Engine swap

Share you email address and I can share My Evernote Notebook on the project with you


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This is how I lowers the engine


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Biblical!

 

Question and curious ….
So you lowered then removed from undercarriage/underbody ……?? and did you also remove steer rack and under cross trans mount

 

The basic instruction came from the Hains manual. I liked it because I found out I didn’t need to Mess with the a/c, just take out the radiator and unbolt the compressor and tie it up out of the way. Yes, you do take out the four bolts and lower the steering rack being sure to tie of the steering wheel and mark the steering knuckle, putting this back in place with my daughters help was easy, doing it myself controlling the hydraulic jack on the garage floor from the drivers side it took an hour of doing it wrong before I got it right.


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Here you can see how I set the engine on plywood and then a few hangers or welding rods and it rolls out under the drivers wheel well
Oh the wood wedges to keep it from falling over and smashing the lip pan was brilliant.

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Really Mendel the way the engine mounts are made the engine is easiest to drop out of the Pri


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thanks …. I will read my copy of Haynes.... thanks again

 

thank you Paul for the pictures and notes (I didn't know how to reply to the email).

Seems like quite a bit of work I am surprised you were able to drop it so quickly on the 2nd time. I wonder if one could split the engine from the transaxle on the car and avoid having to drain the transmission fluid and disconnect all those lines and hi voltage harness?

 

As someone who has done it both ways I can assure you dropping the unit down is both safer and quicker.

 

Having my daughter there to read my notes and the steps in the manual, hand me tools and remind me as I did the operations was helpful. Also her little hands to take that back transaxle connector off from the wheel well saved an hour. I spent half a day just engineering the gantry out of scrap lumber the first time.
As to your question about separating them befor to avoid Transaxel fluid drain? Not what I did as removing the drive shafts would have made a mess and it really wasn’t hard. I used the bucket you see and clamped the hoses off to avoid a complete drain. Then after the exchange it was a simple matter off filling it up as needed.


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Hi Paul, I unfortunately found your thread on the Prius engine swap as my 2008 with 290,000 I believe is in need of a swap. Is there a pdf file or something you have with tips/steps/photos you have that you could send me as you have done this twice? It would be much appreciated and will keep one more Prius out of the junk yard!
Thanks!
Tom

 

mine went pretty easily, word of advice disconnect the main harness behind the glovebox and pull the entire boot out from the firewall. then you can pretty much take the entire powertrain out without disconnecting any wires.

 

oil_burner, do you still have those pictures and notes from Paul?
Did a quick compression test by just connecting the tester to each cylinder one at a time and got 120, 95, 110, 100. This and some top end ticking and the hybrid battery not staying charged (NO CODES) leads me to I think I will indeed need to replace the engine.
Thanks!
TomK

 

unfortunately I don't, but there are lots of good threads on here that show you how to do it. The best one I used was the transaxle removal thread. Once you unbolt the inverter than the rest is pretty straight forward.

-remove inverter
-undo both axle nuts and tie rod ends, stab link ends
-remove the subframe cradle
-drop the steering rack and disconnect the steering shaft/tie off steering wheel
-drain coolant and disconnect hoses
-disconnect wiring harness at the fuse box
-remove glovebox and disconnect 5 plugs, pull main harness into engine bay along with the rubber boot
-undo engine mounts and exhaust connection at the donut
-drop as one unit (harness stays attached to engine/trans) onto something you can roll out.

 

Thanks oil_burner, do you or anyone remember what gaskets/seals or fluids were needed to complete the swap?
I know engine oil, coolant for both systems, transmission fluid. Does the AC need to come off so the refrigerant would need to be done also? Just trying to get my ducks in a row.
Thanks!
TomK

 

the only thing I needed was coolant and oil. nothing else needs to be drained. I also chose to replace my sway bar bushings since you're dropping the subframe cradle and its really easy, but mine were still in good shape at 272k miles. Only other thing I'd suggest is replace the donut exhaust gasket between the header and mid pipe as those tend to rot out and leak when they're old.

 

also, the engine/trans once dropped down is very heavy. Maybe 3-400lbs. I dropped it onto plywood on welding rods like Paul but when I tried to roll it, it just crushed the rods and made a mess. I'd recommend a few pieces of pipe or something.

 

I found the second time that cutting up a few coat hangers worked great. I also made a couple of wood triangle shims out of a 12” piece of 2x4 cut at a diagonal with a jig saw.


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