2010 Prius Motor Blow Up in Raleigh- need mechanic

Hello, I'm a longtime lurker (my wife has a 2012 Prius), first time poster. I bought a 2010 Prius w 192,000 for $4000 about 2 months ago, put it on the road a few weeks ago. Today, as I was accelerating on an onramp to the highway, there was a clatter sound and I pulled over. Oil all under the engine, and what appeared to be a piston arm. Oddly, there was still some oil on the dipstick, and the car runs, apparently on 3 cylinders. I'll give some more details on the car below, but speculation on what caused it is kind of worthless to me at this point. The engine is toast and needs to be replaced, and I'm in more than the $4000 purchase price in parts and taxes and so on, so it's got to be fixed. It looks like a low mileage JDM engine is the best bet. Does anyone know of an independent mechanic in the Raleigh NC area who will install an engine for a reasonable price? I know King's works w Priuses, but would welcome any opinions.

The details: I bought the car from a private seller in Wilmington NC, maybe a little over 100 miles from Raleigh. Seemed to run well, was told it needed brake pads, tires, and a few other things. Paid for it, drove back toward Raleigh, about 20 miles from home it overheats (temps in the 50s) and shuts down. I sit beside the road for a while, start it up and drive it home. It was throwing a code for the water pump, and it was averaging 36mpg at 65-70mph. I contact the woman who sold it to me, who wants no part of helping, but agrees to pay for the water pump, a OEM. So I put it in, and get a new thermostat, and run the car for 30-40 min w heat on to get air bubbles out. Also, I change the transaxle fluid. It throws a P302 code for cylinder #2. So I get new NGK spark plugs from Autozone and some used OEM coil packs from a low mileage car, and read up on Priuschat. It's clear many people talk about troubles with 2010 models, head gasket leaks and plugged up EGR. So I take off the EGR and clean it, put in a new pressure valve for the oil (the name of it escapes me). Clean EGR does wonders, acceleration is real good, and mpg is up into the mid 40s. So I get the windows tinted, get it cleaned, get seat covers, put a hitch on for the bike rack, get a different set of tires, spend nearly $400 titling it and paying tax. It is running terrific. But twice when it started up, the engine stumbled a little and threw the P302 code immediately. Both times I'd driven somewhere and the car had only been parked for 30 minutes or so. The stumble was hardly noticeable, but for the code. It never did that after sitting overnight, making me think it was unlikely to be a head gasket because it was such a short interval. My guess was maybe a finicky fuel injector. Today, I drove to various places throughout the day, car was well warmed up, ran beautifully, and I drove from the last destination a few miles to get to the onramp, where it rattled and expelled what look to be parts of a piston. So I sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the tow truck to tow this piece of sh-, I mean car, that I'm into for well over $5500 at this point, which lasted less than 500 miles before self destructing. I've had a 2004 Matrix w the 1.8 liter engine for the past 6 years, it has 220K on it, and it still runs like new, so had hopes this one would do just as well. No dice, apparently. Anyhow, those are the gory details.
In all honesty, though, speculation on what caused the engine blow up does nothing for me at this point. I am a little curious, but don't really care, and really only need to get the car back on the road. Doing an engine swap is way beyond me. Anyone know of a reasonably priced mechanic in the Raleigh NC area capable of switching out one engine with another in the Prius? I'd be grateful for recommendations.
Mike

 

Update: I made a few calls, one place estimated $1800-2400 in labor alone to swap engines. The other place, and independent shop specializing in Priuses, said it would probably be over $5000, not sure if he meant including an engine, but it doesn't matter since that price is so high as to be ridiculous. I've seen threads here where someone purchases a JDM engine and has it installed for a total price of around $2000. Can anyone chime in?

 

To be honest, a reply like that is the opposite of helpful.

 

It's not really, but the alternative to an engine install that could hopefully be below 60K miles and done for around $2000 is buying another used car that is $5000-6000 plus paying the taxes and fees all over again (and another used car is also a crap shoot, if we are honest about it) and losing around $4500 of the $5500 that I'm into the Prius for, assuming it would sell with a blown engine for $1000. So it's either a loss and payout of around $10,000 for another car, or a payout of hopefully around $2000 to put a good engine in this one. Which is why having someone say "You should buy another Matrix" is not helpful (thanks Captain Hindsight, that is excellent advice if I discover the particulars of time travel and can travel through the vortex back to a few months ago), particularly when you are very stressed, annoyed, and generally on edge about losing thousands of dollars no matter which route you take. It was a long shot, but I was hoping someone would chime in with "Yeah, I know this guy near Raleigh who swapped out my engine for $700", or something along those lines. I did find someone who sells low mileage JDM engines for $1000 and does the installation for $800, but it's too far away to be practical to get up there from my area.

 

It's hard to understand why anyone would think snarky trolling is the best response to someone legitimately asking for help finding a local mechanic to swap out an engine that self destructed less than 500 miles after I paid a good deal of money to purchase the car. Glad my unhappy predicament provides you a chance to crack jokes at my expense.
To anyone in a similar predicament, there is a JDM engine seller in Chantilly, Virginia (DC area) says they will swap engines for $800. They sell the JDM engine for around $1100. It's too far to be practical for me in Raleigh, but for anyone up that way, it seems to be a fair deal. I'm still casting around for a more local mechanic.

 

Yeah, the issues with the 2010 engines are surprising. My engine had a hole blown out both sides of the block- and I wasn't accelerating hard. To be honest, some of the responses really turned me off priuschat. I have a Tacoma too, and on the occasions it's had an issue, people on Tacoma sites have a lot more to offer than a variation of "you should have bought another car" or "yeah, you've got to expect that", which seemed a good summary of most of what I got here. It was like the thoughts of a surrogate 'I told you so' mother and a pragmatic 'tough luck, deal with it' father. Maybe some people like that sort of stuff. I needed practical 'you should try this' suggestions.
For anyone going through this: The JDM sellers are a mixed lot. Some have pretty bad reviews, others have generally positive reviews.There is a place in Chantilly, VA, that has mixed, often negative reviews. Another in Charlotte, NC, had pretty good reviews, so I went with that one. It was almost a 6 hour round trip from where I live in Raleigh to get the engine ($1200 out the door), and I found a mechanic who install it for $800. The mechanic managed to crack the windshield, and the wire plug that goes to the a/c compressor cracked when he took it off so the a/c wouldn't function until I found a replacement plug and installed it. Someone must have parked this car on an Indian burial ground or something, because it is cursed with a lot of issues. The JDM engine runs terrific, good power, nice and smooth. But now, with everything disrupted because of Covid, the car gets driven only once a week, for 5-10 miles, meaning that the weak cells in the traction battery have made themselves known, and the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree, so we just ordered a battery from NewPriusBatteries for $1600.
The worst car I ever had was a used Volkswagen (something broke every week it seemed), and this Prius is starting to make the Volkswagen look easy to maintain in comparison, and certainly a lot more affordable.