**7AFE Knocking** Help Revive her!, Help with diagnosis and fix Options

[DST94]

I am usually really good about maintaining my Celica, but I decided that checking the damn dipstick was going to take too much time and ended up driving her 2.5 quarts low on a 200 miles round trip. . . 5 times. On the last trip the oil light flickered and I knew that I was going to have to check it out, but i was less than 10 miles from home so I thought I'd make it. Wrong. I heard a slight knocking but the engine was too loud and I couldn't figure where it was coming from, so I pushed the clutch in to drop the RPMs and quite the engine and the engine violently stalled as soon as I pushed the clutch in. I tried to turn her over while I was coasting but she wouldn't budge. I pulled off to the left, and tried to start her, it was like the battery was dead. Lights flickered, all lights on then slowly fade off. Finally she turned over and was knocking terribly. The knocking got worse as RPMs went higher so I shifted @2000RPMs and limped across the freeway got up to 45mph and pushed the clutch in to begin coasting and got another violent stall. I got to a rest stop coasting and only turned her on to show my dad and the tow truck driver the horrible noise. Haven't turned her on since and have looked up common problems. Spun bearing, messed up rod, messed up crank. I need some help with diagnosis and how to go about repairing this. Ill post pictures and remove whatever necessary. I have until Sunday to fix her, I can fix her, but I've never delved this deep into the engine and need some help. You guys haven't let me down yet, lets not start when I need it most. Thanks guys.

P.S.
If we could refrain from commenting on the low oil. . . I'm not proud of my mistake but I know what I did wrong. . . I could go without the reminders.

This post has been edited by DST94: Nov 23, 2011 - 12:55 PM

[stephen_lee]

you lost AT LEAST one bearing. and from the sound of it you kept driving even after the light flickered and even AFTER the engine started knocking. If you stopped when the light came on, you might not have to do a rebuild.

BUT...

The crank will be chewed up. The rod more than likely will be too.
You will have to pull the motor and do a rebuild. Grind the crank, replace the rod that lost the bearing.

You can get away with just replacing the bearings with the engine in the car. but that can last anywhere from 10 miles to the end of the cars life.