blown Prius Engine

Is #1 cylinder the one at the right end, as you stand in front? The EGR gasses (and crud) feed into a gallery on the right side of the intake manifold, and there are tubes from that gallery down to each intake. Accordingly, I would think the most EGR return gas would be to that right end cylinder. That's neither here-nor-there now, but could be the culprit.

Should you choose to rebuild, I'd suggest to subsequently clean the EGR stem-to-stern and install an Oil Catch Can in the PCV circuit, the latter to possibly reduce the rate at which the EGR clogs.

 

#1 is closest to the front of the engine. This is the side furthest from the transmission side and EGR valve. It's also the side with the accessories - water pump for the Prius engine. So it's the left side if you're in front of the car looking at the engine.

It seems to me your EGR system has a bunch of sludge in it. In that scenario cylinder #1 would receive the least amount of cooling EGR gasses because it's furthest from the EGR valve. #1 ends up with the hottest combustion. This causes knock which damages the head gasket.

Pixel XL ?

 

Come to think about it, if cylinder #1 receives the least of the cooling EGR gasses because of a restriction (more vacuum in cyl#1) it should receive most of the PCV liquids. What a bad combination! This would explain why the poor engine below has a cyl #1 that is the dirtiest and has a coolant leak. Normally a coolant leak creates a spotless cylinder.

This is proof to me that both a clogged EGR system and the blow-by through the PCV system are causing the head gasket failures.



Pixel XL ?

 

@danlatu tried talking to them, a service department, they shooed him out.

 

Lets get those oil catch cans in people.

 

I thought we're supposed to put them in our cars!

 

Sometimes I think I need one... with a charcoal insert.

 

I just got a new motor in my gen3 2010, right around $3k installed with misc parts and fluids replaced. (non-dealer toyota specialist one-man shop in Claremore OK, suburb of Tulsa)

260,000 miles on original, and despite regular maintenance that @$#%@ crazy knock just got worse and worse and it always used a bunch of oil. now I know why. The knock got real bad one morning and blam, head gasket went. Coolant level plummeted, etc etc.

This new engine is in great shape, less than 50,000 miles on it, and I am going to add the little oil catcher gizmo inline with the breather hose this time...


My first prius was a gen 1 and that thing lasted 462,000 miles before I wrecked it!

 

I'm still scratching my head: there's knock, steadily getting worse, and oil consumption. Then the head gasket blows out. Then coolant level plummets. So what's the instigator?

 

Yep...our poor Gen3's seem to be the 'guinea pig' as far as external EGR components go. Looks like the EGR system is probably going to emerge as the main weak point of these vehicles. Note that the Gen1's and Gen2's don't have any of these components.

I sure hope they fixed it in the Gen4's!

 

a zillion miles worth of oil accumulated in the intake manifold and god knows where else, which is apparently the root cause of this horrible gen3 "knock" and that knock IS bad enough to blow through the thinner parts of a head gasket, evidently.

Thus the oil catcher jar.