"New" Gen 3 prius with busted HG

Well, my experiment with swapping injectors and plugs did not go quite as planned. I put everything back together and started it up only to notice that there was a fuel leak around the injector which was not in cylinder 3. I took it off again and reseated it with the same result. I am unclear if this is from a bad o ring (looked fine) or an issue with the fuel rail. Regardless, I also got a look inside the cylinders and saw that cylinder #1 looks pretty wet, though unclear if that is from oil or coolant. The others look very black and crusty, with #2 potentially being a little wet. There was no way for me to take a look at the walls of the cylinder. At this point it seems to me that any progress to be made would be with replacing that injector o ring, which seems like a slippery slope of things to do just to try and fix a failed engine (Thank you rjparker with the elephant analogy).

As a matter of curiosity though, how would one tell if a cylinder was misfiring because there was an issue with the wiring? If that is an issue with this engine, it would remain that way with the next engine. I would be really annoyed to find that the same issue happens with the new engine only to discover later that it was the wiring that a mouse had gotten to!!

 

I did clean the intake a bit (including the little ports) with brake clean when I had it off. The knocking remained, including when I unplugged the EGR valve, which has worked for some.

I unplugged the spark plugs and started the car to see if the knocking went away. It did not. I remember noticing this earlier, but it's significance did not register with me. Why would the engine knock without any spark happening?

Like a said earlier, there is a leaking injector o ring, so I would want to resolve this before an more testing, but I am becoming more and more mystified. Also, I am headed out of the country for 2wks and when I return there will be a JDM engine in the driveway.

As of now I am glad that I did not spend any money on this engine (other than PCV valve, which I will recover) and only have wasted my time.

 

Perhaps a better way to say it is that I cranked it it to see if the knock would go away while the engine was turning without any ignition. Just like how you would do a compression test.

 

I just got back from my honeymoon! hence no reply for a while. We went to northern Italy and Austria to see some of the Alps. Specifically to Verona, Lienz, and then the small Val de Peio.

Back to car things. I ordered an endoscope with a SIDE camera. Today I scoped cylinder #1, and sure enough, I saw several drops of water forming at the gasket, and one actually on the cylinder wall. Hello Elephant!

I did take a short video of starting it without the coils plugged in, but am not going to go though the trouble of uploading it on here since I have seen the light (or the water in this case). I had just finished replacing the o rings on the injectors to see if that solved my fuel leak (it did not).

My new engine should arrive any day now, though I will not have a chance to work on it for several weeks. At this time my concern is for the HV battery. For all I know it is already shot after sitting for like 3 months before I bought the car. Still, I would like to help the battery if I can though I will not have it in driveable condition or probably at least another month. The point of trying to fix the fuel leak was to be able to run it for a while to help out the HV battery.

My dad has a grid charger that I have used for the gen 2 prius, and I could use that at some point but I would need to attach a new harness, and I am going away tomorrow afternoon anyways. My guess is that this is the best option I have, though they are an older outfit, and do not sell a harness for Gen 3. Hybrid Revolt I would think that this setup would work fine for Gen 3, although it does require splicing in a circuit board to the wires to the battery fan which may not be the same on the Gen 3. White with black strip, Yellow, and Green.

 

My travel plans changed a bit, and I am in town this week. Today I started to tear into the engine compartment, and have pretty much disconnected everything that I can from the top. I will attack the bottom tomorrow and will strive to be ready to lift out the old and put in the new when it arrives on Wednesday (the day after tomorrow). I found a local place that rents out engine hoists, but they charge by the day so I want to be ready to do it all in one day ($50/day).

At pretty much every bend in the cooling system I found white crust from the sealer. I cleaned out the reservoir with a hose, and will plan on using distilled water and vinegar one or twice when I get it all together again to try to get it out of the heater core.

I had to cut the fuel rail to get access to disconnect the fuel line, and I had to cut the exhaust manifold to get the EGR cooler off. I figured that I would clean the intake and cooler now so that I can swap them onto the newer engine. The new engine should come with an exhaust manifold and fuel rail.

I am strategizing about how and where to mount my Oil Catch Can, and thinking below intake on a frame member. I would connect to one end with 3/8 hose, and then use another length of that with a barbed splice to link up with the original hose and go into the intake from there. I got oil resistant hose from NAPA, but am wondering if I should have gone with something that would be less insulated to help the fumes condense better.

