I have a 2011 Prius, high mileage and bad head gasket. Looking to do an engine swap. Not many options in Ohio beyond dealerships and I don't really want a junkyard engine for $7,000. Car's not worth it. I understand Gasket Masters comes to the Midwest once in a while and swaps engines. I know their videos are great and their reviews are mostly good but there are also reviews that concern me. Anyone have experience with them? Trustworthy? If you don't like them, do you know of other companies that do similar work? Thanks!
I can’t comment on those guys, but that price for a used engine seems nuts. Most of the ones I’ve looked at 70k and under $1700. There’s a company on Craigslist and eBay called JDM that seems legit and sells them for a reasonable amount.
My one interaction with them: they had a video on replacing pcv valve on a third gen. They took off the intake manifold for access. I put a comment that that was a good approach if you wanted to clean the intake manifold, but just for pcv valve access you could reach it from below, without the need to remove the intake. I made a point of wording it very tactfully, at least I thought so, but the main guy came down on me like a ton of bricks, very insulting/disparaging. In one of their videos, a protracted, no explanation, just fly-on-the-wall view of that main guy doing a head gasket, he gets a phone call, apparently from a previous customer. It doesn't go well and he starts cussing out the customer. And this is one of their promotional videos.
$7k should buy you a rebuilt engine installed. Starting with a lower mile used engine probably is better than your engine which may not have rebuildable cylinders. "The Car Care Nut" has a recent video of a rebuild with a new short block for similar dollars. He is in the Chicago area and was a Master Toyota mechanic at a dealer until this year. In the end, Gasketmasters will likely cost less but you need to know what they consider a rebuild. New rings and a machined head with new valve seals would be my minimum. Any rebuild should clean the intake, egr cooler, throttle body and use all new gaskets with a guarantee of 90 days or better. A year would be my minimum. I would supply a new intake, quality oil catch can and radiator fan assembly for my rebuild.
Woah! Major red flags. Not just picking fights in the comments section (LOL) but not having the mental wherewithal to edit a video of the boss taking a call and yelling at a customer before posting it to the internet to advertise the business. No thank you.
