92 camry blown head gasket....help

[richirich_99]

I have a 1992 camry v6 xle. It has the 3vzfe 3.0L engine with automatic tranny. I think i blew the head gasket the other day on my way home from work. It lost power and started billowing white smoke from the tailpipe that was very moist and smelled like antifreeze. Im not real mechanically inclined, I have done the basics, but not comfortable with doing this i dont think. My car has roughly 170,00 to 175000 miles, not positive on it because the speedo and odometer doesnt work. I bought the end of Sept for 700.

Should i pay the 1500 bucks or so to replace the head gaskets or should i just look into a new engine or new car?

Thanks for any input.

[khanhstar]

are u sure its the hg? if so just go buy a new car a part out the one you have you'll probably lose less maybe even make money bl.

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by richirich_99

Should i pay the 1500 bucks or so to replace the head gaskets

You probably only need one HG. Couple of quotes wouldn't hurt.

[carsrus]

Originally Posted by khanhstar

are u sure its the hg? if so just go buy a new car a part out the one you have you'll probably lose less maybe even make money bl.

I second that. Dumping 1000$+ into a 700$ car will bite you in the behind eventually. Plus if the head gasket blew to the point the car lost massive power then who knows how much coolant got into the crankcase. Oil + Coolant = trashed bearings.

If you've got the space to park your ride and part it out, you could probably make the 700$ back.

[richirich_99]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. Im considering just buying another car and keeping this one to learn on, and play around with fixing it. Looks like im going to be hitting up craigslist to search for something new.

Any tips for me attempting to fix it myself after buying another ride? I have the haynes manual for it, and most of the tools i think i would need.

[heartdisease]

I just did the Head Gaskets on my little gmc pickup last year. Great learning experience and really like the satisfaction of driving it around now.

Tips- well That car has aluminum heads I imagine so things will different for you probably. I would soak all the nuts with pb blaster before hand a couple of days, especially the exhaust system. Be careful aluminum is soft and you could strip things easy.

If you need pullers or specialty tools autozone will "loan" some. You basically buy them and get your money back if they aren't trashed.
I spent as much on doing mine as I would have to the shop about 1k. I went premium on all the gaskets and replaced other stuff while I was at it. I also bought tools I could have done with out but I love a good excuse to buy more. Amazon is a good place to get a deal on tools if you have to time to wait on them believe it or not.

Take your time disassembling. I took as much time taking pictures and labeling/bagging parts as I did taking stuff apart. I was very meticulous and I have the shop manual from a Chevy Garage to look at. It did fire right up on the first crank when I was done though