the input.

what all maintenance wise should i do while the engine is out? i don't know a lot about the seals/gaskets that are in there...

whip_cracker · 11-09-2009, 05:03 PM

There's stacks of this info on the pinned topics for the Gen 3/4 section I believe.

Whilst you have the engine apart, you may as well do all the work in 1/2 the time rather than doing it down the track.

So... OEM waterpump would be a first. Idler bearings, pulleys, plugs, leads, camshaft & crankshaft stuffs.. pretty much everything you'd wanna do for a 200k service (sorry, 200k kilometre service anyway).

Chris Crash · 11-16-2009, 12:32 PM

I can't decide what to do about the transmissions. I currently have the 5 speed in my camry but the free camry has an auto trans.

I want to swap them but I don't know if it's too much work/worth it. Any ideas?

the94camryman · 11-16-2009, 02:39 PM

If its the same engine then its not too hard. Just need the transmission, axles, ecu, clutch and shifter assembly, mounts, and thats about it.

ekopel · 11-16-2009, 08:00 PM

DUDE!

Go for it. I did a full swap in 8 hours (I have experience doing it though).

My suggestion:

To save time, order all the parts you will want to do a nice little tune-up and preventative maintenance and do it all while the engine is out of the car. In that case it will take no time at all to do all this other miscellaneous stuff. Make sure to pull the crank pulley with the motor in the car though, cuz that sucker can be on there...use the screwdriver in flywheel trick. Also, make sure to pull the flywheel spacer if you are going from auto to manual, or to put the spacer in if you are going from manual to auto. I made that mistake, and now I have a busted valve body on my auto.

If you need help, please let me know. I just dropped, pulled, and dropped a 1MZ in my car 2 weeks ago, so its all really fresh.

mazdaverx7 · 11-17-2009, 07:43 AM

should be a nice project! how's the interior?

Chris Crash · 11-17-2009, 01:25 PM

interior's in good condition. no rips or holes or burns at all. there might be a few small inconspicuous stains but i can work those out.

it's in better condition than my current car, that's for damn sure haha.

Chris Crash · 11-18-2009, 02:57 PM

im curious of whether or not i should replace the clutch while i'm there?

i put in a new one in february of 2007, and then learned how to drive stick on it.

should i dare?

mazdaverx7 · 11-18-2009, 03:02 PM

it should be alright, how many miles did you put on it? not enough to ruin a clutch..unless you were dumping the clutch often../

Chris Crash · 11-18-2009, 04:10 PM

i think i've got at most 20,000 miles on it.

i've gotta say i wasn't the nicest to this car, haha.

first i had to learn how to drive on it and then i did a lotttt of stupid things with it just for fun.

i guess i'll see once i get it torn down.
the original clutch was literally just shredded fiberglass pieces when i took the transmission off.

hopefully i haven't gotten to that point haha.