Gen 4 ICE in 2013 Prius V: shaking wildly in Park or Drive, smooth in Neutral

Hey all,

I had some conversations about my issue in a different thread but it was suggested that I start a new thread. I'm new here and to forums in general, forgive me.

I am not a mechanic and may misspeak here. Correct me as you see fit. I think I can be clear enough.

I recently decided to swap a 2019 JDM into my 2013 Prius V. I had a blown head gasket, it's an older car but is in great shape, figured what the hell, make it interesting and something I can drive for a good while longer. My friend/neighbor runs a tuner shop so I asked if he would be interested in turning the wrenches. He liked the idea, we started to compile the info. Thanks to @Ragingfit and his videos, the swap went pretty damn seamlessly apart from a broken bolt. There was also helpful info from Mendel Leisk and a few others of course. We elected to stick with the gen3 intake, EGR etc. the "simpler" swap, in some ways.

Naturally, the "exciting" part of any swap is firing up the new motor and engaging trans. Well, this is where the perplexing situation gets interesting.

The symptom-
Upon starting the car, there is a crazy shaking and clunking seemingly from transaxle/damper area. We infer this because when the car is in Neutral the ICE runs smooth as can be. Making matters more strange (from my perspective) we started to remove coils from cylinders and found that the clunk/shake seems to be tied to what I call cylinder 2 (second from the passenger side); if that wonky cylinder has ignition, regardless of what other cylinders do or do not (any combination), then the shaking is present. If that wonky cylinder does NOT have ignition the car runs smooth.

Feedback-
ChapmanF had this to say:
"In neutral, the engine isn't being made to do any work. It just spins with no load.

In Drive or Park, load is put on the engine, to move the car, charge the battery, or both.

So the engine is simply shaking under load. Misfiring will do that, for any of the various reasons misfiring happens. There are as many solutions as there are misfire reasons, because of course the solution depends on learning why this engine is misfiring.

An article that takes up most of the back of this Toyota Tech issue presents a number of useful ideas for misfire diagnosis."

Mendel Leisk asked:
"Just guessing: the damper between engine and transaxle may be damaged? But you would notice during the transplant?"
The damper assembly seemed totally fine.

Raygon said:
"My car had the shakes and rattling after EGR cleaning and a set of new Denso coils took that away.."
I didn't try this yet.

Themzlab said:
"I think a new thread would be better. it is confusing reading through the history here. Do you know anything about the origin of the 2019 engine? maybe it is messed up, mechanically on that one cylinder. generally, you could try swapping injectors to see if the problem moves"
I didn't try this yet. But to answer the question about the 2019- just your basic JDM crapshoot


I appreciate the feedback I have received, I'm really grateful. Perhaps there is someone else that has had some experience like this. There is another thread Prius Engine Shakes Horribly
which carries some of this same discussion.

Thanks in advance for any advice or experience worth sharing. I'll report the solution once it's sorted out.

 

Shit. Can I move it?

 

ok, let the moderator.

thank you

 

Solved.

The issue I was dealing with was, infact, a misfire issue (ChapmanF, thank you). Exactly how injector wires got messed up, who knows, but injector wires on cylinders 2 and 4 were un-crimped / "unplugged". those got fixed, she purrs, the gen 4 swap in 2013 V is complete. Thank you all for your help, it got stressful there for a minute! I'm not sure if I am allowed to plug my mechanic here but they were awesome through the process. I'd love to throw them a bone.

 

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