2013 DIY Head Gasket

I actually just did this on a 262k mile car, and have been driving it uneventfully for a couple of weeks now. I did it in my spare time (which means about 8 weeks or so since I have a job and kids) and the total cost was around $1300 in parts, which included machine shop, plus paying the machine shop to clean the EGR cooler (could have DIYed) as well as all toyota parts:

Toyota full overhaul gasket kit
Toyota Water pump & Thermostat
PCV
Head bolts
Timing chain tensioner
Spark plugs
Coolant
Oil change/air filter
A handful of parts I broke in the process
A harbor freight bit set for taking the head bolts off (bi-hex)

If you can access the car long enough to work on it, you can check to see if it has a bent rod from hydrolock by taking the plugs out, sticking some kind of rod in the plug holes, and turning the motor over and measuring where they end up. I didn't do that but I was fairly certain mine didn't have the problem, because it ran pretty good and had been diag'ed by a mechanic already. If yours runs, I would drive it around a bit (I was able to do this before buying since my car ran reasonably well as long as it hadn't been sitting for too long).

I probably only spent about 30 hours total working on it, plus time cleaning the car (mine was filthy from having dogs in the car). I did not have to take the engine out. It wasn't really that difficult of a job, except I got the timing chain off a tooth during reassembly and when I was diagnosing it, my procedure for checking the timing was wrong. Had to take the timing cover off and re-seal it a second time. Other than that it was uneventful and I had fun and learned a few things.

Also be aware that the high-voltage battery could be fine or it could be nearly toast. If you can learn anything about the battery do so, and factor that into the price. My car was mostly driven on the highway so the battery is still in decent shape, but I think I got lucky.

 

part no for the gasket kit is in the link. Head bolt no too.

Full engine section from Repair Manual is in the link; it has flatness specs for all the machined surfaces:

 

Honestly? I don't think I needed to have the head machined. It was nice that they cleaned it but otherwise it was probably fine. They checked the flatness in the shop and it was basically right on the spec. The guy checking it didn't want to turn away business. "Weeeellllll, you probably should have it machined either way..." The block shouldn't have any flatness issues unless something weird happens.

I believe that part number set is what i used -- the "full" engine overhaul gasket kit. It came with everything you need, way more stuff than I expected. If you even want to do valve stem seals, it comes with those, and also has the front main. The water pump was done out of precaution, because of the mileage. Same with the T-stat. I wanted to have a reliable car, not just turn and burn.

 

I also just did the head gasket on my 2013 Prius. It was a very simple job and it only took me 5 days to complete. If I had to do it again I would have done like gasket masters and had a spare EGR cooler and Head ready to go back on. If I would have had those spare and clean I could have had it completed in 2, 8 hour days. We also had a small family emergency that took me away for 2 days. So with having to clean the EGR and the head and replace the seals on the valve stems. it took me 3 days. I did however after re-installing the timing cover let it sit over night to cure before filling back up with fluids.

I had to purchase a few tools I did not have
Straight edge to check head flatness (It was still perfectly flat) $33
Valve keeper remover and installer ($39 Amazon)
Valve seal remover and installer ($20 amazon)
T12 Square drive bit for head bolts ($8 Amazon)
FEl-pro Head gasket kit ($134 Autozone)
New Head Bolts (Amazon $55)
2 O Rings from Toyota not in kit ($10)
Cam chain tensioner and gasket ($60 Toyota)
1 tube Permatex Ultra Black Sealant ($8)
Shop Towels
Some cleaning supplies

Total cost was about $400

I strongly recommend doing this, do not try to fix it with any of the head gasket repair chemicals. I contemplated that for a short time and decided I love the car so much it deserved it to be done correctly. Other than a torque wrench I already had and some normal pliers to remove hose clamps. The only tool kit I really used is a $99 Craftsman socket set I bought about 30 years ago. It is all 3 drives and has both shallow and deep sockets. My point is it does not require any expensive tools. Watch the Gasket master videos just to get an idea of what is involved. Make sure to document where every bolt is removed and make sure it goes back where it came from. Just make sure any item you remove goes back in exactly the same place. It is not rocket science ad there is plenty of help on the net with visual aids. Good luck with the project, btw a digital camera is your friend.

Todd (Very Happy Prius owner)

 

This would work well if the rod was severely bent, enough to stop the piston about 10 mm short of TDC.

If it only stops 2 mm short of TDC, you still have a bent rod and severe misfires, but the pencil-down-the-plug-tubes method no longer works because it is impossible to keep the pencil (or other slender device) perfectly aligned with the axis of the cylinder while you're turning the crankshaft, and without perfect alignment you can't reliably gauge whether the maximum height the pencil reaches is the same between consecutive revolutions or between different cylinders.

 

How about making a tube that fits snugly in the spark plug tube, with a couple spacers holding a rod vertically within it?

 

Ooh, I like that. And bonus points if the rod is graduated, and/or has a sliding marker that clamps down to mark the spot that lines up with the top of the spark plug tube when the piston is (supposed to be) at TDC.

The drawback is that you still can't directly verify if the piston actually reaches TDC. In the unlikely scenario where all 4 rods were bent by the same amount, one might be led to believe that everything was right as rain.

 

It's unlikely that the rod would only get bent 1 or 2 mm.
I've never seen this happen. It's always bent severely.
So "stick" in the spark plug hole would be able to show when the piston is
as high as it's going.
1 or 2 mm's could mean you just have some carbon build up on the piston and
that's where the stick is touching on that piston.

 

What happens when there is a 2 mm high pool of incompressible coolant sitting on the piston?

My turn to admit that I've never seen a carbon build on the pistons as thick as 2 mm, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.
A carboned-up piston would push the "stick" higher than the a clean piston could, and a bent rod would push it lower than an intact one would. With the carbon deposit being even more incompressible than coolant, a 2 mm deposit would guarantee a bent rod, but you still wouldn't be able to detect this with the "stick" because it would deform the rod by the same amount as the thickness of the deposit.

 

had this kicking around for decades:

 

It would bend the rod more than 2 mm's....
"What happens when there is a 2 mm high pool of incompressible coolant sitting on the piston?"

I said:
"1 or 2 mm's could mean you just have some carbon build up on the piston and
that's where the stick is touching on that piston."

1 or 2mm's is not a lot. You could just one small spot with it built up. I've seen it.
If that's where you put the stick, it would "suggest" a bent rod. But if it was this minor,
I would look down the spark plug hold to see if there a build up of carbon in that spot.
The carbon would crunch and spread, water wouldn't

"My turn to admit that I've never seen a carbon build on the pistons as thick as 2 mm, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.
A carboned-up piston would push the "stick" higher than the a clean piston could, and a bent rod would push it lower than an intact one would. With the carbon deposit being even more incompressible than coolant, a 2 mm deposit would guarantee a bent rod, but you still wouldn't be able to detect this with the "stick" because it would deform the rod by the same amount as the thickness of the deposit.[/QUOTE]

 

This past summer I bought a 2012 with 230K on it with a blown head gasket. I went the engine replace route with a JDM engine which supposedly had no more than 60k on it. The cost was around $1650, with $1500 of that being the engine. I am pretty happy with that route since I ended up with a much less worn out engine without the anxiety of the careful timing and torquing with a head gasket. I plan on keeping this car for a while, so it was worth the extra cost for me. I did have some misfire issues, but that was from the counterfeit plugs I put in it