Is my engine toast?

Not sure what if any difference there is between the gen3 and v hoods. I looked at it at full extension and it still stuck out past the windshield. With how paranoid I am going to be about the glass I wanted at much out of the way as possible. It was only held on with 4 12mm bolts and is extremely light. I moved it around with one hand. Also the bolt holes closest to the hinge are tight to the bolt, so not sure how much adjusting it needs or can be done. Even so the outline of where the bolts were is clearly visible. Plus its already done

While I have how often maint had been done on my Prius, I don't have all the details of what was done at each visit. That plus being right at the 200k miles mark I am changing all the fluids. Before I started we went to Lowes and got a refrigerator box so I could cut big sections to put under the car for Ooops!

I had my cardboard and catch pan under the car with the plan of doing the transaxle fluid next. From the other threads I had read, was to measure how much came out, and put the same back in plus 1/2 a quart. Well, when I pulled the bottom plug, the fluid shot out a good 2+ feet. The cardboard caught a lot of it, but there was enough for it to run off the edge and onto the garage floor. I had been doing so good too. =( Now I don't know how much to put back in. Conservatively 1/2 a quart shot out in that initial burst before it got the catch pan under it. I'll try to find out the capacity in that 2010 manual you provided. I also got the intake/maf/resonator out last night.

I watched the valve lapping video last night. My biggest takeaway is that there is no way I wouldn't get gunk down into the guides, and that I need to find some of that cancer in a can stuff he had.

I'm not great with video, but if there are any pictures that anyone wants while I do this I am more than happy to snap away. I really appreciate all the help everyone has provided.

 

I jacked the rear while draining the fluids, but didn't want to leave it up on the jack. I ordered some grooved hockey puck deals to put the thing on stands. I want to pull the right front passenger tire off to get at the engine better like Dan suggested.

 

Removing the air box and resonator was pretty straight forward it's just a bunch of 10mm bolts. The one that always gets me is one with a lovely dark reddish brown patina directly under the air filter. Its at the very bottom of the box and blends in with the black plastic.

I was going to start in on the intake manifold and egr stuff last night. However, I decided the wiring harness was in the way. Every single connector can be squeezed, pulled, or has a tab to lever out. On my GM trucks something breaks every time I try to mess with the wiring connectors. I was pleasantly surprised that every one came off without breaking.

It did take me awhile, and I was very careful. There are a couple of connections on the back of the engine that I got from underneath. The rest were pretty straight forward. Unfortunately most of the tabs you have to squeeze or lift are underneath so I used a mirror and light to figure out what each one needed before going in with a tool.

I am copying Danlatu's method of putting fasteners in labeled containers I picked up at the dollar store. For the bolts directly on the engine though, I just remove the component and screw them back in so I know exactly where they go. I am also taking tons of pictures from different angles so I can hopefully figure out how to get it back together.

The tools were:
Light with a swivel head so I could set it down and aim it right where it needed to go.
1/2 broken mirror that used to extend but still works for this purpose
Magnetic fastener bowl that I put on the top of the strut tower to hold bolts as I removed them
Flat head screwdriver
Needle-Nose pliers with the tips that curve almost 90 degrees
Ratchet and extension. Mostly 10mm but there are some 12mm/15mm if you want to remove brackets instead of disconnecting the wiring clips.



Despite being dirty the engine looks much cleaner and more manageable with the wiring out of the way.

 

danlatu, you have obviously been a huge help and inspiration for me tackling this. As I was laying under the engine last night contemplating life. I was also wondering how you disconnected/reconnected the exhaust manifold. It looks equally hard to reach from the top and bottom. Of course my bolts look pretty rusty too.

Second question is what bolts you used for the hoist? I found the part number in that 2010 manual and that it is used for idler pulleys etc, but no specs so I can go get one locally. I do have some Romex but was trying not to copy that part.

 

So I got my shiny new lift put together. It was missing the handle. Yay harbor freight! I did feel a bit guilty about buying it since I have an outdoor gantry and hoist, but no way to get the Prius out to it.



I also got in my hockey pucks to put the car on jack stands.



