DIY Head Gasket complete! Now error codes...

I apologize I did not update on this issue. I bought a grid charger and now I don’t start my Prius without 240 V on the traction battery.

yes! Thank you for looking through the details of the codes. However, I believe Chapman is correct that this code is legacy from when I left a connector off and I plugged it back in. Reading different forms appears that the only way to make this code go away, is after driving a certain amount of miles without having this code triggered, and the ECU will drop the permanent code eventually.

 

So whether I was getting the idea from other threads or I came up with this idea on my own, I decided that the issue for low power was that the timing must be off by one link or something. I suspect one link because when the engine is actually fired up and self sustaining. It’s smooth as butter. There’s no obscene noises rattling, bumping, or anything of the sort. So, perhaps being off by one link would allow it to not fully extract power from each revolution of the piston, but not cause a shaky experience or some thing?

so today I pulled up my sleeves and decided to tear apart the engine again today in order to get to the timing chain cover and verify my timing. I didn’t get too far into this process because I dropped my fluids to include coolant and engine oil. I feel stupid even posting the pictures because it’s quite self evident but this appears to be the milkshake consistency that people talk about with a coolant oil mixture. The oil is very clearly a warm, brown color and no longer translucent. Please remember that this oil is brand new and has 0 miles on it, so, I wanted to update you guys since you have invested time in considering this issue before I start digging into the inner webs again, but the density of this contamination makes me think that I swapped a hose or some thing. Remember, I just installed a brand new head gasket, and the car never got out of the driveway and the engine never operated for more than one minute before it shut down , my next step is to research where the micro hoses are supposed to go on the right side of the engine and confirm that I have them in their correct location. Off the top of anyone’s head, can you think of a way to directly inject coolant into the oil supply by swapping hoses of like sizes? Again thanks for everything and investing time in my troubleshooting.

 

Perhaps but I don’t think so. The attached picture is the oil I dropped from the car in January when it was shaking on start up. It’s black as tar and made me wonder if I really had a failed head gasket because of the milkshake descriptions people posted regarding telltale signs of gasket failure.

to be clear, the color of my oil in the previous posts is bad, right?

 

I welcome your optimism thanks. I think I’m going to tear down to timing cover and verify correct assemblage. I’m 30% to this goal.

I have only taken the engine apart in order to replace head gasket. I’m hoping it requires less work to merely open timing chain cover. I can’t find a video that explicitly focuses on timing chain cover. Right now I’m focusing on everything on the left side of the engine ( looking down into the engin bay).
Do I have to remove EGR? I know it’s not immediately in the way but I’m worried about dismounting the engine will cause engine to sag and damage items on right side of engine…. But I’d love to save some time

 

Ok I made it to the timing chain. I’m a little bit gob smacked about what I found. I could’ve sworn that I lined this chain up absolutely perfectly so with the right cam the intake lined up with the correct line. It falls right between the two orange links. However, the single orange link is above a paint mark on the exhaust cam and not the rectangular notch. Please see the picture below. If I really didn’t mess this up, like the picture seems to suggest and the overwhelmingly milkshake Contant of the oil. My next plan is to try again with a head gasket replacement and do the chain correctly?

 

Thank you for the suggestion! Unfortunately, I read this after I tore the engine back apart and I am back to looking at top dead center on cylinder heads. I will try to pressure test on further iterations of getting to the bottom of this issue. I wish I would’ve done this in the past.

 

Haha thanks Mendel! I laugh because you’ve been the patron saint of rotate a smidge counter clockwise just like Toyota says… even though on one forum you got some flak! Yes, timing chain tensioner was engaged during tear down. For the uninitiated, you can actually peek down the timing chain cover gap behind the exhaust sprocket and actually see if the hook has detached from the shaft. This was the case with mine. I will however, on this next rebuild properly follow your guidance and that of Toyotas, and rotate a smidge counter clockwise and confirm that the timing chain has been engaged by the tensioner.

 

so I have now torn down my engine back to the block and have separated the head from the rest of the engine. I can post the damage report. I do now have four beautiful tops of cylinders free of any carbon deposit. That seems to be the only upside what I have found inside the engine was a complete mess disaster of milky oil all over all of the components I have been judiciously cleaning all of this gunk off in and around the gasket, it was completely covered in coolant everywhere. Considering I have another Fel-Pro gasket arriving tomorrow and an eagerness to try again perhaps with a little bit more mustard on the head bolts this time perhaps 38 or 40 foot pounds I’m going to give it another go. I know I should be a little bit more sensitive about these hyper specific tolerances on torque and warpage, etc. however, does anyone have a resounding counter to my plan to redneck a little bit more torque into the head just to see if that absolutely locks in a seal on the new head gasket?

and one of my included pictures I demonstrate how the gasket has a little bit of play when you place your hand on one extreme of the gasket or the other. This kind of annoyed me when I first received the gasket and installed it does this bring up any concern for anyone? Felpro gasket btw

 

I did not thoroughly check the intake manifold, but with that being said, I didn’t see any obvious residue. As you can see from the photos the inside of the engine, and of course, the gasket was absolutely drenched in coolant. I totally agree on the steam cleaning and either you or somebody else mentioned the recommendation for new head bolts, and I have put money behind that recommendation and my Fel-Pro new new gasket and head bolts arrive tomorrow. Any thoughts on PermaTex copper spray? A family member recommended it and said he swears by it for all of his gasket jobs to include head gaskets. Reading the forums it is not a foreign strategy to utilize as a cheap replacement, for what should be an overhaul machining of the mating surfaces