What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today????

Hi MPGRaja, Sorry for the inconvenience, can you please take a photo of the Red Bullet base and send it to my email. I don't think you have a aftermarket cover so it must be the Red Bullet.
The base profile is a photo that can show the serial number and the production stamp.
For example the photo below
We think we know why the Red Bullet is in the way of your engine cover. Just need a photo from you to double check.

 

noticed the same with my install. the cover is being lifted because of how the red bullet interferes with the cover

Pixel 3a XL ?

 

Hi 04priusnow and fellow Red Bullet owners,

It seems due to the dimensions of the Red Bullet being larger then the OEM is the reason for the engine cover not able to clear the top margin of the Red Bullet socket. We can not change the size without giving up the improved performance.

We are working with the manufacture to see if we can avoid the situation from happening in the future.

The manufacture suggested to trim off a bit of the cover at the area so the socket will clear allowing you to seat the engine cover. Another option is to let the engine opperating temperature slowly change the contour of the area needed to allow the plastic to have enough margin to fit for example which MPGRaja has done.

They assured me the performance of the Red Bullet will not be effected with the cover being in contact and they will be working in the R&D department to attempt on solving this variant of installation.

They have not observed this situation before and thanks owners for bringing it to our attention.

Sincerely,

Max Shiau

 

So far the RB has been doing the trick. The throttle feels a bit more responsive. I’m calculating the MPG to see how if it makes any difference.

Compared to the stock solenoid material, how is this different?
Will the RB effect the longevity of the engine?
Did the manufacture design this solenoid specifically for our 3rd gen Prius or is this RB off of another model Toyota that happened to work and has been painted red and rebranded?

Thank you.

 

Hi MPGRaja,

We are happy you are getting the extra pep from your engine. The below i hope will answer most of questions.

The Red Bullet # 15330-37010A is manufactured to the specification for the Toyota engine 2ZR-FXE, it meets the parameters internally in regards to depth, port and fit. The materials used and the quality of finish exceeds that of the OEM. Here is a list of where Toyota has the 2ZR-FXE
Toyota ZR engine - Wikipedia

The Red Bullet will not reduce your engine longevity.
With faster valve correction efficency to allow a cleaner and more efficient burn controlled by the ECU will promote engine life by reducing internal forces and decrease deposit from a slower or faulty valve controller.

The reason for the Red Bullet not clearing the plastic cover on the Prius Gen 3 is due to that it was designed to fit the 2ZR-FXE line of engines, it could be found in a Lexus CT200h and a dozen of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, each may have different cover design and fit location. They may not all have the cover in the same location or with the same standoff mounts.

Our product the Red Bullet #15330-37010A socket position was set at the same angle as the OEM standard that will fit all vehicle running the 2ZR-FXE engine and to keep it simple we utilised the OEM stock number 15330-37010. The cover location is of a slight variant with us having no issues here in Taiwan but for sure our extra power and larger solenoid is the guilty one in this situation.

MaxJen International is the international exporting portal for the Red Bullet, prior to us the "Solenoid" was not available for the rest of the world and it was not designated as the Red Bullet. Having said that, my priority concern is not if the solenoid fits models here locally for Gen 3 or any other model, infact my sole and only concern is if the Red Bullet fits your vehicles.

What I'm doing: At the moment we are working with the manufacture to rotate the socket 90 degree to the right to clear the engine cover for the Prius Gen 3 in question with the engine cover issue. I wish we can stick to a "one that will fit all 2ZR-FXE engines" so we can reduce the overall price with diversity for distribution down the road.

I am concerned for making this order specially for Prius Gen 3, it may mean higher cost because of the restricted compatibility with the other vehicles. If only Gen 3 will use the 90 degree variant of the Red Bullet 15330-37010-9 for example it might be considered as a custom order.

Let me know your thoughts and in the mean while I will continue to work on the matter with the manufacture.

This discussion is open to everyone who would like to comment.
Thank you guys for the feedback and continuous support!