I spent a good amount of my afternoon cleaning the intake and EGR cooler. First I went to the car wash and used a pressure washer, bracing both parts against a frame of wood I slapped together. It helped with the cooler, but did not get it as clean as I wanted. I am not convinced that the pressure was enough at the nozzel. It worked pretty well cleaning out the intake channels that travel from the EGR. I came home and tried my hand with oxiclean. It turns out that a whiskey cork wrapped in a lot of electrical tape worked pretty well as a stopper for the small end of the cooler. The oxiclean did next to nothing on the intake, but is foaming away with the cooler. Several rounds so far.

I can see light through two spots in the cooler, which is where I forced a coat hanger through. Does that mean that the other spots are too clogged, or that I have broken some internal structure with the hanger?

 

I finished getting the engine ready to be lifted out. I am keeping all my different fasteners in labeled bags, but I am paranoid about missing an electrical connection or reattaching a clip or hose somewhere. I guess I will have to just go slow at each step, hunting for things that might have been missed. I took the radiator out and replaced that today. There was like a half inch of sludge at the bottom of that when I peeked through the lower radiator opening. I also found a place to mount my catch can. Not the best I am sure, but there is a little metal window that can be unbolted to peek at the flywheel and I drilled some little holes in that with self taping screws to hold that can at the right level and location. It does not look like it has any chance of interfering with flywheel. The last thing that I did was unbolt the exhaust, and man those bolts were stuck! But they did not break, which is more than I can say for the other two I have done. I think that I will not reuse them, and If and when there is a Cat replacement I will thank myself. I will also be replacing the gasket for the Cat

Today the new one should come, so I am off to pick up the hoist and then will get the old one out of there!

 

So much has happened in the past few days. I successfully did the sway with no hoses, wires, or sensors missed! I did have to reuse some stuff off the old engine, such as the O2 sensor and various air boxes. I chose not to remove the water pump on my removal, meaning that it got very tight, and I actually cracked my windshield from the corner of my valve cover which I did not notice in time. Dang! I may have to get it replaced, but not too bad I think for my first ever engine swap, and flying solo at that. I had trouble getting the new engine to suck up to the transmission until I realized that there were duplicate alignment pins! The engine and tranny both had one in the same place. I managed to get the one from the engine out and then things went together ok. I replaced the radiator, filled with 50/50 distilled water and vinegar and turned it on! All went well for a second and there it started to run rough. You did not put any oil in! I turned it off and filled with oil and tried again. Much better! I did not change the filter yet, but I am thinking to run this course of oil for a short amount of time to clean stuff out and then I will replace both oil and filter. After the vinegar I did 100% distilled, then 90% distilled +10% 50/50 coolant. Then I drained and did 50/50 coolant, and am about to drain again. I know that a lot is left in the system with these drains, so I plan on doing one more today, and then perhaps again when I do the oil. Not the best method, but my dealership did not have the concentrate, and I did not want to wait for shipment. It runs AND drives. Wahoo! But man are those brakes rough! I think it may have been sitting since the middle of October.

 

I am wondering if a clog already happened. Right after I posted then I got a p261b code for ENGINE COOLANT PUMP "B" CONTROL MALFUNCTION. I am going to let it cool off a bit and try again. I am wondering if there is some trapped air in the system that will work its way out as it cools? I pitched the car so that the reservoir side is up. It is frustrating to think that goop is still clogging things, since I did replace both the radiator and the engine, cleaned out most hoses, and that should only leave the heater core.

 

I am not sure exactly what you mean by backflushing the heater core. I put in the vinegar solution and turned on the car and the inside heater. As for the potential blockage, I took off the water pump and it was totally clean. It was VERY hot though, and the return pipe to the radiator was not hot. It seemed like the thermostat was open. I put the old water pump on which came with the original engine (with a little more resistance in the impeller) and gave that a try. After that the lower hose was heating up, indicating to me that the coolant was now being pumped successfully. I am thinking that perhaps there was some electrical issue with the "new" pump and it was heating up but not actually turning. How can I bench test it? Anyways, the best course of action may be to just get a new pump and thermostat for peace of mind.