phone camera pics, kinda low quality, but you get the idea. oil leak where the head meets the block, along the edge of the timing chain cover. exhaust port on head. on the port on the right, you can see the valve stem through the port. rear main oil seal and end of crankshaft transmission minus engine lower oilpan removed, oil pickup tube exposed. on lower right is where the oil filter screws on, with the threaded centerpost missing carbon and oil buildup on intake port flywheel: note in the next 3 pics the very small area clutch plate actually contacts. clutch plate pressure plate engine minus valve cover engine, upside down, timing cover removed, timing chain exposed ends of camshafts. on the left is the vvt sprocket. camshaft lobe sticking up
lots of varnish build up on the interior and from the angle it looks like a lot of play in the timing chain. How many miles on this car and any history on the oil change interval and the brand of oil used? Thnx the DH for providing them.
109k on it, and DH also noticed the varnish. no clue as to the oil change history, he hasn't looked it up in the customer service history.
Would like to see if there is less varnish in a big-odometer Prius that has been on a diet of synthetic motor old. Perhaps the simplest place to look would be in the sump, at the expense of a new gasket.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Mar 22 2007, 12:43 AM) [snapback]410011[/snapback]</div> Great photos but can you tell if the crank throws impact the oil in the pan if it is overfilled? One of the hypothesis about overfilled oil is the crank throws impacting the oil in the pan. Bob Wilson
Does the title of the thread sugggests that this engine was in for repair of an oil leak(s)? Anyways, thanks for the pictures. My guess is this Prius was just "driven". I've seen less varnish on engines with twice the mileage. It appears that the water passage looks clean though. Interesting to find out about the clutch mechanism. Maybe to reduce the shudder during engine shutdown/startups?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(glenk @ Mar 27 2007, 05:31 PM) [snapback]413164[/snapback]</div> That's odd, I have always read that the Prius has no clutch....what gives?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Duane @ Apr 1 2007, 05:06 AM) [snapback]415912[/snapback]</div> all Prius have the "drive plate" as show to reduce the pulses from the ICE to the drive train. And yes there have been reports of them slipping.
Hi Galaxee, Thanks for reposting this string, I had not previously seen it when I was a PriusChat lurker. I understand that the root problem was an oil leak on the timing chain cover, and that it was necessary to remove the engine and transaxle to gain access to said cover. Considering the mileage and the interior condition of the engine, perhaps the owner would have been better off installing an engine from a salvage vehicle of lower miles, since it seems a salvage engine is relatively inexpensive.
with higher mileage engines like that, it's not unusual to see carbon buildup and a little varnish. they keep running fine that way. besides, anything you want can be tossed in a parts washer. generally speaking, if it fits it goes in when it's disassembled like that. considering the cost would be about the same for a replacement engine, plus the seals would not be new and replaced as such, and condition of the replacement is unknown vs the known engine you've been driving on... it's kind of a toss-up as to whether it would be worth it. when DH swapped the engine from our smashed camry into our es250, we stuck with that one because [a] we were cheap and we already knew what to expect from it. (toyota learned their lesson about bottom ends with the 2vz)
