Not a lot of miles, but believe the engine's days are numbered

You should consider the possibility that the noise is originating in the transmission input damper.

 

Still, it’s just the “messenger”, it’s problems due to (incompressible) coolant getting into combustion chamber?

 

Not necessarily. I've got a noisy transmission damper on a perfect running engine with perfect leakdown numbers and no fluid leaks.

I think Aisin got a bad batch of springs that haven't held their preload over time.

 

Have you tried boroscope inspection, check for coolant in cylinders? I know just my hunch, but my feeling is, if that damper is complaining, it's for a reason.

 

The one thing you can rely on with a Gen 3 is that "It's complicated".

Here's the thread. Apologies for the tail chasing in that thread. I fooled myself at one point by getting my endoscope too close to the #1 piston: I thought it looked "wet", it wasn't, it was glare plus blurry view. The engine loses no coolant and the leakdown numbers were crazy good.

The engine was never misfiring in the sense of not achieving ignition on all four, but it clearly was not producing even power pulses under all operating conditions. This was probably going on for a while (I don't drive this car often) and may have been hard on the transmission input damper. It sure made a hell of a racket and the engine visibly shook on its mounts while charging the traction battery in park, and even worse noise when climbing shallow grades at low speed. All of the noise was out of the transmission damper. Changing plugs and cleaning out the entire EGR system didn't change a thing here, neither did blocking off the EGR. Throughout all of this, performance at high power and fuel economy remained "as new". Very strange.

I have the engine running smooth now. The thing that appeared to be most effective towards that end was a can of Berryman's B-12 and a tank of extra detergent premium (which I did just because "easy and cheap", not because I thought it would work). The transmission damper still rattles under light load conditions, the springs have obviously lost their design preload. But it has not been doing the crazy alarming sympathetic oscillation thing lately. Can dirty injectors plus the "blowback" of the Atkinson cycle result in uneven fuel distribution among the four cylinders in a way that could explain the foregoing? I'm not sure where on the scale of quasi-plausibility that theory is .

I have a new damper in hand (via Amayama, about $360 delivered). I actually started pulling the motor, but changed my mind before getting too far into it (story about that omitted). I've managed to get two bids from pro shops to do this... neither want the job very much, prices are quite high.

 

Ah, I recall that now.

 

How much you want to sell it for. I will wire you the money today and tow it to nearest auction (Manheim Cleveland?) where I will deal with shipping to Michigan.

Name price and message me asap....and please don't part it out

(I will put an engine in it and keep it) ---- Price?

 

Brad from Ohio, I would make this suggestion for you to try and please let us know if it improves anything. If your not seeing level drop in the coolant reservoir tank then I would think that the HG is ok. Your also not burning oil so your rings must be healthy and you probably don't drive your Gen3 real hard. My opinion is that a lot of the owners that encounter issues drive these vehicles at high speed and under high hard loads that were not necessarily designed or engineered for. I understand the issues the Gen3 has had with oil burning and HG failures. But based on your comments I suggest this.
When I owned my Gen3 I noticed that if I stopped the car and pushed the Stop/Start button while the engine was still running, that on the next startup I would experience the loud rattle noise for the first several seconds. My belief was this noise was caused by water condensing in the EGR circuit and getting sucked into the engine on the next startup. Since liquid does not compress the engine rattles as the bearings etc. have to try to take-up clearance of the uncompressible liquid. Not good for any part of the engine. Toyota revised the intake manifold to reduce this issue, but I was still able to have it occur at times, cold weather intensified the issue.
What I found was that I would never push the Stop/Start button until after the PCM commanded the engine to stop. If I got home and the engine was still running, I would make sure to turn off the AC or heater so there should be no demand for the ICE to run, and wait for it to stop before I hit the Start/Stop and left the car. With this process I never had issues with the startup engine rattle. My suspicion is that the PCM possibly opens the EGR valve as the engine is normally shutting down to evacuate water from the EGR circuit during a normal shutdown? But this process does not occur if the Start/Stop button is pressed to force an ICE shutdown?
Anyway just a thought. I was fortunate with my 2010 to get 280K with no HG failure and no excessive oil burning, and sold it for my Gen4 Prime. I think it was these little things that helped mine be so reliable for me. I am from Ohio and understand the issues with rust. Its too bad to lose vehicles like this to something that is mostly out of your control.

 

@Brad from Ohio

Starting bid: $3000. Interested?

 

Ok, didn't read the thread entirely but sounded like you had a junk motor (possible head gasket) and you think it's worth nothing so you are gonna part it out.

Yes, the doors are overpriced with junkyards worth 10s of millions that can sit on them for 28 months until someone needs the right color.

I've gotten them around $300.

Entire interior (seats, armrest) $300.

Tires....

Battery $500.

It's not worth that much in parts and is huge eyesore for storage, slowly collecting $100 and $200 here and there.

You can get a 2016+ engine for about $1000 and pay someone $800 to put it in. That was my plan assuming it was bad motor.

 

Few years ago i switched from waxes to those quickcoat products and oh boy how easy. I can recommend. May not last as long but difference is meaningless since you can coat again quickly.

 

You should try the local LKQ and other junkyards.