1st car, 94 Celica st

[BenCasper11]

Alright so I just bought my first car which is a 94 celica st auto w/ 220,00 mi 3 days ago. The car and engine is clean, especially considering the miles. There is a slight innocent knocking coming from the engine (prolly valves im guessing) and a vacuum leak by the firewall.
I'm not looking to Rice this car out at all. I want to fix it up to wear when people see it, they say "****, that's one clean celica."

I work at wal mart so funds are limited but does anyone have any advice on effective ways to prevent as much damage to the engine as possible just shy of a complete rebuild?

any and all advice is welcome


thanx

[xxgetbackupxx]

[ keep Channing the oil every 3000, check spark plugs and pvc I got 215k, all my car does is burn a little bit of oil. use seafoam it helps clean carbon deposits

[BenCasper11]

I plan to flush all the fluids and get a tune up as my next step. I added some fuel cleaner today and honestly, I have noticed a little difference after driving from Wisconsin to Illinois and back.

I plan to upload a few pics today of my baby selene

[garretthomas]

i bought my st knocking very bad sign in a 1.8 (7afe) they are known to have weak piston rods and blow up..... good luck to you man

[ShadowGriever]

So is it knocking from the time you start it or does it start knocking once warm or just when its cold? If it's more of a tapping noise coming from the top of the motor then probably valves, but if its more of a "knock" sounding from lower on the motor then it could be the bearings. Many mechanics say to take a long flat blade screwdriver and put the tip to the valve cover and put your ear up to the handle and see if you can pinpoint the noise coming from beneath the valve cover (It in essence acts like an engine stethoscope). Is it blowing blue smoke or anything? I had a car a few years ago that started tapping slightly from sitting for a while, I changed the oil and added in some Marvel Mystery Oil (following recommended instructions on the label) and sure enough within about fifty miles the tapping went away. Ever since then I have always used Marvel with every oil change in all my cars. As already recommended, Seafoam is great too for keeping things clean, somewhat expensive, but completely worth it for the benefits.