My New Purchase: 93 ES300 W/ 5Spd [Video]

[hmong337]

QUIRKS

Any thoughts or suggestions on the car itself? The only reason I picked this up was that it's super rare to find in a 5spd. Plus, it was a good deal too. But it's got it's quirks.

Either I am going to fix this up and drive/sell it later. Or pull the motor/ecu/harness/etc. and use it in my 91 MR2.

Do you guys think it's got a blown head gasket? How would you tell?

It does smell like "burning" of some sort. A hotlap around the block leaves it with some smoke coming from the engine bay.

Engine temp needle stays solid (they always do... then suddenly shoot up as from what I've read).


I've yet to have this thing driven around much or even on the highway. No plates...


What do you guys think? I bought it for pretty darn cheap... so even with all the quirks, it isn't so bad.

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

[Mister_Perkins]

Run a Leak-down and compression test. While running the leakdown test, open the radiator cap and look for bubbles. You can do a Hydrocarbon test as well. What this does is tests for Carbon Deposits in your Coolant (Meaning that compression is pushing past the head gasket into the coolant)

Its very hard to tell if you have a blown head gasket in the video since its cold out. looks almost like Condensation to me. If you do, its more than likely a very small leak. I saw on the second video the timing cover said 262,xxx so I am assuming the belt was changed at 262,xxx miles. With this many miles, if the engine hasn't been overhauled I would say its about time for something major like a head gasket to go bad.

Could be something as simple as a stuck thermostat or bad coolant switch. have you tried to feel the lower radiator hose while running and confirm the T-Stat is opening?

[zppeacock]

Are the valve cover gaskets leaking? That will cause a burning smell on these es300's also

[71Corolla]

Your engine probably has all the usual leaks, valve cover gaskets, distributor O-ring, and most importantly the oil filter adapter gasket. When they leak, oil flows and drips onto the flex pipe and you get the burning smell and smoke. The oil pan sealant can also fail and cause the same symptoms, same with the rear main seal.

The radiator also might be leaking which is why you had low to no coolant in the overflow reservoir. If you're paranoid about a bad head gasket then have a leakdown test done, if that passes then move on to the cooling system and have that pressure tested. The exhaust looks normal to me, when warm air meets cold, it condenses and produces water vapour, that's what it looks like to me. If the exhaust doesn't smell sweet then you either don't have a bad head gasket, or a very small leak.

[hmong337]

Thanks for the responses guys. It means a lot.

I'm going to contact my mechanic friend to see if he can do a leak-down-test.

The previous owner said that it overheated once. He said he changed the rad and since then, it's never overheated. But I'm not sure what to believe. He did seem like he wanted to dump the car. But the price was still good to want to buy.

Going through the stack of maintenance records, nearly all the major service items were completed at 202,000 kms (also written on the timing cover). The car now has 260,000kms. So, they "should" be fine (water pump, etc...)

But first thing's first, I'm going to try to see if my mechanic friend will lend me his Dealer-plate so I can test the car thoroughly.

I will do what you guys have suggested and update.


BIG THANKS!

[DarkSideMoon]

I'd keep an eye on the fan- The hydraulic fan is a bit of a bear. Mine was spinning rather slowly, then I replaced the coolant temp sensor that goes to the fan (behind the alternator belt), and now it spins way faster. It looks like the fan is spinning very slowly in the video. I used to be able to stop mine with my hand before I replaced that sensor.

[bigbird]

pull it out and put it in the MR2. you can fix everything while its out and have an amazing car to drive with OEM quality. i would KILL to have the opportunity you now have!

[Silent Runner]

I looked a both videos, and the steam you see coming from the exhaust is much less than I get from my perfectly sound sound Camry with a good head gasket at 283Km. The oil burning smoke stuff seems pretty normal to me for an engine that just needed new valve cover gaskets and maybe a couple of other ones. (just did it myself after a Toyota dealer did them at 220K). It sounds good too. I'd just dig in and do the basic leak-fix maintanance stuff, fix whats broken and drive it. If a girl can do it you can. haha... Silly me, I never even knew ES-300's were made with 5 spds. Makes sense though since they did all the emissions stuff for the Camrys.