rowdy235

Hi all, cause its a toyota, I thought this would fit best here. Feel free to move it if need be.

I have a 1996 Camry LE automatic with the 2.2 four cylinder. About a month ago we were driving along and noticed a lack of power, all gauges read fine. Kept going for about a mile to the nearest town, when I slowed to turn into the store, it died. Tried cranking it and it cranked very slow. Pushed it to a parking spot, it was very very hot. Boiling the coolant hard. We let it cool down for about 2 hours. Coolant was a little low, topped up about a half gallon. Checked oil, it's full.

It started and ran, but made a knocking noise. Couldn't really drive, it would die at idle. Got it towed home.

I've had it up for sale but nobody is really willing to pay anything over scrap price. My question is, do you think that just doing new rod bearings from below could solve the problem, even if only temporarily? I want to do a full rebuild but its just not in the cards right now. If I could throw some bearings at it in a couple hours and get another 10,000 out of it before I had to rebuild it would be worth it. I suppose a compression test is in order first...

thoughts?