I think my coupe is dead...

[Sigma Projects]

damn, the weather is brutal out there.

[danf]

Well, it's official, my coupe is toast.

After letting the car warm up there's a real bad knock.

Of course, now even the brakes went out moving it around my driveway. That coupled with the engine and the fact the rust has gotten so bad on the car it's into structural I've decided to finally get rid of it.

I'm still going to yank the engine out. Transmission is junk and needed to be replaced. I have a W58 sitting here but now there's just no point... I sat in the car today and felt the seat move. Yep. You probably guessed it, floor pan is toast. The previous owner was a heavy smoker too... I tried getting the smoke smell out of the interior bits but at this point it's just a write off.

At least I drove it for 2.5 years and recovered my expenses from it.

I've already lined up another car (not a Celica though) for a winter car.

[twotone_ra64]

Noooo! Another bites the dust I suppose. What other parts were you able to salvage from the car?

[danf]

I started picking at it today. The sunroof is not rusting (at least no visible rust on the outside.) The dash parts are almost all mint (only piece I found broken was one of the front speaker covers.) Even the door panels are mint BUT cig smoke damage.

I couldn't get the stink out of the original seats and replaced them with GTS seats. The driver's seat is ripped but the air bag still pumps up. Those seats don't smell like smoke. The fuel pump is new, PO replaced it... battery is (well was) new as car didn't come with one. All the glass is good, but I don't know if I'll be able to get them all out.

Everything under the car is rusty, many things have rust flaking off. The rear axle might be saveable as it's a low mile with an auto ratio. Gas tank is super rusty.

One of the headlights stopped retracting. The front corners have damage. Grille is great shape. Rear tails have damage (driver's side has a hole in it.)

The car just rolled over 100,000 miles (160,000 km.) It had a hard life...

Come to think of it, I bought it for the engine originally - but was able to drive it for almost three years. Win in my book.

[danf]

So I took the stinky headliner out and the sunroof is near mint. There's only a small speck of rust on it about the size of half my pinky fingernail. I'll be saving that one for my other car, I'm certain the panel has worse rust.

Considering the rest of the car is one big rust blob, that's pretty amazing.

[danf]

So I finally took the motor apart.

All 5 crankshaft bearings are scored. Rod bearings in #1, 3, and 4 are scored. I couldn't get #2 off (but I didn't try very hard) and I suspect this is the spun bearing.

The journals look to be OK though. The cylinder walls seem to be OK but would need to be bored out. The engine should be a good candidate for a rebuild, I'll probably put the whole thing up for sale for $200 locally. With only 160k km/ 100k miles on the engine I'm sure someone will buy it.

[ozzie]

How's the oil pickup look? Sounds like it starved for oil.

[danf]

Oh, it was oil starved.

I was driving on the freeway and I lost almost 4 quarts of oil in a quarter mile-ish. The front seal let go, oil was slathered all over the front of the engine, the hood, and underneath the car.

If I had a car or truck to put it into, I'd spend the $1500 or so to rebuild it. I don't though and I have nowhere to store it, so I'll sell it.

Most 22re's that come up have like 400,000 miles on them and have been overbored... so this should be easy to sell. I see that cores can go for $300-$400 so I'll list it and see what happens.

[ozzie]

I really should have just re-read page 1...

I wish 22REs were worth that much up here, I've got a core and 2 running engines. Problem is, most of the trucks that run them have all rusted out. So they're just worthless boat anchors taking up space in my garage that I won't let go of.

[sirdan]

Heck 6 or 7 years ago it was like pulling teeth getting 500 bucks for my 110k 22re fresh head gasket and chain with a cam.

[danf]

Don't forget I'm in Canada and that's the Canadian peso...

There's still a lot of 4runners and pickups in 4wd groups. Who knows if it'll sell.

But if someone wants a low mileage engine that's not been overbored (which is always the case when you see 22res listed for sale around here.)

Who knows if I'll get it. Heck I'd be happy with even half that but from research around here that's what cores go for now.

I might even get one of the shops around here that reconditions the 22re contact me... like who knows at this point lol.

[LapisLakes]

The land of Canadia is really hard on old cars, so i can see why the coupe rusted to pieces 

[danf]

Where I live there really isn't but rust/rot. This car came from the prairies though, where they actually get lots of snow and ice.

I forgot to provide an update. I took a good look at the front main seal and it had split. Hence the oil everywhere problem. Unfortunately I don't have the seal any more and I forgot to take a picture...

I also found out that locally there's a bit of demand for the later 22re engines, not the early ones. I called several rebuilders and they said they were interested until they found out it was an early 22re. This thing is in my way and after listing it for a couple of weeks I've decided I need my space back. So the engine has gone to Toyota heaven now.

If I had more space I'd wait months for it to sell if need be but it's holding up my other projects.

[Sigma Projects]

You still have the Celica though right?

[danf]

You still have the Celica though right?

No unfortunately. The rust and rot was so bad when taking the engine out that I scrapped it. I did pick some good parts off but the body shell was unsaveable.

When they towed it for scrap it left a quarter of a garbage can of rust behind. The rust was baaaaad.

I'd have fixed the engine if I still had the car.