Engine Swap Gen III - Help & Advice

Welcome to Prius Chat .

One way to avoid high voltage electricity is to remove the Orange safety plug on the HV battery.

You can see the plug if you remove the back tray above the spare tire along the passenger side wheel well.

As for throwing a rod:

• Was your Prius consuming oil?
• Anything weird as in noises or performance prior to throwing the rod?
• Any other issues with your Prius prior to this issue?

As for those that have pulled out a gen 3 engine, here are some that can chime in: @danlatu , @Aaron Vitolins , @Wrekless .

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

How much is your new engine going to cost? We have a member here that owns the hybridpit in Orange county. Last I inquired he had 2 engines available for gen3 cars....and they have very reasonable install rates

 

Have your mechanic pull this orange plug, it isolates all of the HV orange wires that are found in the engine compartment. Very easy, just pay close attention to reinstalling this plug. If it is not done properly, you will get a CEL.

 

I'd clean the EGR circuit on the donor engine before you install it to simplify the process greatly. Excellent how-to's here from @NutzAboutBolts and @Mendel Leisk to name a few. This will help insure head gasket integrity for the donor engine. Also, salvage the intake manifold, EGR pipe, valve and cooler from the dead engine, clean and keep for future rotation into your donor engine. Big time saver over being committed to cleaning the circuit while the parts are off the car.

Good luck with the engine swap!

 

There nothing big in replacing that engine. If he's got experiences doing same for gen2s, he'd be fine. But from your posts, he's got none either.

 

Not in my opinion. They don't go bad, break or give any kind of issue pretty much ever.

 

Have you checked the repair manual to see if there are inspection criteria for it? You'd certainly want to see that all the little coil springs are intact, and there might be a standard figure for the thickness of the friction lining (if there's a way you can get to it to measure).

A history of knocking or misfiring can be stressful on that part; at least one member has found pieces of those springs loose in the bell housing. And having those springs go just makes any misfire/knock/roughness symptoms that much worse, with the transmission gear backlash bouncing against the engine.

-Chap

 

That damper has probably rotated less than 12 inches in its lifetime. Most likely still like new.

 

Post your results, please!

BTW, your car must have been burning oil which was unnoticed. A good plan is to check the oil every fill up and change every 5000. That way you will catch any oil consumption. What was the time span between the last oil change and the rod knock?

 

I wonder if a blown head gasket mixed oil & coolant creating an acidic concoction that didn't adequately lubricate bearings and ate away at seals & gaskets...

 

Can you update us on how your engine swap went? I to have a gen 3 Prius that ran low on oil I’m guessing from stuck pcv . And started hearing a loud knocking so I did the YouTube thing and cleaned out th pcv the air intake the egr valve the egr cooler and line and changed spark plugs to no avail. After using sea foam it was sounding good for half a mile while I was blowing out the sea foam then it started sounding like I messed up the bearing in a push rod so I pulled it over and had a mechanic friend confirm.(by sound. it was bad) worse even then before so then I went to a junk yard and got a gen 3 engine with 64k and dropped it in today with the help of my brother. No a very hard job might I add. But now there is a shudder when starting then it sounds good then it shuts it self down with a knock and give check hybrid system light. Mechanic friend is going to bring his computer over and reset sensors but I’m worried that will not work. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Check PCV hose is connected at both ends, especially if the hybrid code is P0A0F. Ask me how I know...

 

Machanic friend says he thinks there is a problem with clutch pack that came with new engine. Gonna swap it out for old clutch pack and see. Wish me luck

 

Also pcv hose was connected at both ends. Thanks

 

Ok we had to pull the engine and remove the clutch pack ( not sure of actual name) and we put back on the old clutch pack from original engine. Runs like a dream now. took 4 hrs to remove and reinstall the second time around (8 the first) worth it in the end. Here are some pics