Hi everyone.
Let me start by saying that I've been reading these forums daily since late 2015. R63 AMG and so on. I've struggled for a long time feeling like I didn't have much to contribute, and so have left my contributions mostly to issuing thumbs ups to the knowledge, humor, commitment, and time you all spend sharing with me. In particular, I want to shout out mazdeuce (who I know is on hiatus), irish44j, Mr. Nonack, a_florida_man, Stampie, Gumby, Robbie, Indy_Guy, John Welsh, Curtis73, and many more I'm forgetting - thanks for the great reading and the education that has in part inspired me on this project.
So, let's get to the project. My wife has a 2014 Toyota Prius V, which we purchased CPO in 2015 with only 9,000 miles on it. I did my research - or more importantly, I THOUGHT I did my research. Toyota Prius, there are tons of them out there, Toyota has a great brand reputation for quality, etc. I was a little scared by the hybrid system and all of the electronics in general and so we added on the extra warranty, did most of the servicing at the dealer, followed the manufacturer's recommendations for oil changes (DUM DUM DUMMMM) and so on.
So, about two weeks ago, we're at 112K miles and things have gone just fine. Absolutely no mechanical problems, and the car is in great shape, despite being chock full of various cereals, due to its primary role as a kid hauler. My wife says to me, "Hey, will you listen to my car sometime today? It's making a weird noise when I start it." Sure, OK, no problem.
Hm. That's not good. It does this on every cold start, smoothes out after a minute or so, and everything is fine. No CEL, no codes.
To The Internet, and what I learned wasn't good. As John Welsh has noted, the internal combustion engines in the 3rd generation of Prii are notorious for burning oil and blowing head gaskets. Depending on who you ask, this is as a result of having weak pistons and rings (which, as a result, were revised by Toyota for 2015); weak water pumps (which were revised for the 4th generation engine); major problems with the EGR system and intake manifolds clogging with carbon; and too-long factory-specified oil change intervals.
So, I decided to take it to the dealer, and in addition to the sound (which was now a little worse) I had pending codes for misfires on three cylinders. The dealer stated head gasket failure, and told me that the engine was almost out of oil. That's my fault for not periodically checking it. But hearing the service writer say, "Oh yeah, you should have changed the oil every 5K miles" for the first time after eight years of dealer servicing (including a trip there within the last 5K miles) was frustrating.
Based on what I've read, head gasket replacement on these is generally a waste of time because of the pistons / rings / water pump situation. So, there was a family discussion about whether to a) buy a new car; or b) replace the engine.
First, I read up on people who are transplanting gen 4 Prius engines into gen 3 chassis. This is fairly straightforward, with just a few modifications needed. However, low-mileage gen 4 engines are now pretty thin on the ground, which leaves folks buying alleged 40-50K mile JDM engines from importers that seem to have mixed reviews.
The second approach (which, spoiler, is what I'm doing) is to buy a gen 3 engine that's been rebuilt with 2015 pistons and rings and otherwise gone through, strap a gen 4 water pump to it, clean the intake manifold and EGR system, and change the oil every 5K miles.
There is a shop that specializes in this in California called Hybrid Pit Stop; after a good discussion with their main engine guy, Greg, an order was placed for one of these refreshed engine which is now on a truck from California to my garage in the Kansas City area.
In the interim, engine removal has commenced and been generally successful. There is a legendary EGR cooler nut and stud which absolutely deserves its legend (more on this later) and I've half-broken one plug (no break in wire, hoping to glue back together). As I type this, the air box is off, the intake manifold is off, the exhaust manifold is disconnected, the fuel rail is off and the injectors are out and with RC Fuel Injection for cleaning, and the EGR system is off.
Key next steps include beginning a multi-day cleaning of the intake manifold (featuring a good amount of oil) and EGR pipe and cooler (which appear to be completely blocked with carbon) featuring Simple Green Pro HD; and extricating the engine. Oh, and putting a shiny one where the broken one was.
Questions will follow, and any and all input is appreciated. This forum is a big reason why I have the confidence to do this. Thank you!