Blown Head gasket rebuild....@297k

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing. Mechanics are not miracle workers, they encounter the same issues as you, they're less familar than you as to what the job entails at the outset, and they're under the gun to rush.

This something you don't want to rush. Also, it's preferable to this with a cold car, especially if you're going to do coolant drain, either partial (2 liters in my case) or total. @NutzAboutBolts opted to clamp hoses, but that's trouble prone I think: the cooler and valve are full of coolant, most of the coolant hoses are on the underside, and when you pull off those hoses the coolant in the cooler and valve is going to drain out from above anyway. On the flipside, it's only a cup or two.

If you DIY in a secure garage, you can take your sweet time, work on a cold car, do a partial coolant drain without the excitement of hot coolant, and clean the EGR at your leisure. And if you hit a snag, no big deal, the clock is not running, lol.

I had our car out of commission for maybe 24 hours, trying various cleaning methods, struggling with fasteners and whatever. But that's ok.

 

Woow i was too optimistic bout it. I read that post how you guys got together and did it. Not practical to do it at the oreily parking. I'll talk to him this monday. See what he says. Anyways i dont have the part yet

 

I'm in SF Sunset area near Lake Merced/SF Zoo. I won't be doing engine swap since they are not cheap and don't want to spend that much. I won't be able to work on the car for another month. I'll let you know when I'm ready to tackle this. My worry is if there is enough room to easily take off timing chain cover without dealing with loosening engine mount and such. Another worry is the crank bolt, how tight is it. Hopefully, it's not as bad as my old Honda's. So far I plan to replace the head gasket and seals, add oil catch can and clean EGR cooler. I think I should be able to take everything apart in half a day(?), clean and put back everything in 1.5 days assuming there are no other problems. Maybe I'm too optimistic.

 

That's a nice part of the Bay Area.

Doing the timing chain cover in place will be very challenging . The gasket that you replace for the cover is a liquid bead and would be very difficult to get a good seal with.

Not to spoil the optimism, but that might be the reality of the situation. But if you have the time and the Prius can be idle for a period of time, might be worth the experiment and sharing of those learnings.

As for the torque for the crank bolt, IIRC @Wrekless struggled with this but had the specs. He might be able to help.

Keep us posted .

 

Here's some info. I've never done anything remotely as tough as this, just the librarian, but my sense: it'd be best to pull the engine.

 

+1. There aren't many things I find more frustrating than trying to apply a proper clean bead of FIPG in poorly-lit, inaccessible, probably oily places, knowing if I mess up, it'll leak, and I'll just get to do it all again....

-Chap

 

Yeah, I'm very close to the beach so it's a bit cold now. And some smoke from North Bay Fires.

Time is not an issue since I have another car as a backup but I don't like taking things apart and sitting for couple of weeks and forgot which goes where and such as I don't want to write/mark down things. I have to change oil in about next 1k miles so I think I'll do the head gasket around that time and change oil and coolant at the same time too.

Thanks alot Mendel for posting the sections. It'll be big help. I really don't think I want to pull the engine and also don't want to loosen engine mounts too but if I need room then I'll have to loosen engine mounts to get to chain cover.

Thanks, Chap, for the warning. I'll have to deal with it as I can't avoid it.

 

We're up in fairfield and just on the eastern edge of the Atlas Fire. The had our cars packed and ready to go if needed, but they have it over 48% contained now so things are looking up.

How long has it been since you've had your Prius running? What was the HV battery SOC? If it is going to sit idle for a couple more weeks, it might be worth starting it up and charging the HV battery to nearly full as a precaution.

Keep us posted .

 

I know what you're saying (on my much more mundane level of competence): often the steps to accomplish a repair end up more involved/tough than the repair itself. I doubt Toyota dealership mechanics remove the engine to resealing the timing chain cover, for example; but it must be very tough working in limit space, between the engine and wheel well wall.

 

Ok...

Then the best I can recommend is that you take plenty of time before you start, to study the fourth one of the repair manual excerpts Mendel posted above, the one showing how to apply the form-in-place-gasket beads. Figure out how you're going to make some practice runs, and where the bead needs to be 2.5 mm, or 5.0 mm, or 7.5 mm from the edge, and which measurements are to the bead center vs. the bead edge, and the corresponding thicknesses of the bead itself.

Most of those details are on the 3rd and 4th pages of that excerpt (this one). Don't overlook the working time of the material: you have three minutes to complete the application, and get the cover set straight onto it without disturbing any.

If you fail, or the time runs out, you return to step 15(a), scrape it all off, reclean/degrease the surfaces, reset your 3-minute timer, and try again.

I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it, not with those working clearances and that time limit.

There might be places where you could rent an engine hoist and stand for cheap, though.

-Chap

 

^ Very convincing.

 

I bet the factory uses robot nozzles, and I bet they're really fun to watch.

-Chap

 

Glad you're ok in Fairfield. It's raining right now so hopefully the fire will be out soon.

I'm still driving the Prius frequently with the coolant cap seal removed so there is no coolant pressure. I'm kind of crazy for doing that but I don't see any coolant loss, boil over, overheating, discolor coolant etc. No misfires either. Current plan is to pull the head in about 3 weeks from now.

What did you use for the gasket? I think OP/danlatu used Grey RTV and I already got that. I'll do dry run without the sealant and hope for the best.

 

They have over 90% containment prior to the rain last night, so things are looking up.

Three weeks, eh? There is a Bay Area meetup scheduled for November 11, so a little after that timeframe. But if you want some help or don't mind some onlookers, we might be able to shift the schedule.

Keep us posted .

 

The main thing is to have fun, you obviously are!

 

Could you give up the Honda part number for the rings to save me a whole lot of reverse engineering? Thanks!

 

That's awesome thank you! I'm starting a head gasket job and have no idea where it will be taking me but I appreciate your posts to provide me insight. I really don't want to pull the engine but I don't see anyway around it unless I can get to the timing marks with it in the car.

 

I just opened a new thread before I saw this post. I didn't want to hijack your sticky and it is already hard enough to find the real beef, the stuff you need to find when your desperate. Time is money but Im not about to trade my engine in as a 50 dollar core charge so the junk yard can sell that to someone else. Plus 1000 bucks for a salvage engine is silly. Im not going there without a fight. I figured I would pull the head, which I started today. I wanted to check for bent rods and if I have one then I will pull it but if they are all still good I want to rework the head and put it back together.

I just paid 250 dollars to replace the windshield in my other 2010 prius last week and I really don't want to break this windshield. I have a bad history with glass, I just have to get close and it breaks.

Come visit my thread I would appreciate your expertise. I too am old school Honda. When I do head gaskets, I like to put in ARP studs as insurance. Seems you cannot get arp studs for a prius