Sorry. But i got to write a book here. But i need opinions from you experts. I have basic mechanical knowledge. But the issues i have go beyond that. Here it goes..
i just aquired a 94 camry from a kid whos been renting a room from my folks for 8 years. The car originally was supposed to be the donor to another 94 camry. It was decided the donor was in better shape and if motors were swapped, it would be an excellent car. The donor camry had 20900 miles and the other one had 50000ish miles on it. My camry (donor) odometer says 342000, but the motor has less than 190000. My folks have gone to the same mechanice for 20+ years. I personally dont care for the guy or his work. (kinda why i need to know if im just actially crazy). The kid has relied on this mechanic as well. He kept all the service orders and i have picked each one apart a few times now. The car has really been a great junk yard find up until around the beginning of this year. It started smoking, idle was rough and progressively worsened, leaked intermently various fluids, and then the idle dropped and it would stall constantly. Thats about when the kid said he wanted a new car. It was dropped in my lap.
the car was in the shop for july - august. The mechanic said he did...
cleaned tb, cleaned and replaced IAC and IAC motor? , replaced pcv valve, gromet and hose, fuel filter and hoses, valve cover gasket, cleaned and repalced the EGR valve system, and had to have the ECU repaired. he said he got a new repalcement but it wasnt compatible and couldnt find any more around, so he sent the ecu out for repairs. (He did break the center console while trying to get to the ecu). The idle went from too low/stalling to too high after the ecu repair. It wont pass smog being the idle doesn't drop below 900rpms. It still vibrates intensely while ideling in gear and neutral (slightly less in N, but not right at all). Im a novice at best, but under the hood, the only thing that looks to be replaced was the fuel filter, which is now setting at the top of the valve cover, snuggled up to the distributor. It doesnt look like the right filter to me either. The pvc gromet MIGHT be new, the hose is new, but its a fuel line and its about a foot long piece and theres no way a new pvc valve would be blackened with small knicks at the tip. (Unless im that clueless). The egr system is as dirty as everything else under the hood. Looks like its been sitting for 30 years, untouched. I popped the cap off and the filter is dirty and clogged with a singed spot on the bottom of it. Like a small spark had struck it. Resent work done before that included valve cover gasket 2x, spark plugs/wires, distributor/cap/rotor 3x, water & oil pump/belts, tranny temp sensor, radiator/hoses 2x, power steeing belt, and the mechanic noted severle times of either water leaks or oils leaks but did no repairs until the next time the car came in and did that repeatedly since 2019. Oil was found in spark tubes, water coming from behind water pump housing, oil behind valve cover at gasket and water from hoses. I had found every single clamp that needed a screw driver, was too looses. The spark plug tube nuts, not even finger tight (17ft lb torque is required, there wasnt 1 ftlb), sp wire 3 was "glued" and it took a great deal of effort to get it out of the tube. (Was certained i snapped the wires after prying it out, but didnt). The pvc valve was just kinda sitting there with a foot long hose and wasnt seated properly.
(sorry if thats all rambled, im frustrated as hell and trying to keep this brief)
as of right now, the car: idles between 900-1000 rpms and its beyond rough, upon first start up, huge plume of blueish smoke (stinks like hell), while driving, if you let off the gas in 3rd, the rpms will drop, as if it was a manual tranny and the clutch is engaged, from about 2100 - 1300rpms, hard shifts, and to get to 4th gear you have to let off the gas or get the rpms up to 4000ish, water found near water pump, back side of valve cover is covered in new oil leakage.
I tightened everything i found lose. I found a hefty sized bolt laying under the PS resivor and gave no idea where is goes, i found the right pcv hose and got rid of the foot long one (valve sits snuggly), drain/fill the tranny (fluid stunk really bad), and break flush and orher minor nonrelated stuff.
im most certain the issues are all related. The leaks are not seemingly detramental but to someone unfamiliar with it, would be alarmed and rush it back to the mechanic. I belive this guy has done some very minor replacements and leaves things lose to make you come back. Then he tightens somethings while billing for soemthing expensive. You would think the leak stopped, he fixed it, all ia good. The invoices are very repetitive in work done. Always outside the warranty. My parents keep urging me to take the car to the mechanic. I just cant do it. I dont trust it. My dads truck spent too much time in the shop and now that i think about some of the issues, its too similar to what i got now. While doing the break flush, i noticed the sway bar bushings looked old like everything else but yet they were supposedly replaced 2 or 3 years ago.
im thinking i need to remove the valve cover completely, clean it, new gasket, new plugs, new wires, new egr, fuel filter?, and then see what happens. Then tackle the tranny.
Am i at least warm or should i just wave my white flag and leave it to the mechanic????
thanks for reading book #1

 

Wow, there is a lot going on here and I apologize if my suggestions/questions were covered in your original post.
Is the CEL on? I assume it is and I would start there.
It really sounds like there could be a host of problems especially if a 'not so honest' mechanic is involved. It sounds like you are taking the right steps; tightening loose stuff and trimming excess hose. Fixing leaks is always good but it sounds like things are more involved here than just some simple leaks.
Blueish smoke is typically oil burning, Black smoke is typically an engine running too rich and does really stink and have loss of power. The loss of power in an engine that is running rich is typically in the lower rpm, higher rpm can usually handle some richness. I think there are some fuel mixture issues with your Camry from what you have said.
So, get your codes read. Look for vacuum leaks- engine running and spray some WD40 around vacuum hoses and listen for idle changes.
OR, find another mechanic and tell them what you have relayed here. Ask around or even on social media for a good mechanic.

 

No, no CEL. Theres the diagnostic pot in the engine bay, full of old electro grease (assuming). I dont have an attachment to use obd1. I only have obd2 with attachments for every other make.
i have been looking at everything in the motor top side. Its a mess. Discovered valve cover was not torqued down, maybe finger tight. Plug tubes half full of oil. Wrong plugs (copper, cheapest ones avail) and they were trashed.So much gunk build up around plug ports. Pcv valve was not replaced, it allowed air to flow freely in both directions. Distributor bolts were maybe finger tight. Found a hefty sized bolt hidden in some radiator lines, under overflow resivore on passenger fender and i have not figured our where it came from. I replaced the valve gasket, proper plugs, cleaned out as much of the gunk as i could. I applied some grey rvt to the tube threads. Changed the plug wires. Removed the gas filter off the air tube going from valves to TB.
The rough idle is practically smooth as ice now. However the RPMs jumped back up to 1000-1200 on a cold start and wont drop below 1000 at op temp. So at idle in gear, theres a lesser vibration.
since there was a nice collection of oil running threw the pcv valve and carbon build up, i want to remove it. I cant see it being useful here. Other than passing smog. This is the only toyota ive owned so im not sure if that would be detramental. Info i have read threw varies alot by personal opinion.
i thought i had stopped the blue smoke on start up. But it happened this morning. I know some oil got into the engine when i pulled the plugs. But not much, i suctioned 99% of it out. Where else could thd oil be coming from, the block??
oh yeah, aside from no CEL, theres no lack of power, and gas mileage is great. It does an average of 27mpg. Unless i do a lot of short trips, then itll drop to 23-24mpg. From what i know, the milegae is about the same as it was advertised 30 years ago. The tranny also shifts at better rpms than prior to messing with everything. It will lag shifting into 4th sometimes, not everytime. I think its related to the ECT switch. As if the switch is stuck in the on position? . But i havent got that far yet. The odo says 343k, but the motor was swapped out with a newer one, not a rebuild, in 2018, So this motor only has about 193k now.