1992 Camry 3VZ-FE rebuild!

[irowiki]

I don't have pictures yet but we pulled the V6 motor out of the 1992 Camry Wagon we bought to rebuild the engine.

The 3VZ is basically similar to our 3A, cast iron block, aluminum head, so, head gaskets! Bought it with a blown head gasket due to a blown radiator.

Upon closer inspection, it seems the hydraulically powered cooling fan (power steering pump driven) might have failed, which then caused the radiator to blow up, so hard that it dented the hood crossmember!

Whoever was driving it at the time apparently kept driving...the engine got so hot the knock sensors on top of the block melted

The piston rings were fused into some of the pistons too! It is a miracle that car still ran.

Will give some pictures next time I'm up there.

[irowiki]

The 3VZ is moving right along!

[Petros]

compared to our 3ac engines, that looks massive and complicated. Was a full overhaul necessary? didn't it just need a head gasket? I would have prefered to just pull the heads and leave the engine in the car, modern cars are very complex to pull the whole engine (too many wires, sensors, etc to worry about). If it had a lot of miles and needed new rings, than I guess this would have been the way to go, but still seems like a big job. Used good running camry's are common and fairly cheap.

[Gottolovem]

compared to our 3ac engines, that looks massive and complicated. Was a full overhaul necessary?

Whoever was driving it at the time apparently kept driving...the engine got so hot the knock sensors on top of the block melted

The piston rings were fused into some of the pistons too! It is a miracle that car still ran.

I would say the full overhaul was in order

[atoyta]

I have worked on a couple 3vz-e engines in 90's 4runners & pick ups, that looks like a very different engine. Hope they designed the exhaust better on those.

[irowiki]

Peter, the PO blew the headgasket and kept driving the car until the radiator blew (or some sequence of events, like drove after the radiator blew). The radiator blew so hard it dented the center beam it was attached to.

They then donated it to charity, and the guy who fixes them up did a compression test and it came out to 120, 110, 105, 110, 50, 50, which is very low! A headgasket on this car is a 20 hour job, as there's a lot to remove to even get to the heads, and the rear head is rotated 30 degrees down under the firewall. With all that we decided it wasn't much more work to just pull the engine and rebuild it so it'd last a long time.

I'm glad we did as the engine was close to seizing, and the heads were warped beyond the limits requiring new heads

Good running Camry Wagons are rare and can be expensive (even rarer than our tercels now).

[dlb]

it looks awesome, paul. really curious to hear how you like driving it and what kind of mileage it gets. what is the displacement on that engine?

[irowiki]

3.0L, and around 180 HP!

[irowiki]

SHE LIVES

Got everything together, started right up first try! THEN GAS EVERYWHERE ON THE FRONT BANK! Holy crap. Turns out the #6 Fuel injector upper oring got smashed when I installed it. Glad I caught it, and it was an easy fix.

Got all the air bubbles worked out of the power steering and cooling system! NO LEAKS!

Timed to 12 degrees BTDC...that's just how it turned out! (stock is 10) Will set it to 15-17 later as that is what people over at TN like.

Cruise works! I am most looking forward to Cruise!

New struts/springs all around.

The oil is so clean we have a hard time seeing it on the dipstick.

Drove around for 18 miles, nary an issue so far.

Have a check engine light that goes away when she's cold, then came back on after she was warmed up and we accelerated down the street from the house. (She had been idling for 15 minutes at least, and no CEL) Coincidentally, the light came on after the alternator started squealing (need to tighten it). Would low voltage cause a check engine light? So odd, will have to do the jumper diagnostics tomorrow (OBD I)

[Gottolovem]

Yoda man
Can you get the code read at autozone?

[irowiki]

Not on ODB I

[dlb]

good for you, paul!

with OBD I, you usually just have to use a wire to jump two diagnostics terminals in the engine bay and then count the # of times the CEL light flashes.

http://www.troublecodes.net/Toyota/

[marlinh]

Could be oxygen sensor. Didn't the head gasket go? Coolant in the exhaust kills O2 sensors.

[irowiki]

New o2 sensors. Fixed alternator, figured out light comes on at exactly 10mph. Will try the jumper later !

Marlene, I bet the Party wagon's o2 sensor might be cooked after the bed gasket went...

[irowiki]

Ah code 55, rh knock sensor circuit