1993 V6 Auto-Saga
Stumbled across this white Camry for $350. The owner said the motor was locked up and before that it was blowing white smoke. We dickered, I paid him $250 and little bro $50 to haul it to my home!
The body has one ding at the pass. headlight area, slight buckle on the hood, broken tab on the grille and the headlight is somewhat loose. The fan speed and temp knobs are MIA and he removed the radio and amp. Need a new gas cap cover as the tab is broken off. Outside of those items it needs a good cleaning, but it should do just fine for a work car. Oh, the miles are right at 222k.
The 2 good parts of this deal is my out-of-work, live-in nephew has a good track record working with Toyota's, and even if this turns out to be a bust I only paid scrap price and will be out only time!!
After charging the battery found the engine to turn over just fine, had compression pressure felt in the radiator overflow tank. No oil seen in the coolant, nor water in the 2 week old oil. Empty coolant tank however.
Try as we could we could not get it to run on its on beyond 3 or 4 turns one time, so we began teardown. Got as far as the front head and had to stop to buy a 12 point 12mm socket for the head bolts. The harmonic balancer bolt was not too bad to remove with an impact gun. The timing belt looks almost new except for some small cuts, one of which runs to the side. Unknown what could have caused them, but will put new one on anyway. Our biggest problem now is getting the cam gear bolt on the rear head broken loose. Have a cheater bar on the wrench holding the cam and a 18" breaker bar on the bolt with LOTS of OOMPH. Just a SWAG we placed over 220 ft lbs on it to no avail [assuming right hand threads-left to loosen]. So for now we are going to remove both heads and use the impact gun after we get the head on the bench, or, worst case let the machine shop remove the bolt[that even sounds extreme!]
Observations: All NGK plat. plugs appear to have gaps of around .070+/-, the rear plug nearest the distributor appears wet from moisture, so that is the most likely trouble spot.
$$ and Sense--So far I have $300 in the car, about 350 in parts [Valve grind kit, timing belt kit w/water pump, etc, head bolts] and whatever the machine shop costs. I suspect when finished I will have about $1000 invested. No mention was made about the A/C or cruise but did say the trans was good. Tires look good, brakes and exhaust last year and oil change a week or so before it quit. Worst case, return all parts and buy/install a used motor!
Why??.... When finished will take it for work car and nephew can drive SL2 Saturn to find work and get back on his feet.
And the odyssey continues.........
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1993 Camry V6 LE, auto, w/3VZ-FE motor. Paid $250-Found blown intake gasket and both head gaskets.--222k miles.
Last edited by Greg2347; 02-14-2010 at 11:25 PM.
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