Rod Knock, Motor Replacement, Spun a rod bearing Options

[Special_Edy]

Okay so I drove my beat up 94 GT to Florida for Minecon and all went well. 2800 miles total in less than a week and got just over 30mpg which I was very impressed with. The engine and car only have 131,000 miles but it was in rough shape when I bought the car for $300 two years ago. It had two flooded cylinders and a warped head which I repaired and then drove several thousand miles till an exhaust valve burnt up. I replaced the valve two months ago but I knew the rotating assembly was a ticking time bomb.

The ticking noise started when I got back from Florida and it got steadily worse until last week when I was driving on the highway and it started banging really loud. I slowed down to 50 and the noise went away completely, but then I suddenly lost power and the car was only able to muster 40mph to the next exit where it died when I pressed in the clutch to downshift. It was seized until it cooled off and then I was able to turn it over but it made a loud clunking noise. I called a buddy with a pickup truck to come tow me and then the huge ice storm blew in. So today (4 days later) the roads thawed out enough for me to tow the car to a buddies shop where I threw it up on a lift.

The number 3 rod bearing spun and melted. It scored the crank journal slightly so I'm going to find a salvaged engine to replace it.


http://youtu.be/76tpZdc4S_w Part 1

http://youtu.be/d7Nyb3_Zy10 Part 2

[Special_Edy]

Okay so I finished installing the motor today and it runs great. I pulled the #3 main bearing and it still had cross hatching on it so I guess that means the junkyard motor is in pretty good shape. I discovered the motor had balancing shafts when I tried to bolt on the reinforcement plate that covers the flywheel and it wouldn't fit over the oil pan. So I had to unbolt the balancing shaft assembly and the oil pickup was bolted to it. When I swapped over the celica oil pump pickup I had to drill out the brackets on the oil pickup from the Celica motor because the boltholes are in the same place but the Camry has 10mm bolts from the balancing shaft assembly and the Celica just has 6mm boltholes. With the Celica oil pump secured using 10mm bolts, I then used a 7mm x 1.00 tap to tap out the oil supply hole to the balancing shafts. Next I used Loctite to put a bolt into the oil supply hole. Another issue was that the oil dipstick tube was broken off so I had to use an extractor to get that sorry bastard out of there.


Now that its running there is a massive fuel leak on cylinder 1's injector so I'll be replacing that o-ring tomorrow. Most importantly however, the clutch isnt working. I didnt disconnect any part of the clutch hydraulic system, I just pushed it off to the side, so Im worried its something in the bellhousing. Could the clutch fork or throwout bearing be misplaced? I guess I'll find out tomorrow...