After Replacing Head Gasket GEN 3

Hello,

I purchased a 2012 Prius 2 for my daughter with 180K miles on it. I knew that it had a head gasket leak as the coolant level was decreasing with white smoke out the tailpipe. My daughter needed a car and who can afford cars now a days. So, I saw there were a few YouTube videos. How hard could it be? Well, 30 hours later with a fractured bolt while putting on the timing chain cover (learned about extractors!) and also cross threading a couple of the exhaust manifold studs (learned about taps!). I was finally able to get the whole thing back together.

However, when I first started the car up, it rattled awful and I shut it off immediately. This is when I found Prius Chat. I found a thread mentioning a death rattle. I'm not sure what that is. But, I'm sure that if I had let the car continue that it sure would not have survived. Also, there was a lot of white smoke coming from the exhaust manifold area. Plus, it smelled awful. I was devastated. I thought that I had majorly messed something up.

When I did the head gasket change, I thought that I should put in a number of new items: spark plugs, ignition coil, EGR valve and cooler (I know that you can clean them but I got a new set for $120), water pump, pcv, fuel injectors, thermostat, timing chain, and timing tensioner. I thoroughly cleaned out the air manifold and the pipe from the EGR. I was also very careful about making sure the timing was set-up as well by rotating and checking the marks before putting everything back together.

So, after crying for a few hours, I decided to seek guidance from Prius Chat. Somewhere it stated to suspect timing, plugs, ignition coil, EGR or a few other items. All of those items were new or checked. I also had purchased a FelPro gasket. Upon receiving, it wasn't blue like the ones that I had seen on YouTube. It was grey. In the box, it stated that they needed to find other suppliers for the gasket material and not to worry if it was not their traditional blue. However, I was thinking that I had a poor gasket from who knows where. After reading Prius Chat for a while, one thread stated that unplugging the EGR stopped the condition. So, I tried that. And, it worked! The car purred nicely. But, I had a brand spanking new EGR. It couldn't be clogged. So, I plugged the EGR back and the car continued to run just nicely. Is there something the ECU needs to do in order to recognize a new EGR? I'm asking in case someone else were to do the same as I did and put in a new EGR only for it to rattle severely. I'm also just really interested in why it would rattle so severely with a new EGR. So, now that it seems to be running OK. I let it warm up a while. The white smoke seems to have disappeared. I assume that could be from getting oil or something on it and burning off. Also, the smell has gotten better. Somewhere I read that the new RTV gaskets off gasses when it heats up the first few times. I also did the combustion leak liquid test. The fluid stayed blue!

I guess that I am writing this to let people know my experience after replacing the head gasket: new EGR (let the car run for a while with it unplugged turn the car off then plug-in), smoke (will burn off) and smell (will go away).

I'm also writing as I purchased an OBD interface with Techstream. I read somewhere it would be useful in diagnosing the rattle. However, with the rattle now gone, how else might I use Techstream to monitor the new head gasket? Also, is there anything that I should be watching for with the new "grey" Felpro gasket? Thanks for any guidance for the newbie! Or, am I a newbie anymore after a head gasket replacement?