5sfe camry wont start..

[NorwayCamry]

Hi.
First time Toyota owner from Norway here..

I just bought an old 1994 Camry with the 5sfe motor. I got it for almost nothing because engine did not run. In fact it had an oil leakage from the front crank seal, and instead of changing it they had poured a additive in the oil in hopeness that it would fix it. To make matters worse they dident use oil additive but the water additive. Not good. The engine had been running when they poured this thing on it an it had stopped after maybe one minute. After this they couldent start it and when i bought it, it was stuck.

I heard that Toyotas were indestrutable so i figured that if i took out the old oil, filled it with diesel (all the way up), let it sit for a day, then change oil again and it would possibly loosen/run. Well the engine did loosen, i flushed out all the "shit" but it will not start.

The spark plugs are really wet. I tried with "start gas" but it still will not fire. I can hear two distant poff`s when i try start it if it has been sitting a while.It has a good spark.

Then i figured that because it had an oil leak (real bad one) in the front crank seal, that maybe it had jumped a tooth or two but it hasn`t.

Is there anything other i am missing? Are there any electrical boxes or so that can cause this? What about the cam sensor?

Can it be that under compression the spark disapears?

Or maybe this additive has caused rings to stick or seisure on all 4 cylinders causing it to have a too low compression to fire. Still when turning the engine manualy i do feel it compressing, but maybe it is not enough?


Any advice would be most welcome..


Thanks,

Tom

[sam333]

On an old/ unknown engine, do the basics first . Check valve clearance first, then compression, then ignition timing, spark and fuel. If they put an additive in the oil meant for the cooling system , It has probably done major damage to your bearings.

[Mike Gerber]

You say it has good spark. What color is the spark you see? It should be a bright blue spark, not an orange colored spark. Orange indicates a weak spark. The coils on these cars are inside the distributor and can cause problems as they accumulate lot's of mileage. You don't say how many miles are on the car. If you are getting an orange colored spark I would check the coil for being in spec. You will need a manual for the specs and a digital volt/ohmeter to do this. I would also remove the coil form the distributor and check for cracks. That is another common coil problem on these cars that produces a weak or no spark condition.

Mike

[NorwayCamry]

Hi again..

I found the problem. I connected a compression test and there were no compression on any cylinder. The needle on the gauge dident even move. So i figured that something had to ber wrong with the valvetrain. After removing the exhaust cam, i could see that one exhaust valve on each cylinder wer not returning/stuck. After hitting them with a rubber hammer and removing the cups and cleaning tha car started right up. I flushed the engine a few more times to clean out all dirt so it seems ok.

BUT, there is now another problem. As it starts up real easy and runs good for a while, but then that changes. When warn it easyli stops at the lower rpms. And then it is very difficult to start. I took it for å longer trip yesterday and the best way to keep it running is to manually shift the automatic to keep it from falling down to 1000rpm because then it will stop. The car has alot of kilometers on it it was a taxi earlier, 600 000 kilometers which is alot, so i dont expect alot of it but still i was hoping not to change the engine. What could this be?

I thinking to do a compression test now, one when cold and another with warm engine to see i i have to week compression. But i figure as the engine warms up the comp must be better??As i took it for a long trip yesterday i monitored the oil level and it dident change.


Tom