Scionlife.com - 2006 Scion tC Engine Rebuild

Hi everyone, my name is Phil and I have 06 Scion tC. I had an issue over this past summer let me tell you about it. It was a very hot july day temp was near 100 dagrees out. I was coming home from work and noticed my A/C was blowing warm air. At first I thought my A/C pump might have gone bad. But then I looked at my TEMP gauge and notice it was past the H and the car was running like crap. I pulled over and turned it off and let it cool, once it was cool i put water in it and got it home. I got home and put more water in it to make sure i had enough thinking it might had just evaporated from being so hot. Next day I drive to work and home and no issues, other then a rougher then normal idle at stop signs and lights. I didn't pay any mind to this at first but then the next day driving home from work i noticed the car was coming closer to the H again. I got home and it was a friday night. I took it to the mechanic on sat and they told me i had a bad head gasket. I was like great that isn't going to be cheap they quoted me 1400 to do the work.

I said I'll do this myself, so i started tearing down the top half of the motor. I get the head off and find there is NOTHING wrong with the gasket. turned out the 6 center head bolts were stripped out. So i bought this tap kit:
NS300L? UNIVERSAL HEAD BOLT THREAD REPAIR KIT STRIPPED THREADS TOYOTA HEAD BOLT THREAD REPAIR KIT NS300L? UNIVERSAL HEAD BOLT THREAD REPAIR KIT STRIPPED THREADS NORTHSTAR HEAD BOLT THREAD REPAIR NS300L? UNIVERSAL HEAD BOLT THREAD REPAIR KIT STRIPPED
and installed them in all 10 holes. I also added the comet head gasket and some head studs to help complete my repair. I then put it back together again and started it up.

This car ran amazing again. I was so happy that I repaired my car and it cost me just under 500 bucks. So I drive the car for about 3 months more and I start to hear this knocking noise coming from the passenger side but only when in 3 gear or 4th gear. I take it to the mechanic again and he test it and says it sounds a lot like a spun bearing causing the rod to knock. I said really? this engine only has 75k miles on it. He said well you might of cause this damage when you were over heating it. This could of thinned out the oil and caused the bearing to brake loose and here you are.

So this brings me to now, I have pulled both my engine and trans out and will start a rebuild. I plan on going with some nice rods and pistons. however I am up and down on if i should spend the money on new cams? valves, intake manifold and so on. I do want to add a turbo in the future but that isn't in the budget just yet. can you guys tell me if i were to say add new 700cc injectors and maybe the cams and heck maybe the intake if that will cause my car to have more horse power and also be a great way to have the turbo run once i buy and install it as well? I don't know much about bolt on parts and I turn to you folks to find out if I would be wasting money by putting the aftermarket camshafts on or upgrading the fuel injectors or the manifold.

I have attached some photos of now and I will update them as I go.

Thank you and I hope to talk to some of you in the future.

Phil