Look forward to hearing from you!

 

Deleted

 

Max,

Did you make an installation guide for the Gen 3?

 

Hi Bob! its been a long time! How are you doing?

We are coming out with the Prius Gen 3 version later this month, It will be made specially and have photos for the Gen 3.
The Prius C needed a few maneuvering pictures to help owners get the Red Bullet into position, really tight area between the air box and the engine, our member CSuirp found a few ways to stage the place up for some extra room while working which is nice. The Prius Gen 3 and Gen 4 are in luck there is way more room! I hope to have it published soon and have it ready for download on the website.

 

not much to it. remove plastic engine cover and left side of valve cover you can see the old solenoid. 1 bolt removed with 10mm socket and remove

Pixel 3a XL ?

 

WOW!!! I'm active member!! I feel very humble and honored to have that status on my avatar!
I am proud to be PriusChat member!
Thank you guys! It has been a awesome experience and many new memories to make!

I'll be here 24/7!

Hybrids are awesome!
We just opened the happy can for Prius V and Prime!

Update on the engine cover. We have a few options that we are working with members and manufacture to resolve the issue and i can already say we have solved the problem for future orders.

Thank you for all the support! I look forwards to getting my senior membership!!

 

Guys do not trim your engine cover!

MaxJen International have been working with the manufacture to release a revised version. This will clear your engine cover completely so you will not have to cut your engine cover.
The revised version will be available soon please keep an eye on the information website.

Sincerely,

Max Shiau

MaxJen International

 

That is nice. It cover the whole piece. Where did you find it?

 

Special delivery

 

Replacement taillights maybe

 

Changed the transmission fluid yesterday at just under 80,000 miles; I had previously changed it at 20,000. It didn't look bad at all, still bright red, so I probably didn't need to change it but figured one last time couldn't hurt (I also wanted to replace the crush washers since the first time I changed it I didn't have any on hand. No leaks though, but now with new washers I'm more confident there won't be any going forward).

I also did some reshaping of the front undertray, covering the channel between the stock wheel strake fairing and engine undertray to better work with the enlarged wheel strakes I built a couple years ago and adding the larger fairings from a Ford C-Max hybrid:



I'm going to be doing coastdown testing to measure the drag coefficient before the start of the semester in 4 weeks; current aeromods are:
-no exterior mirrors
-lowered slightly more than 1" (Tein H-tech springs)
-Antenna, rear washer nozzle, and rear wiper removed
-rear wheel strake fairings (2018 Ford C-Max hybrid)
-enlarged front wheel strakes
-front wheel strake fairings (2018 Ford C-Max hybrid)
-partial lower grill block
-hood perimeter gasketing

I'll be adding front wheel air curtain ducts from a Hyundai Ioniq and rear air splitter strakes from a 2012 Honda Insight in the next week or two.

The last coastdown testing I did, in fall 2016, indicated a CD of around 0.21 without the wheel strake modifications and with shark fin antenna and rear washer nozzle, although that was less accurate than what I'll be doing this time, where I'll be recording wind speed and direction for every run rather than averaging bi-directional runs. My goal is to get down to 0.20 or lower with no tail extension.

 

incredible. please start your own thread for these mods. like to see more photos and info on outcome

Pixel 3a XL ?

 

Changed the oil today, and drained the OCC. I got 3 tablespoons of oil-ish liquid. I was kind of disappointed though. Evidently the maker of the Mobil 1 filter has done away with the hard plastic disk separating the pleats at the top and bottom of the filter. The pleats were glued in position on the filter. What gives with that? The hard plastic disks were the reason I went with Mobil 1 oil and filter over the other options.

 

I'm actually pretty surprised that we could get so much oil blow-by from these engines.
Good thing we have OCC. I was just wondering if the engines are Port injected or Center injected.
I am guessing they are Port injected as they don't run on premium gas and they don't have such a high compression ratio. But please correct me if I'm wrong. I hope at least even without a OCC the valves are still being clean by the spray of gasoline.