Advice on gen 4 engine into gen 3

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by robomoto, Dec 20, 2021.

  1. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    My 2010 gen 3 Prius threw a rod though the block at 315000 km. I'm looking to get a shop to do the gen 4 engine into the gen 3 Prius swap. I'm in Surrey, BC, or the Greater Vancouver Area of BC, Canada.

    Any advice on sourcing an engine and a shop in my situation would be greatly appreciated. What is a reasonable billable hours for this job at a pro shop?

    2 of the cheapest gen 4 engines on car-part.com in my area go for $2500 CAD after a $500 core charge reimbursement for returning the old shot engine. These are from wrecked taxis and have 170k and 180k KMs on them respectively. The wrecker (Ken's Auto Recyclers in Surrey) offers a 90 day warranty. There are other engines priced at around $1750 CAD in the Quebec or Ontario regions but they would need to be shipped across the country so I'm guessing they cost about the same with shipping and no way to get warranty. That's the engine part.

    Now for the service: I've called 5 shops local to my place so far and none will touch a hybrid. I did find precisionautoservice.com in Langley that specializes in hybrids and they said they can do it for $2500 CAD labour, not including parts like oil, coolant, etc. But they also have not done one of these swaps. So I'm currently looking at over $5100 CAD plus tax with this shop. Is this reasonable?

    By the way, Gasket Masters proved they can do a regular prius engine swap in less than 1 hour: just search "prius engine replacement" on youtube
     
    #1 robomoto, Dec 20, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2021
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Have you looked up LKQ? That's who @Ragingfit used, sourcing a fourth gen engine. He video documented his transplant here (if you haven't already found it):

    Swapping in a Gen 4 Prius' 2ZR Engine into the Prius v | PriusChat

    These (2016 model year) are all US dollars prices I assume:

    LKQOnline

    Well I see this:

    Will you ship freight items to Canada or elsewhere outside the US?

    LKQ Online will only ship to the continental 48 United States. At this time, we cannot ship to Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, or elsewhere overseas.


    Maybe you could ship to a "post box" service in Blaine. Maybe cost prohibitive, too complicated, but who knows.
     
    #2 Mendel Leisk, Dec 21, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2021
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  3. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    Hey Mendel, do you know which shops are the best for this job in the greater Vancouver area? For now it looks like the local engines are my best bet.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Sorry, no clue. I'm just shy of 93K on our 2010, using it less and less, what with retirement and Covid. Plus I cleaned the EGR and intake some years back. Likely won't have your "fun".

    I suspect you're right about locally sourced engines: there's tempting prospects from the States, but shipping restrictions/cost, and exchange can make it prohibitive. Plus if your purchased engine is a dud, local return/exchange has got to be easier.
     
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  5. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    Talked to canadaengines.com in Surrey. They seem to be one of the best in BC for engine re-builds. Sent them some info from this forum but I have to follow up to see if they'll do it.

    Say Mendel, I read the PDF you wrote on this swap and a bunch of other threads, but they don't mention reflashing the ECU after the swap. I watched the video below, and in the comments, one commenter said he did the swap and his engine won't start. Then the owner of the video replied saying "You need the Toyota TechStream software to reset the ecu." Is this true? It seems the DIYs so far says the gen 4 engine will work with the gen 3 ECU without Techstream, or am I mistaken?

     
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    I'm just guesstimating, would think if you retain third gen EGR components, intake and throttle body (as @Ragingfit did in this video series), then no Techstream needed. It seems to be the 4th gen EGR valve in particular that needed Techstream, and even then might be problematic.f The video you linked does use 4th gen EGR.
     
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  7. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    Well that sounds plausible, but your pdf is also based on using the 4th gen EGR, and it says the car should just start up with no mention of Techstream. Is there a more complete guide out there? Who has done the swap using the gen 4 EGR here that I can ask? If anyone knows, it'd be you I think.
     
  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    @RightOnTime is doing 4th gen engine transplants into 3rd gen, professionally. Gleaned from looking through my past Private Messages. Also I see I posted an assembly of engine overhaul related excerpts from the 3rd gen Repair Manual for him. Can't even remember doing it, but let's not get into that lol. Anyway, not sure if that's the pdf you've mentioned, or it's got more info. I'll attach it here.

    And hopefully @RightOnTime will see this and chime in. The more conservative route, just utilizing 3rd gen EGR, is not that much of a backward step though. 4th gen EGR into 3rd does require heat-and-beating on the exhaust manifold, to change the position/orientation of the pipe that bolts to the EGR cooler. And again, it seems like the third gen CPU's are a little confused, dealing with 4th gen EGR valve.
     

    Attached Files:

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  9. RightOnTime

    RightOnTime Senior Member

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    Our SoCal Shop (Hybridpit) specializes on Gen 4 transplants and 3rd Gen Engine rebuilds.

