2012 Prius (215,000) Engine rebuild cost? worth it?

out here in CA you can get a low mileage JDM engine installed for $3000 to $4000. some shops will be less, some will be more. But $8000 is crazy

 

Jdm engine from fleabay and a local shop like the car care nut. Two guys do it in a day

 

Hybrid pit in Southern California will ship you a rebuilt engine that a decent local shop could install. Essentially the same thing you get from the dealer for thousands less.

 

Why does hybrid put say felpro is better than an oem head gasket

 

Probably because so many oem blow.

 

The Fel-Pro PT series of gaskets is one of the best in the industry I've used them for 50 years almost no kidding I'm that old they even worked well on MG's when they finally made them to fit the MG engines or the British Leyland engines That's why hybrid pit may be saying that they are damn good gaskets not that the Toyota gasket isn't a good part too I don't think that the head gasket failure . Is literally just the head gasket only failing but whatever the PT series of gaskets by felpro are some of the gold standards in the world I do know that.

 

Mr B likes them:

New head gasket replacement video from Gasket Masters | Page 4 | PriusChat

no clue myself. @rjparker maybe onto something, that it’s the OEM gaskets failing, so rightly or wrongly, so people want to try something else.

 

$8,000? Holy inflated quote, Batman!!! (Replacing the engine with a NEW one shouldn't cost that for a 1.8L 4-cylinder!!)

If you're near Chicago, there's a new Lexus/Toyota/Scion shop called The Car Care Nut, TCCN, who can give you an engine replacement quote. His name is Ahmed "Amd" and website is https://www.tccnautomotive.com.

Ahmed is pretty popular on his YouTube channel and has half a million followers and growing. (Every Toyota DIY owner needs to be watching his excellent content.)

 

WOW 8K is a bit much. I would go with a JDM Rebuilt engine from Hybrid Pit and have it installed locally. There is a guy on these forums who will come to you and do the install. He lives in Oklahoma City but travels anywhere. Look on Instagram under skimmilkhybrid and ask for a quote. I do know you have to have the engine shipped to you and he requires a garage to work in he can do it in a day and brings all his tools with him. His User name on here is HelloMcFly.

 

parts.toyota.com currently shows "partial engine assembly" as "product not available", but I seem to recall it was around $7~8K USD. Here's the part no:

19000-37460

From OP's description, it "may" just be a head gasket job, around $2500 USD?

If oil consumption is runaway, and or piston arm(s) bent, and or cylinder walls scuffed, a new short block is under $2K USD.

@pwegrzy how is the oil consumption?

 

Dang, that was hard to decipher... So I clipped this part (which is still not easy to follow) and have to ask:

When the stock head gaskets are failing routinely, what is failing besides the head gasket?
And from its history, I think the stock head gasket is a bad design.
Who would use the factory gasket? Fool me once....

 

It could be getting a bad rap: it suffers EGR neglect for 150K, finally lets go, the owners get it replaced, say with Felpro, and start cleaning the EGR regularly. And maybe ditch the car after another 50K.

 

Cylinder walls are lightly scored. Pistons and rings are bad from the factory, the cylinder head is now warped. The whole upper end is carboned up. Generally you have a leak around the timing cover. As a result, the head gasket job by itself may last one to two years. If that long. Some have done it three times in one year.

A rebuild is the only way to go unless you're flipping the car.

 

There was a guy on Reddit yesterday who does them in a day for $1500...

 

You can contact him on instagram. His ig is skimmilkhybrid.

 

8 grand for an engine rebuild on a 10-year old car??

Get a so-called JDM engine, or get an engine from LKQ, or throw in a Gen 4 engine, or try an online junkyard like J&J.

All cheaper options than dropping 8 grand at a dealer

 

Feel free to contact me if you’re looking to get this done for less. Thanks to those who mentioned me.

 

Me personally I want to get an engine that's come from a country where it probably hasn't been touched except for an oil change or two by the time I get it in the States It hasn't been at ye old corner shop with somebody trying to replace water pumps and fooling around with stuff and what have you It hasn't been run up and down American roads by American people who generally speaking really don't give too much of a crap about anything they own because that's just us seriously. So when I go hunting for an engine for one of these I don't want it from LKQ or ye old salvage yard In Louisville Kentucky No sir I worked in the salvage business in the southeast United States and it's not one of my preferred choices to buy things like this at all when the JDM importers first started coming online with a great thing for me before that I was stuck with things like ATK engines which costed a fortune.