Its time for a rebuild.

It’s coming along, you can see the notorious timing chain tensioner leak. The metal gasket there is a joke, wouldnt a felt one work better? I have raw gasket material that I can make a custom gasket with, would that be a good idea?

 

it won’t be the first time or the last a repair or service manual has been wrong or didn’t account for long term problems/solutions, hence is why the TSBs are out. I am leaning towards a thin film rtv and torquing the bolts to 8-9 ft/lb rather than recommended 7.

 

Disassembly is complete. This motor had oil changes with Mobil 1 all its life every 10k with Lucas additive. A bit more varnish than I’d like but still not bad for having 215k. All bearings look brand new except one that has a hairline scratch on it. I plan on changing the rod bearings any way. Driveshaft is fine.

I did notice metal flakes in the coolant especially when I took the head off, copper metal flakes indicating owner try to use off the shelf gasket repair additive in the coolant.

I’ll be cleaning all the parts in the next few days and then comes slow reassembly.

 

So I am in the process of buying camshaft and rod bearings. Toyota is listing 3 different options for the rod bearings and 4 different for the camshaft bearings?


Rod Bearings




Crankshaft bearings




I tried adding parts specific to the VIN but that didnt help either, any ideas as to which ones would work ?

Also, is changing just one set of rod bearing or crankshaft bearing ideal?

Its not about cost, I know the other bearings are good just need one set of rod bearing and crankshaft bearing is needed as those are the two that have the wear, off topic but I am pretty sure that it is due to lengthy oil change intervals. I just dont want to have to plastigauge the all the crankshaft bearings to make sure they are within recommended clearance spec.

 

Never mind, got it.

 

This is the mark/number you are looking for when checking.

So in this case this motor needs

Rod bearing number 13041-0T010-02
Crankshaft bearing 11701-0T011-02

I double checked, marks on each corresponding side match i.e. 02.



crankshaft bearing on the left and connecting rod bearing on the right.

 

The dowel pin in the back is open on the top letting shmutz get in there and corrode it, luckily I didnt run into that problem with the last motor I opened as both the pins stayed in the block. In this case one is stuck in the head and I mangled it up pretty bad to get it out.

I called around a few machine shops and prices to check and skim the head range from 150~300 plus lead time of a week.

A buddy of mine mentioned this somewhat of a local shop and I called them, $100 to clean, check and skim the head plus remove the dowel pin, thats a no brainer to me. So off to the machine shop this piggy goes.

 

Right tools make all the difference plus the know how of course, 30 minutes and the head was washed, machined and had the old valve seals removed along with the butchered dowel. Props to this amazing machinist, Rick at RJT in Lawrence, MA. I’ll be installing the new seals and valves etc soon. The head was fairly true except for the center being bulged up, Rick said usually they are caved in rather than being bulged up, one light cut pass plus two finish passes.

 

Spent some time today on the head, all valves were cleaned, lapped, all valve seals replaced and valves/springs etc installed. The keepers were a pain to install.

 

What kind of issues beside CEL on the dash am I looking at if I decommission the EGR system? I.e just unplug the actuator and stop EGR system from reintroducing exhaust gases back into the combustion chamber? I ask as the exhaust gas causes a havoc on the intake ports, valves, pistons etc. I have worked on 4 different prius motors so far and all of them look like dog poop with baked carbon in the intake port, for a port injected engine that intake should look squeeky clean yet its the complete opposite. I know the diesel folks are B*tching about the same issue for years now.

I am ok with taking MPG penalty as I am use my prius only getting 40ish MPG on average due to me driving on the highway most of the time.

 

New pistons and new rings installed on the old rods. I checked the sleeve bearing diameter and it was within spec.

I have been chipping away at it every day, one task at a time. A lot of time cleaning as I dont have a parts washer so a lot of scrapping old RTV with plastic blades and a lot of scrubbing with soft nylon brushes. All the oil passages are being checked to see if they are clean and clear. I am not a mechanic by any means just trying to go by the book and make sure I doube/tripple check everything.

 

I read that in the service manual as well but luckily nothing of that sort was needed. I was able to knock out the old pins using a makeshift plastic punch and a rubber mallet. New pistons come with new wrist pins and they slid right in without much force. Pain was to put in the retaining C clips. I didnt want to use recommended screw driver or a needle nose pliers so had to thumb them in there , bit frustrating but it worked. Then I used a piece of plastic to rotate them all so they ends dont line up with the cut outs.

 

Need a bit of clarification on distance between crankshaft bearing cap and bearing itself distance on each side.

First time you read this part it seems each distance needs to be 0.7mm.

Thats not possible as I measured one of the bearing caps and the total thickness was 19.50mm and the width of the corresponding bearing was 17.08mm. If bearing cap sits in the middle then that would yield 1.21mm on either side of the bearing to the edge of the bearing cap.

Does the manual mean A - B (A minus B) or does it mean A and B need to be less than 0.7mm? I am thinking the prior as there is no way the bearing is worn widthwise lol. The measurement is just there to let a 0.7mm difference between the two measurements i.e. A and B. May be I am a bit too tedious with this

 

Picked up the bearings yesterday and threw together some of the bottom end today.

 

So far the total is $1212, this includes $200 I paid for this used motor I am rebuilding. My car is still on the road with a blown head gasket lol.

Above total includes all parts, any tools, machine shop expense etc.

Parts that are getting replaced.

- Head gasket and all the other seals/o-rings. OE seals etc , fel-pro head gasket.
- Head bolts.
- Valve seals.
- Updated 2015 pistons.
- Updated 2015 rings.
- Crankshaft bearings.
- Crankshaft main seal.
- Rod bearings.
- Rod wrist pins.


Mind you after all is said and done I'd have one complete motor left that has a bad block with all its parts, another one thats in my car as speak.

I eventually will list my motor and the other parts for sale locally to recover some of the rebuild cost.

One thing that hasnt been kept in check is the labor, I think I am into it at least 20~30 hours, a lot of it is spending time on cleaning everything. Rather than rushing the rebuild I am picking one task a day and completing it eventually leading to the day motor goes back in the car. If all goes as well as it did when I did the gen4 swap for another prius I should be able to swap the motor over a weekend.