Hey .. Im new here and will probably be here a long time. Anyway heres my story.
I picked this car up yesterday and it had been sitting a couple of months.. on startup it had a slight tap.. I thought nothing of it.. just figured it was from it sitting and it would go away. It ran good and all.
I drove it away and about a mile down the road the thing got real noisy and the oil light came on and I immediately pulled over and had it towed the rest of the way home.

Turns out there is a MASSIVE oil leak coming from the bellhousing.. I can only assume its a rear main. So my questions are is there any way to tell if this motor will be ok if I do the rear main? I mean if I pour oil in it it quiets down alot so im thinking its losing too much oil pressure to get any up top into the valve covers.. but I cant pour oil in the rear valve cover so I dont know if all the noise will go away or not. Also pulling it into the driveway the motor seems real weak.. I was barely giving it gas but it just didnt seem right. Id hate to do the rear main to find the engine is toast.

Then I would wonder would the bottom end be ok since there is oil in there? If it still made noise would I just need to get the heads machined and new valves.. etc.


If I do need an engine what cars have the 3.0 that will work in this car? I cant seem to find a camry with a good 3.0 so far and dont want to dump too much more money out to get a motor.. just want to buy a wrecked car or something and get the motor out of it if it comes to that. I really really liked this car when I saw it so I just want to do whatever it takes to get it going... normally if I bought a car and the motor messed up a mile away I would sell it for parts and take the loss but this 2 door camry has me wanting to invest a little time and money.

Thanks for any information that you can provide.. it will be appreciated.

 

Suggest you inspect the bell housing to determine the exact leak location. Unless the seal has popped out oil should not come out in mass. The seal is not under oil pressure thus wonder if oil is coming out someplace else.

If the oil pressure light came on the oil pressure was under 5 psi.

You might overfill the engine by a couple of quarts then start it up. If it runs OK perhaps no damage was done. Place something under the car to catch the oil.

Don't let the engine run with the oil pressure light on!

If the engine was damaged most likely the areas are main and rod bearings often resulting in a knocking noise from the block. If these bearings are bad the crank journals may also be damaged.

Lack of oil can also damage the piston rings and cylinders that depend on oil to reduce friction and heat.

 

Thanks toyomoho. I actually had a friend come over and check it out and hes pretty positive that the noise is coming from the lower end. At this point I am just giving up on the motor and trying to find a new one.. So the only real question I have is do you know what years and model 3.0 I can put into this car? I hope to be able to find a motor for this car... would hate to give up a car that i like so much.

 

The 1MZ-FE was used in a lot of Toyota products. See link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_MZ_engine

You would want one without VVTi. Around 1996ish Toyota started using remote cam and crank sensors then progressing to multiple ign coils and eliminating the distributor.

If the engine still had a distributor to direct the spark (but used remote sensors) would think you could reuse the old dist.

Suggest calling auto junks yards they often have books that show compatibility of engines between years. A well-informed Toyota parts person may know.

Check any engine you buy for sludge by removing a valve cover. Make sure the engine was not overheated, the block are aluminum.

I might look for a 1992-96. Find someone parting out a totaled car.

 

I have a rebuilt 1MZ-FE engine for sale if you'd like. I live in Sacramento, CA area. Have 25+ pictures to email also. Let me know. http://sacramento.craigslist.org/pts/1376433718.html (auto parts) for more information.