Camry Vs Nova...HELP!!!

[Duck Vader]

Ok,

As many of you know I have been trying to get this car thing settled. We have narrowed it down to two choices. Either keep the Nova or buy a Camry. Here is the rundown on the two cars.

Nova:
Needs a cat and muffler.
Needs new tires for winter.
Needs a new carb (or a better one) before winter.
Has 103k.
No leaks.
Maybe a bad tranny. It would not shift out of first one day (after messing with the carb), and now it does shift fine. Checked the fluid and saw metal flakes on the stick but I don't know if they came from the tranny or under the hood. It is really rusty and flaking under there in some spots. I might have rubbed the stick on something by accident.
Hesitates on acceleration from stand still (4 cyl).
Body and interior is in great condition.

Camry:
Has oil leaking, the owner says it needs an oil pan and oil pan seal.
We don't know if they are holding anything back.
Over 200k.
$300 for the car.
Do not know how well it was maintained.
Have yet to drive it and owners are really dumb.
4 cyl.
Body and interior is in fair-good condition.

What would you do? Keep the nova and put the exhaust on and hope the tranny is not bad and save up for the tires and carb or sell it and get the Camry and hope it is only the pan?

Any input would be nice.

[Duck Vader]

I have pics of the nova if you want me to post them.

[Duck Vader]

I just wish I new more about the camry (tires and everything) we know everything about the nova (well I should call it a toyota corolla, that is what is it, just with a chevy name).

[Duck Vader]

anyone else, i need to know TODAY! If we are getting the camry, we need to buy it today.

[Duck Vader]

We only have $ to buy one or fix the other. If we buy the camry we need to sell the nova ASAP.

[Duck Vader]

They are both 1987s.

[Duck Vader]

If we can, we are going to take the camry to a shop in the morning, if the owners will let us. Then we will decide.

[GTO Assassin]

Flips coin.... Nova baby! I have no idea on either, sorry man. The poor old Dog is down the back of the class yelling "pick me. Pick me" and your just ignoring what he's saying! While that is funny, with such a small amount of money for a car, either way is going to take a bit of work.

Scotty

[Duck Vader]

Ya. I know. We have had the nova for about 3/4 a year now, and only put 1200 miles on it. Once the exhaust is fixed, the tires and carb can wait till winter. I am just worried about the tranny.

[Duck Vader]

Anyone else have any input on this? I need input!!!

[Duck Vader]

On all the forums I belong to, no one has said to take the camry, everyone is saying NOVA!!! I wonder if I should follow everyone's advice?

[Duck Vader]

Well we took a better look at the Camry and it is too bad to even worry about it. Oil is EVERYWHERE under it.

Quick question about the Nova though. We tried to start the Nova today and it would not fire up. It kept turning over and over. We pumped the accelerator 3 times and still no go. So we tried starter fluid, and only a very tiny bit. Less than it says on the can. It fired right up, what would be the cause of this?

[EvilNCarnate]

if it started up with starting fluid it could just be weak spark. Starting fluid is ether and has a much lower flash point than fuel does, this is why its used for starting. It takes less spark to get it to ignite. Might check your plugs, also how old are the wires?

Most Carbs can be rebuilt fairly cheap with a kit, if you have the time, patience and a little know how. Just know its normal to have a few extra screws after your done... not sure why it always seems to run like a bat out of hell after a rebuild, might have to do with those screws..... <-- joke, make sure if you rebuild it you take your time and get it right. Of course a new carb might not cost that much since its a 4 cylinder... god.

Hesitation from a stop, dude its a carburatted 4 cylinder engine, power aint in its vocabulary. Best bet would be to flush and change all the fluids, including the tranny, give it some grease and such and see how she runs after that. It could always be low on tranny fluid so it has to spin up a little before it gets moving. A tranny flush can tell you a ton.

[Duck Vader]

Plugs and wires are brand new, less than 20 miles on them. And we had this problem before too.

A new carb is about $300 I think.

I am going to change the tranny fluid, fix the exhaust, take the carb off and clean it up, put some fuel system cleaner in, new air filter, and maybe change the belts tonight, and put in a new battery.

I will see if all that helps.

[EvilNCarnate]

Fuel system cleaner wont do much on a carburated engine, it may clean out a little in the fuel lines but dont expect miracles. However some carb cleaner has worked miracles for me back in the day. Get 2 cans, maybe 3. It's fairly cheap. Get the engine started and slightly warm. Pull the air cleaner or intake tubing. hold the can in one hand and keep the other on the throttle linkage. Open her up a bit, shoot it in, let it burn off... keep doing this until the can is empty. Typically you can see inside the carb and throttle body and see the black gunk on the walls. Keep shooting the carb spray to clean the gunk up that you can see and keep the throttle up. Spray off and on, a constant stream will kill your engine and make it a bitch to start back up for a while. If you do flood it out with carb cleaner give it 30 - 45 minutes then try starting her with the pedal to the floor. She will start and clunk so you will have to fan the throttle a bit to keep her running until the carb cleaner burns off. Typically a good cleaning keeps a carb'd engine running a little better for a year or so.

Oh, down side to rebuilding a carb, jetting MF'n PIA. If you do undertake a rebuild the cost is substantially lower, a rebuild runs just as good as a new one. Get a manual if you can cause you will want instructions and when you get ready to put it all back in follow the starting settings for jetting the carb and work from there.

[JagdStealth]

Keep the Nova...the corolla will run forever, but carb'd 4cyl? The 4AC? 3TC? That sucks the Nova version came with the real dog motor instead of the 4AG.

Either way that thing will run forever with proper maintenance. Don't spend $300 on a new carb, just rebuild it. The kit probably costs $18 and you can do it with a toothbrush and couple cans of carb cleaner. You shouldn't have to worry about jetting if you're putting it all back together stock, it should be good to go. This has a good chance of fixing your cold starting problem too.

Who knows about your transmission, but it needs a flush for sure.

[Duck Vader]

Well we ended up buying a 1990 Camry V6 LE with 160k on the odo. It has almost no rust and runs great. No problems at all.

Now all we have to do is sell the Nova, which only has 7 hours left on ebay and the reserve is already met, so it is going bye bye.

Thank god.

[Wolf_Zero]

Congrats. Older camry's definitely last forever if you do just the very basic maintenance for it.