2011 PRIUS 3 WITH 260 K ENGINE SWAP ADVICE NEEDED

Tools, YouTube, and a competent helper. This is a swap that you can do yourself, if you are the DIY type. Trade schools, “the guy down the road with the riced out Civic” if you aren’t.

It sounds like I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not. One year ago last week I was doing this same swap. In your post, you mention the “hybrid fear”. That is a realistic condition, except the ICE(engine) is just an ordinary gasoline engine with mode of operation changed slightly. If you can work on it yourself, I’d recommend it. @Ragingfit and myself have used the 16 and newer engines to repair our own Prii. He did an entire video series on his escapades. I have pictures of my swap on my profile.

 

Car Dealerships aka: Stealerships are where you get expensive warranty work done for free... If your warranty is expired that's the last place to go... find a used engine from wrecked Prius ~$1200 and a mechanic to install it and you're looking at 1/3 the cost the stealership quoted you. @cnc97 suggests the way I and many other people on Prius Chat would go... That way for ~$1500 and a bunch of hours you're back on the road.

 

Ask for VIN and run CARFAX

 

IF I was in the business of doing it myself, 700-900 is actually a decent price for a swap of this nature. I had about 9 hours out and back in the final time I did my swap (1. torque damper, 2. wrong timing cover, 3.bent valve from piston failure) so using typical labor rate around here has him getting 75-100 per hour. I’d go with that. The other expenses are 45 for plugs, 80 for coolant, oil, and filter. That should get you back in the road.

 

Yes, the Prius v engine bay is the same as the Prius engine bay. The cars are virtually the same except for body panels on the nose and tail, and some of the mechanicals inside the transaxle.

 

I'm the guy on youtube with the gray v. AMA

 

Drive it as normally as possible. If the engine was ran in “maintenance mode” for an extended period of time, your MPG number will fall into the toilet. Reset it and drive and see what it does. As far as oil change, when I swapped mine, I did a 500 mile change, then a 3000 mile. After that, I went to 5000 mile interval.

 

I'm glad you like my videos.
I don't get great gas mileage, 35-42 on the "V". I think it's because the battery is old, around 300,000 miles on the car now. I've thought about replacing the battery but the payback is around 100,000 miles. Still worth it unless the MPG doesn't improve, a real possibility.
I've seen wheel bearings kill MPG and never knew till I replaced them.
If you got all the parts to do the swap, you got all you'll need. Toyotas, when not burning oil, are extremely robust and hardly ever need anything replaced. If you have a spare EGR and cooler, that would be nice to have. Nope, nothing else.
Please give us frequent updates!
- Fix That Prius !!!!

 

Check out car-part.com to do a nationwide junkyard search.

 

You're telling me that you put a fourth generation engine into a third generation car?

 

How did you go from a bad engine to problem solved in just 11 days?

 

In the tuner world, a car with a different engine swapped in is often called a hybrid. So that means he's got a hybrid-hybrid.

[cue old Xzibit internet meme]

 

Can you provide a direct link to your YouTube video

 

Another vote for diy.

 

Fix That Prius! - YouTube

This is my YouTube channel.

15 parts to the GEN 4 into GEN 3 engine swap and a bunch of other stuff.

- Fix That Prius !!!

Fix That Prius! - YouTube

 

agreed, a trusted local shop will do it for ~$1500 total.