    With our experience, there is no need to reflash the ECU since we are keeping many 3rd Gen parts over to the Gen 4.

    As for the EGR cooler route, it is best to use the Original Gen 3 cooler and assembly for less modifications to get the car running.

    Good luck with your project!

    IMG_8660.jpg
     
  10. Johnny Cakes

    Johnny Cakes Senior Member

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    I've always wondered how much *could* be brought over. Let's say you wanted to have the Gen4 adaptive cruise control, which is different than the Gen 3 ACC. Is that something that could be done without breaking the bank?
     
  11. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    @RightOnTime right on time with crucial information. Using the gen 3 EGR presumably means no need to bend pipes? This changes the game. I thought the gen 4 EGR was a must.

    Some developments on my end: Taxi companies in this area uses Prius fleets, so I reached out to them and got a slew of garages specializing in Priuses. Many have gen 4 engines available to be swapped in. Now looking at mid $3k CAD range for everything which includes new water pump.

    Courier companies also use Prius fleets, so if one was inclined, could reach out to them also for directions to garages.
     
    #11 robomoto, Dec 23, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2021
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  12. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Their video might have been an hour but the job is at least a day. If you swapped gen3 for gen3.

    Swapping a gen4 block has required gen3 egr, intakes, exhaust, controls, wiring mods, etc which is one reason most won't touch it. Even then lots of attempts have ended up with nagging problems. A rebuilt gen3 is arguably better.
     
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  13. RightOnTime

    RightOnTime Senior Member

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    Your will need transfer the harness and ECU over to the Gen 3 and then figure out the pin outs for each plug. Until we get a customer for that request- will try to do it
     
  14. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    It's important to mention that when I told a shop that I wanted an engine from the 2016-17 Prius for my 2010 Prius, they thought I was talking about the engine from a 2016-17 Prius V. Toyota did not make the same engine changes in the V engines at year 2016 like it did with the regular Prius, and they discontinued the V in 2017. Even though all gen 3 and 4 have the same engine number 2ZR-FXE, the V engines have the silver valve cover and not the improved black valve cover as you see in the pic posted by @RightOnTime.

    However, if the newer 2016-17 Prius V engines did receive any improvements to deal with the overheating/EGR/head gasket issues, then they may well be the better choice for an engine replacement on a gen 3 Prius. So did these engines receive these improvements? Who would know? @RightOnTime?
     
    #14 robomoto, Dec 23, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2021
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  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Only diff with later v engines is better piston rings. Not trivial, but not relating to EGR much. Watch @Ragingfit video series, to see 4th into 3rd, with 3rd gen EGR retained. Think I’ve linked it? It’s in Prius v mod forum. Long story, but basically the way to do a Prius hatchback as well.
     
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  16. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    All Prius v wagons are gen3 engines with the same issues except for excessive oil consumption remedied by revised pistons and rings in mid 2014 through 2017 blocks.

    Many of us believe the better rings and pistons did reduce the head gasket failure rates, at least so far. Certainly the pistons and rings were important enough that Toyota provided free rebuilds for early excessive oil burners and did the 2014 mid year production change.

    The major advantage to you would be an engine from a more recent year. A 2017 v engine is only four years old. However they are rare because a) Toyota did not make many, b) the Rav4 hybrid was a hot seller and c) many customers and mechanics already knew about gen3 design flaws by then.

    There are system differences in a v wagon versus a gen3 hatchback. Better cooling of the engine and transaxle, a higher numerical final drive ratio, pitch and bounce control and enhanced ac. The first two may theoretically improve engine life, especially if you sourced a younger 2016 or 2017 v engine.
     
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  17. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    Wow thanks @rjparker, this is now as comprehensive as it gets.

    I now have the option to go with either a 2017 V engine (a gen 3 engine with slight improvements that installs with no hassles) or a 2017 non-V engine (a gen 4 engine with big improvements that's only a bit harder to install) at different garages.

    Considering that both garages are offering similar estimates, the decision now depends on these "nagging problems" with the gen4-engine-into-gen3 transplants you mentioned previously. Can we get into these problems in depth?
     
    #17 robomoto, Dec 23, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2021
  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    All Prius v engines are essentially gen 3 engines, have same Exhaust Gas Recirculation components.
     
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  19. rjparker

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    None of the pro mechanics I know (dealer and independent hybrid specialists) have done a gen4 heart transplant into a gen3 car. But we hear about owners who still have codes and stumbling on their frankensteins. However if your gen4 shop has experience specifically doing it and can give you a verifiable reference, I would go that route. There were massive improvements on a gen4 system. The question is how much a gen3 conversion retains.

    Here is a link on the gen4 engineering
    Did 4th Gen fix 3rd Gen? | PriusChat
     
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  20. robomoto

    robomoto Member

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    @RightOnTime has said that his shop specializes in these transplants. His input here would be most helpful. Can you please describe the problems one can expect after installing a gen 4 engine into a gen 3?