Blown Head gasket rebuild....@297k

Any engine can and will hydrolock when there is too much liquid (fuel, coolant,seafoam,oil) is in the combustion chamber. Liquid is incompressible where air is. Liquid is also known as a solid, and will interfere with the rotation of the motor. The rotation of the electric motor, 3 other healthy cylinders and heavy fly wheel are telling piston #1 to compress something incompressible. Something is going to give. 14:1 compression ratio means; 14 parts air(compressible) and 1 part fuel(liquid). That is how a normally aspirated(NA) engine runs.
Mechanical failure's like bent valves, dropped valve seats, worn/broken chain/belt can also bend rods, break pistons and break engine blocks.
When timing and air/fuel mixture is wrong knocking, shaking, vibration, poor mpg, overheating can occur. Too much compression(oil, fuel, carbon deposits) in one cylinder can cause an unbalanced rotation/knocking. A dirty injector will cause an incomplete combustion which also causes knocking and fuel in oil. An incorrect reading from a maf, map and knock sensor will cause the computer to send the wrong fuel injector pulse,(lean/rich) causing this knock. These are many example's why an engine can go from running well to running like sh!t.
I am currently investigating as to why the prius has cold start engine knock. I have been creeping around the forum and saw that thread. My girlfriends 2010 prius has done this cold knock start 20+ times. There was a software update and oil catch can install at roughly 80k miles and has not done the knocking thing since then with 107k on the clock. It was not that cold this winter and I do not know if that has anything to do with it or not.
Dropped valve seat from poor materials, overheating, abuse

Bent valve from stretched belt/chain, bad timing


3rd gen 2010 Prius repair manual.

 

Come on ET, did you check your firewall? EM over here trying to help a fellow sailor out! I signed out of google and double checked this link on my mac and iPhone, no problems!
click download.

clicked download anyway and you should be good to go. HOOYAH!

 

I fix/install things for a living and have a really good sense in how and where. Being clean and organized helps. Most of the hardware is 10, 12, 14mm socket size through out the engine. I found the 12mm nut that was missing for the egr valve. So everything is accounted for now. Glad containers work very well. Example; Use a sharpe and mark container timing chain cover and put all hardware inside. Then you can clean parts in simple green/purple power and clean them without loosing/mixing up parts. The more containers you have the better. Use brass brushes for aluminum parts cleaning only and stainless steel for steel parts only. The steel brushes will gall aluminum and destroy it because it is harder than aluminum. I stab all the valves in cardboard and mark what cylinder for intake and exhaust. Read all instructions for chemicals used for cleaning things and wear gloves. Aluminum is soft, purple power/simple green is caustic. I still use it for cleaning but do not soak. Stainless steel can soak(egr cooler) in purple power, steel will rust soaking in purple power. I use it and then rinse after 5min scrubbing for aluminum and steel. Have fun.

 

Vvti on intake side only is for fuel economy and reduced emissions. Vvti on exhaust yeilds more torque per liter. The prius has an electric motor to aide in launch so additional torque is not needed. The corolla was designed to squeeze as much hp and torque out of the 1.8l to better the driving experience. Saab came out with a variable compression (14:1~8:1) system that tilts the head changing it's compression ratio yielding more hp and torque. Now nissan/infinity is using a similar system with a rocking crank. I think nissan will fail like volvo did in the quest for making more power, only time will tell. Electric is the future, EU (european union) wants to ban the internal combustion engine by 2030!



Witchcraft I tell you! I think I'm in love with machines!

Were all gonna die.

 

You can plug the bottom of the egr cooler with a ballon/latex glove and fill it with air, tie it to form a small stretchy ball. Shove it in the hole. Wrap a glove around the bottom of the cooler and tape it up tight on the outside and then fill. A bucket will work but you will use a lot more product. The copper wire is what did some of the best cleaning. The carbon deposits can vary from being hard rocks to a dusty substance. Poking at the individual veins did very little, The drill was pure magic. I suggest you drill and then soak. The soaking will not penetrate all the way through if it is clogged. I have done work with many different trades and has helped my ability to improvise. Watching Macgyver probably helped too.


Some of those pics I ripped off google images because I did not take pics of every single thing I did during the rebuild but it is an example of how I did it.

 

Just drove it 90 miles today, Engine burned off all the coolant in the exhaust in 40miles or so. Ran it in power mode after about 20 miles into break in ranging from 2000-5200rpm's. Prius burned about 1/4 dipstick worth of oil and found a little in the catch can. It will continue to burn a little oil till 500 miles or so until rings are fully seated. Was able to get 58mpg in mixed Hwy/city driving with the bottom engine cover off. Original battery. Idling shows no visual sign's of smoke. No leaks or cel and coolant temp's ranged from 186-196 degree's Fahrenheit. Ran a bluetooth obd2 controller with dash command to watch rpm's and temps. Prius drove great and was very smooth, alignment and breaks working well.
Annapolis

 

All new cars will burn some oil till break in. The toyota could have idled the motor from the factory for 15-30min @ 2k rpm for break in? I know they run the motor to test for leaks but do not know the exact procedure. Some of this is insider trade secret. I also do not know what oil weight was used to help seat the rings. If they were to use a thicker oil with no detergent the engine would also break in faster? If you read this consumer reports article about burning oil in new cars, you will learn what cars you need to stay away from. The chevy equinox had major issues with oil consumption brand new, it is rumored that the hone was too smooth and the pistons never got to seat correctly. My buddies wife had one and they returned it. Then the g6 they bought had brake problems, they returned that and ended up buying yet another chevy product??? I tried to talk them out of it but they are younger and stubborn. I put the prius in maintenance mode and could not get the car to idle @ 2000rpm for 30 min, so I had to run the car at low load at lower rpm the first 30min. Then I flogged it, Higher rpm is also responsible for engine oil being consumed a bit. There are tons of articles and arguments about motor break in. I am going the lead foot way on and off.

per manual

 

275 miles on the motor now. Humid foggy conditions.
Condensation/Oil mix