Update on Head gasket repair

well done! thanks for the write up, please keep us posted. i traded my '12 plug in at 87k because of knocking and shaking.

 

Yes the old Honda Civic would be a better car You're right or '04 to '09 generation 2 I have a 94 civic 1400. Great running car but not quite as reliable as the Prius unfortunately but still a great car and got near a million miles on it it's been through you know what and back and still fires right up Just put a fuel pump on it the other day My kid drives it as a beater.

 

what did you use for the piston soak?

 

Holy smokes: valves disassembled too! Not your first rodeo?

 

Cool, I'm probably going to do a Berrymans soak soon. I'm nervous about it mainly since people seem to have trouble starting their engines afterwards and I'm wondering how being a hybrid will play out in that regard. I definitely wish I'd thought to do it when I had my head off recently. Did you have any issues starting? Did you lube the cylinders after the soak at all?

 

The berrymans just super cleans everything I'm not sure what it's doing for the oil control rings and cleaning that mess up but hey it's better than running water down there which will clean nothing. Least to berryman's has a chance to cut up some of that dried oil that gets coagulated around those oil return rings or oil control rings. It'll do what it can to get around the compression rings a little bit and try and undo some of the gum and nonsense the holes those stuck to the Pistons that's about it ideally in the old days and older Toyota motors if I had the head off it was another 45 minutes to take the oil pan off remove the rod caps push the pistons out of the top of the block clean the Pistons right in the driveway with real safety clean cleaner with gloves because that's stuff would eat your hands up It was real cleaning as it is not today pop new rings on three piece oil control rings clamp the pistons and the ring compressor pop them back in the lightly honed and wiped boards dry no pouring a bunch of lubrication in the hole and all this and that putting them up wet and sloppy You put them up dry the ring seat the first five travels they make up and down the bore and you're ready to go revving in 30 minutes not 400 mi of break in but that's just me. Your piston soap will be pretty much uneventful If you do this correctly and let it sit overnight with the drain plug off most all of your liquid will run past your slugs and rings fall into the pan run out into the drain pan you have sitting under the drain hole so most of what you poured in if you were watching will wind up down in your little tray then it sits all night and most of that stuff out gases and well pretty much dries. Then when you install your plugs and coils and what have you everything should be ready to start when it starts give it a little gas let it smoke and do its thing that should clear run that oil to 2000 miles and then change it and that's what you wind up with.

 

Yes that is a come to Jesus realization on a high mile gen3. Almost all other hybrids before and after are better but with a gen3, buying new and selling around 150k was the value strategy. I only had inverter failure with a no warning stranding by that point.

It is interesting Toyota initially covered pistons, rings, inverters and brake boosters for free. They revised the intake, head gasket, egr valve and ecm logic along the way. Only the free inverter still exists for most gen3s.

Amazing what can be done when faced with little alternative. The more recent hybrids like my 22 Rav4 have a return to sump “catch can” built in with a no hose pcv installed between the head and intake directly through the intake gasket. One of many improves since 2016’s gen4 design.

Rav4 hybrid with 2.5L “gen5” engine

 

For the first 60k miles, or 5 years, whichever comes first. I doubt anyone achieved the 1 quart consumption in 1100~1300 miles (Toyotas criteria for doing the repair), within that mileage.

I’d like to be a fly on the wall, at the meeting where they settled on 60k; likely lots of chuckles.

 

Based on dealer mechanics I know a lot of gen3 piston and ring jobs were performed under 60k and some until 125k for those who bought Toyota’s Platinum extended warranty prior to the 3/36 expiration.

5 year 60k was the standard powertrain warranty.