JDM engines direct swap?

This is a very tricky situation The generation 3 engine that you will buy from the JDM suppliers as a direct bolt-in but storage and transportation of these engine is very lacking It is very difficult to get one in really good shape to be honest about it You have to be able to go to a place where you can see a few of them not just have anything trucked to your door because when you take off the intake manifold and take a look at a few places you'll find water and all kinds of shit in these things excuse my friend should automatically be changed by automatic moderating anyway. So beware of this when these engines are pulled in Asia they're thrown in piles many times things are broken on the engines and they're set off to the side and just left the rot and the rest of them that haven't broken or haven't smacked the floor too hard or whatever goes on get shipped to wherever they're going and probably not very good conditions this stuff is shipped as junk scrap so it is in a part of the ship where if it gets wet it's not a huge deal on and on and on so if you have an engine that has an exploded hasn't rattled enough to crack the center girdle or any of those funny business things you have good piston extension and deck height out of the block I would fix what I have knowing what I know now. If any of these things dictate that's this stuff is bad it may be actually less money for you to buy a manufactured or remanufactured center section that's your reciprocating mass and apply that to your block lower girdle and add your remanufactured head might be a better way to spend your money

 

The engines fit the same but you have to use your wiring harness and ecus because a real JDM engine was used in a right hand drive car instead of our left hand cars and the ecus are different.

I would agree that you should hand pick an engine and verify the label says
X2ZR-W20 instead of X2ZR-W25. JDM injectors are tan. Otherwise you are getting a US junkyard engine.

 

Going to JDM route a lot of times you'll find the throttle bodies have been flooded so on and so forth I usually I use the throttle body the injectors and possibly the intake manifold or clean the one that came with the JDM make sure all that's clean the cooler I have one already off that's been to the machine shop and been tanked so I have one on the car one out ready to go and that sort of thing If you can get a low mileage takeout to ZFXE engine for Prius duty in the US that is what you'd be shooting for but that'll be $2,500 all day long and then you're putting back in a low mileage engine with the same problems in the same market maybe you'll get lucky and you'll make it to $396,000 like my 2010 solar roof car or maybe not and that was my problem with the whole business I got a JDM engine and in 25,000 mi was back to almost the same clackity clacking and nonsense and there's nothing wrong with the car All the incillary pieces like EGR coolers and all that I have tons of extras all cleaned and ready to go and so on so I just put it to the side and haven't really done anything with it and now the car just sitting there is turning to pure garbage the interior is taking on high moisture content mold is growing on the seats You know the powdery white stuff all of that and possible once these cars are not driven they really become terrariums unless you park them in direct sun 24/7 and then well that does its damage but yeah ideally or you know you could find a generation for that got smacked hard in the side but no man that'll be four grand and then there's no guarantee that the generation 4 engine is really fixed I still see people now starting to get the idea that they need to be out of these at 150k put it to the used market where people aren't so bright and let it rip do something else that seems to be a lot of people are heating that word It looks like I think these things are kind of part of the grand scheme of planned obsolescence these new people that are just coming into being of age they don't know this stuff they think $150,000 mi they've really done something and that's what they need them to think

 

LKQ is a good salvage yard and they keep decent track of the vins the engine came out from. I would go for a 2016 or 2017 Prius v engine if possible but the sales volume of those years were very low since the rav4 hybrid was also available.

Most US Gen3 Prius engines from a typical salvage yard are early years and have their vin plates removed so you are very likely to get a bad engine. Remember these engines are known oil burners especially when the factory oil change interval of 10k miles was followed. Mid 2014 improved the rings.

I would still go with a JDM if you are near a big city with a supplier. As stated before they work with your harness and ecus.

The brake boosters and inverters are also a problem on these cars. The brake booster is about $2500 installed while the inverter can fail without warning but.still is covered.

Notes:
Even at LKQ you have to be careful. Their online inventory found this 125k mile engine when searching for a 2016 v:

7th and 8th digit EU is a v wagon and pic is a v. However checking the vin and other details shows it is a 2013 v built before the mid 2014 piston and ring production change.