$650 2000 Camry with bad crank noise.... buy it and fix it?
 

It is a Camry LE with immaculate leather and everything works. No dents and very presentable. The car is in gorgeous condition except for the fact that it has no wheel covers and the engine knocks. We want to get it for my oldest stepson's first car. The car at least needs a crank and associated bearings/seals. It runs and idles smooth with working AC, but I can hear what sounds like a connecting rod knocking around. There is no hole in the block or oil leakage yet and the top end sounds fine. I have worked on GM RWDs from Chevy to Cadillacs, but have never worked on an import FWD. We really don't want to go crazy spending money on this car if we buy it. I do not mind working on it and putting maybe another $600 or so in it to get it running dependably. What would you suggest we do. Keep looking or take a chance on this clean looking Camry? I'm pretty good with my hands, but the FWD deal scares me as it is new territory for me. Any help appreciated

If LE assume it is a 4 cylinder? Is $650 the asking price?

Are you short on cash, looking for a bargain, have the time and tools to do repairs?

Suggest a search on current prices for this car with a good engine to give you an idea of how much you can put into the car and still be ahead.

For most people would suggest they find a good used engine as this is typically cheaper in the long run.

If doing your own work suggest you up the price for parts as never know what you will find.

On FWD, the transaxle is bolted to the engine. Remove the engine and trans as a unit do to lack of engine space. The axles need to be pulled from the differential which requires the steering knuckles, etc, to be removed. This is a straight forward job if nothing is frozen such as the passengers side axle bearing carrier.

You can remove the engine from the top or bottom, if bottom the subframe needs to be removed thus suggest the top.

Once the axles are removed the car can't be moved (obviously) this is a difference between front and rear drive cars where one may want to move the car after the engine is out.

Once the transaxle is removed from the engine you back to a basis engine. The engine has a set of balance shafts under the crank turned by a gear built into the crank. This makes disassemble a little more complicated. The gear tooth count changed around 94 make sure the new crank has the same number of teeth!

Suggest you obtain some kind of service manual (and read up) take notes and photos (if possible), get one of those markers junk yard use to write part numbers on things and mark items such how the balance shaft and camshaft gears mate up before taking them off.

Take good notes, mark anything that upon reassembly may cause a question as some manuals even the factory at times leave something in question, the result is lost time in actually doing the job.

I've been playing with cars for about 50 years and in my experience, it will be better to slip a good low mileage engine in as you do not know what ugly bits and pieces there may be floating around inside the engine you have due to the damage from what is wrong with it.