What the pictures don't show is the point at which I had jacked the car up and pulled the ramps out. But before I could get the jacks adjusted and the rubber pucks put in place, the seal in my jack failed. The car crashed down hard on the stands, bending the pinch welds anyway. They did hold up better than my last car I tried lifting from a pinch weld, but kind of defeated the purpose of buying and waiting for the rubber adapters.

I also started removing the EGR cooler. That things is a royal pain. The 12mm bolt underneath was very difficult to reach, and mine are all corroded enough that I have to wrench them all the way off. If I could have just loosened then used my fingers it would have gone much quicker. Now I'm at the point that I don't have an 8E Torx socket to remove the studs. I will try to pick one of those up tomorrow so I can get it off and see how clogged it is. The pipe going to the intake had a coating of crud but didn't appear clogged at all. I will post some pictures of how it looks.

 

So, how does a 200k mile EGR and Intake look? No idea how 3/4+ of its life was spent. I drive it hard, my wife drives it pretty normal.

EGR Valve:


EGR Cooler. I didn't put my mouth on it to blow but it is at least mostly blocked. Also can't figure out the best way to get pictures of stuff like this. This one is the best of all bad ones:

The 'normal' intake sludge under the throttle body. It looks like oil sludge but a bit runny and smells like gas:

Intake runner to the engine (top of intake manifold). This is where the 'clean' air goes into your engine.....


I've also been thinking a lot about the design of the intake manifold. All my other cars have always had this sitting on top of the engine. It is my guess that they knew this would be happening. That the throttle body and intake being below the engine is intentionally designed to act as a built in catch can. It seems like too much is getting through though. Especially on the higher mile cars.

 

I stopped on the way home tonight and picked up an E8 Torx socket. HF is an hour away and my local Advanced had it as a single socket. It made taking out the EGR Cooler easy. Even with some rust on the studs they came right out.

Even though I only had an hour or so tonight I also got the throttle body, intake manifold, and water pump out tonight too. Lots of visual progress for not much work, good morale booster.




I also ordered an engine tonight. Hopefully the right one this time..... Its a 2015 with 60k miles from a car with rear-end damage only. 6month warranty on the engine. I really need to get going on getting the blown one out of there.

 

I tried that front point just inside and in front of the pinch weld markers when I first got the car. I ended up with bent metal. Nothing on this car seems super strong at any single point. At least as far as lifting goes, that's why I usually go with ramps.

 

So I finally came up with an appropriately redneck way to get at the back of the engine.

Once that was setup the bolts and studs on the exhaust manifold came off very easily. I couldn't get the 3rd nut off the heatsheild back there so I had to bend it up out of the way.

I also got the waterpump and fuel lines/rail off. The A/C is disconnected from the engine but I have concerns that its still going to be in the way. I keep looking at danlatu's pictures. I think I have more room in the engine bay than a gen3. However my windshield does stick out more. I will try to video the actual pulling out of the engine.

Hopefully all I have left is a couple of transmission bolts, then the motor mounts and it will be free. I do have mounting concerns about getting it back together, but I have pictures of everything so hopefully that will help.

I tried finding an engine stand on craigslist but I could get a new one from Jegs for within $10 of the crusty ones on there so I picked a new one up and it is ready to go too. What I haven't heard about is where the engine I bought is. So I need to follow up with LKQ Monday to see whats up.

 

I called LKQ this morning. After a week of showing the order was in processing they said it was being delivered today. Ok, I guess they don't update order status, but thats cool. So I was wondering which terminal they were sending it to for me to go get. I live between two of them, both about an hour away.

That's when I got the call from the driver. At my house. I work an hour away.

So after a mad scramble of phone calls later, and some minor bribery, I had someone go down and sign for it. She also 'tipped' the driver to drag it 100y down my driveway to the garage. So I came home to big ole package in my driveway.



It was like christmas. They sent a very complete engine.



It has the water pump, fuel rail and injectors, most of the wiring harness, coil packs, exhaust manifold and heat shield, etc. I need to do some parts number comparisons just to see what if anything is different. This is from a 2015 gen3 compared to my 2012 v. Every bit of the 60k 2015 engine looks nicer than my 200k 2012 NJ engine. It is really tempted to leave it built, drop the whole thing in and see if it fires up.