2013 Prius Misfire

I have been soaking it in a bucket of hot water and soap solution for a day or so, replacing the solution periodically (working around other obligations) and it seems to be helping. At least now the solution will drain through although slower than I think it should.

Head gasket, timing chain, etc. parts should be delivered today so I am hoping to have the cooler ready to reinstall tomorrow or the next day depending on how quickly I get that far on assembly.

I suspected that hot EGR was not a good idea so I am not surprised that is not a path anyone should take. I think that a plugged cooler is different than the typical EGR delete by un-pluging the valve in part because I suspect when the system detects the EGR malfunction it changes the engine calibration.

I suspect that the head gasket leak was raising coolant temperatures, just not enough to trigger the overheat warning further accelerating the failure. I had been atributing the pressure in the coolant system after shut down to normal system pressure but after reflection suspect that the head gasket leak was adding pressure to the cooling system. I believe the head gasket failure was basically allowing combustion pressure to leak into the cooling system during engine operation, then allowing coolant to enter the combustion chamber when the engine was off. Each time the engine started (either cold or during normal hydrid off-on cycling) the engine would misfire due to the coolant in that cylinder. Not enough coolant to cause white smoke or leak down into the engine oil but enough to cause the misfire.

 

The "soap" I am using is a soda laundry additive powder but I understand the problem of dilution that I have using the bucket method. It is doing something just not getting down into the length of those small channels. I started the bucket approach because we were going to be gone most of the day yesterday but I now realize that I need to get more agresive/concentrated. My wife suggested using vinigar rather than water so a combination of that with the more agressive rather than bucket method may be next.

I may also devise a means to hold the cooler so that I can use my pressure washer to get more pressure than I can generate with my air compressor. I don't have a way to connect the pressure washer to hot water but I have read some reports that a pressure washer is the way to go.

Parts delivery hasn't happened yet and tomorrow morning is busy with other priorities so it may be tomorrow afternoon before I get to start reassembly.

 

I found that Purple Power does a significantly better job on the cooler than other things that I have tried. I soaked the inside of the cooler (one end plugged) with Purple Power for a few hours and then followed by blasting through the cooler with my pressure washer. After that I could actually see light through the cooler for the first time. Doing some additional soaks with Purple Power and it continues to result in a very dark black residue flushing out when the plug is removed. I plan to rinse it out with hot water then blow it dry with air from my compressor before pressure testing the coolant passages and installing.

 

Trying to start engine to evaluate the head gasket job and nothing other than a warning message to check the hybrid system? I disconnected the 12v battery for a while (actually charged the battery with the negative disconnected0 but when I reconnected no change. I had pulled the hybrid "fuse" during the engine project and reinstalled it, not sure if that is related.

I'm sure it something simple but what?

 

Okay, engine started (not sure what I may have done other than I did engage the hybrid system key) but still have the hybrid system warning message? With the engine running it shows the hybrid battery at about 90% charged with power going from the engine to the battery (as expected).

I don't have the cowl panel and the wiper parts in place so I can check for coolant leaks but also can not drive it anywhere at this point.

I was hoping to run it long enough to get the thermostat to open but it shuts off so I guess I need to put the panel and wiper parts in place to be able to drive it. I'm not sure what to do about the Hybrid system warning as there was no problem prior to the engine work being done.