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2013 Head Gasket Fel-pro kit

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by TonySparkle, Jul 10, 2024.

  1. TonySparkle

    TonySparkle New Member

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    Hey everyone,
    First post, thanks for all the info ya’ll have thrown up here, it has been very helpful for the past few fixes.

    Trying to be a good husband and fix up my wife’s head gasket on her 2013 Prius, “Prissy Pri”

    I am about to start putting everything back together and I got the basic FEL-PRO kit, and I was wondering if there are any extra gaskets that may not be in the kit (kind of hard to find a complete parts list of the kit).

    Specifically I want to make sure there is a timing tensioner gasket, and if I need anything new in the crank.

    Any experience or directions to a better list or thread is helpful.

    I was also looking for a set of the gold cam bolts, I am going to call the dealership tomorrow.

    Thank you all!
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I wish you very good luck with this hopefully you have brought the Pistons one by one to top dead center to check there extension out of the block and been looking very carefully at the backside of your engine in the girdle that sandwich is your reciprocating mass between the head and the bottom oil pan If this is not checked very carefully You will have a failure in short order these engines generally are not the ones to be playing with but plenty of shops have open to do just that I don't generally participate in this kind of stuff very much Toyota has been on the decline of rebuildable engines for a long time their thought is to make them lightweight energy efficient and disposable when you tear one up there's no meat for machine shops to work with so there's nothing to machine or when you do it'll be way out of spec. You have to be careful with a lot of these things now planned obsolescence has been very well executed by a lot of these Asian manufacturers they are experts at it they spend lots of time thinking about it it seems like pay attention
     
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    ^ girdle?

    Tom's main points, I think:

    check all pistons come up the same at TDC (to check for bent piston arms)
    avoid machining if possible
    be careful with all gasket alignments

    toyota offers a gasket kit too, quite complete. It’s also missing a list as to what goes where, though.

    Attachment has part no's for the gasket kit, and head bolts. The latter are often replaced, just in case.
     

    Attached Files:

    #3 Mendel Leisk, Jul 12, 2024
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2024
  4. Eddie25

    Eddie25 Active Member

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    I think you'll need the tensioner gasket. You definitely need the penis gasket and o-ring for the valve cover and I found that the o-rings for the timing chain cover were difficult to figure out (if not just wrong size) on fel-pro kit. I ended up reusing most the timing chain cover ones, it’s been 8k miles with no issues so far but if I did it over I’d just use the Toyota kit like everyone recommends.
     
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Had to think on that. This one?:

    IMG_4800.jpeg
     
  6. Eddie25

    Eddie25 Active Member

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    Yep, (part # 11159-37010) that's definitely not in the fel-pro kit and I'm pretty sure the o-ring (edit: part # 90430-A0001) right by it as well. All the engine internal o-rings from the fel-pro (that are included) just seem like generic o-rings that are 'close enough' as compared to OEM which have sort of a squared off profile that fits perfect.

    I'd get a OEM tensioner gasket and engine internal o-rings (I wish I had the part #'s for the timing cover ones) for sure.

    I'd just reuse the OEM Exhaust and EGR gaskets.

    Personally I don't think the crankshaft seal and spark plug pipe seals are all that important, they are quality and don't seem to be common leak points on these cars (that's pure conjecture on my part). If you don't have a solid plan for installing new ones I'd say just let 'em stay in. If you have the time and a plan go ahead and swap 'em.

    The rest of the fel-pro kit seemed OK.

    Long story short just get a OEM Toyota kit if you can.

    Take that all with a grain of salt, I've merely done the job once pretty recently.
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  7. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I thought there was some changes in the gasket metal material during some of this they went from a three plate riveted type metal gasket to five or is that just Fel-Pro or Detroit gasket or somebody doing that Not really sure like I say at this point I try not to be doing engine rebuilding per se especially on these very close tolerance castings with no room for really working on them.
     
  8. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Hopefully the car was not burning a lot of oil or else you will be back. Follow Toyota instructions on the timing chain, tensioner release and timing cover sealing or you will be back. Make sure the head and block are not warped or you will be back. Clean or replace intake, egr cooler and egr valve or you will be back. Torque head bolts after measuring for stretch of you will be back.
     
  9. TonySparkle

    TonySparkle New Member

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    Hey ya’ll thanks for the info. This forum has been nothing short of spectacular for guidance.

    I had just finished cleaning the egr anbout a month before, and I believe the extra umph blew an already failing head gasket.

    Got a new tensioner gasket, everything came together pretty smooth, and prissy is back on the road after a week in timeout.

    I am glad the old penis gasket got a shoutout, but my wife says it’s the mask from scream, and my buddy says that it is shy guy from super Mario.

    Now I get to drive it 2 hours north to fix the rear end in my subaru, that shit out two days before I could get to the Prius, thankfully I have a parts car and about 10 years experience with the early 2000’s models.

    Also big ups to my wife for making me the best sandwich ever while fixing her Prius.
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.