Project 93' Camry Beater

[ViPER1313]

This September I decided that I wanted a reliable, comfortable beater for the winter. In typical fashion, the cheapskate within me took over, and I purchased this gem of a motor from a friend:



When I bought the car, my friend (not the best mechanic) had suspicions that the car had a blown head gasket. According to him, the car was making coolant disappear in a magical, mysterious fashion, and said he had overheated it a few times when it ran low. I looked it over, drove it, found that the car was missing the tube for the overflow reservoir and figured that the car was just pissing coolant out of the overflowing-overflow reservoir when it drove down the road. The car didn’t overheat, didn’t seem to leak any fluids and ran well…

After purchasing it, I found out that he was right and I was wrong – definitely a blown HG. It seems the 3VZ-FE is known for having head gaskets made out of tin foil. The reservoir repair simply made the coolant disappear from the overflow instead of having to add it directly to the radiator. The car was running on 5 cylinders on startup from coolant leaking into the cylinder, then shooting an enormous cloud of white smoke out the back when the plug un-fouled itself. Now I could (and should) have replaced the HG (parts for this car are stupid cheap – you can get a full engine gasket set for less than $200) but $500 car, so eff that, lets stop leak this baby!



Basically you have to flush the cooling system, pull the thermostat, fill it with pure water, run the car for an hour with the stop leak in the system and then drain / refill with antifreeze. This would be a real easy process, except that this is possibly the most complex, sadistic motor Toyota ever developed. There are more vacuum lines in this engine bay than under the hood of a 300ZX, and the engine cooling fan is hydraulically driven, and most importantly, the thermostat is located on the side of the engine beneath the alternator - there is no way to get it out without removing it. How in the hell there are so many of these cars still on the road is a complete mystery to me – I think they are mostly 4 cylinder versions… My SHO was a breeze to work on compared to this thing.



So, after gallons of antifreeze / water spilled on my driveway and removing / replacing the alternator 3 times - Great Success™ …. the head gasket no longer leaked! No more stumbles on startup, no missing coolant, right up until the point the water pump died a terrible gel-induced death 1000 miles down the road and started spilling antifreeze quicker than I could put it in. No big deal, except that the pump is driven by the timing belt. So this is how it the motor sits tonight:





I'm going to replace the water pump and see how much longer this thing will hold together :thumbup:

TL/DR - Bought a 93' Camry with a blown HG, the car is a POS, I'm cheap as hell and hate the 3VZ-FE.

[D_Eclipse9916]

el o el

[WRXtranceformed]

Hahaha awesome

[Mike]

You done did got fucked, but not as badly as my friend who recently bought an S4.

His thought process:

1. I can afford a low mileage, warrantied 2010 A4.
2. Oh shit, what's this? A high mileage out-of-warranty 2010 S4 for the same price?
3. I need that.

Drives it for a week. It stops shifting. Dealership says he needs a new mechanochronomometer or something like that. $2k repair.

It doesn't fix it. Dealership is currently putting in a new trans for $12k.

[ScottyB]

well done! maybe you have a new BABE car without even realizing it?

[NTIman]

Ugh. The 3VZ engines must be the spawn of Satan. Worst engine ever built by Toyota, possibly worst engine ever built regardless of manufacturer.

Otherwise, those are great cars. I always liked that body style.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Ugh. The 3VZ engines must be the spawn of Satan. Worst engine ever built by Toyota, possibly worst engine ever built regardless of manufacturer.

Otherwise, those are great cars. I always liked that body style.

It is sad when his DSM is more reliable than a camry :lol:

[NTIman]

Ugh. The 3VZ engines must be the spawn of Satan. Worst engine ever built by Toyota, possibly worst engine ever built regardless of manufacturer.

Otherwise, those are great cars. I always liked that body style.

It is sad when his DSM is more reliable than a camry :lol:

Truer words have never been spoken.

[ViPER1313]

New water pump in and 6000 miles later, the head is still sealed and everything is still holding together. I had to replace the front three plug wires because one of them was arcing, which also fixed the annoying popping through the speakers when listening to the radio and the CEL. The car still hesitates / runs a but rough when cold but I could really care less.

[D_Eclipse9916]

New water pump in and 6000 miles later, the head is still sealed and everything is still holding together. I had to replace the front three plug wires because one of them was arcing, which also fixed the annoying popping through the speakers when listening to the radio and the CEL. The car still hesitates / runs a but rough when cold but I could really care less.

Next week, after work lets grab some carpool.

[ViPER1313]

Just in case anyone was wondering, a water pump lasts exactly 7500 miles when running stop leak. Hg is still fine....

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

[Mike]

fyl?

[Jeff]

Guy came in the garage the other day looking at a 2013 Challenger Rallye Redline (V6 dressed to look like RT with homo stripes). Anyway, he was driving one of these cars, an old V6 Camry. It had drilled and slotted rotors, old Milli wheels, other than that beige on beige. I was like, lol. This fellow is in his 60's so I figure he got this car from a MMIHS member. He tells me he thinks the V6 Challenger would be plenty, "I bought this Camry new for my wife, it just didn't have enough power." I'm surprised and not in the same moment. Then he tells me what he did to fix the problem. "So I took it back to the dealer and had them put a supercharger on it." I again lol'ed inside and asked to see it.



This (well, this all dirty) was what I saw....DO IT.

[Mike]

Then he tells me what he did to fix the problem.

awesome. looks like that bumps the power from 200/200 to 240/247. not sure that's worth the $3k, but still pretty cool.

[Evan]

a beige supercharged camry is the sleeper of all sleepers

[Jeff]

This old man had it figured.

[ViPER1313]

So the beater met its untimely demise at the hands of a 2003 Kia Rio today. I was traveling straight through a 2 way stop and the other driver drove straight through into the front passenger fender. I'm assuming its totaled. Maybe some more stop leak will fix it as Jake suggested hrug:

[JustinG]

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[Jeff]

Sorry to see that. Glad you were not hurt!