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Valve cover broken

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by socky_prius, Sep 2, 2017.

  1. socky_prius

    socky_prius New Member

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    Location:
    San Diego
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    ----USA----
    Anyone ever seen a hole in a valve cover before? Our 2006 has ~ 175k, been running a little sluggish at cold starts, uses about a quart of oil by 3k miles. For about a year it has smelled like a whiff of fuel/exhaust (hard to tell) on engine shutdown before the engine has fully warmed up. Over the past few months our fuel economy has been pretty worse than usual at 39 mpg. I changed the oil today and decided to take a look around, check the air filter, clean the MAF, etc. I saw an unusual amount of carbon buildup around the intake manifold, thought that was weird. Engine been running real rough at cold startup sometimes, I thought it needed new injectors. Upon looking closer at the valve cover, noticed a fresher oil spot and looking down from there at the valve cover I could see a hole and fresh oil. There seems to be a hole right above my Drivers side spark plug. Yikes!

    Anyone ever seen this before or have any idea what could have caused this? I hope there aren't any major issues aside from the valve cover itself. The engine has thrown a P0420 code on and off for a long time now and I've just been resetting it. Looks like I have some work ahead of myself.

    Any input would be appreciated. I will be ordering some parts shortly. First thing that comes to mind is the valve cover, and valve cover gasket. Not sure if I should continue on with spark plugs, intake manifold gasket, fuel injectors or anything else.

    Heres a pic of the engine with some buildup.
    [​IMG]

    And a poor quality photo of the valve cover hole.
    [​IMG]
     
    #1 socky_prius, Sep 2, 2017
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Seems like a brittle casting: there's a couple of threads I recall on this, and I think in both instance it was due to owners doing removal of pcv valve with an open-ended wrench, when it broke loose the thicker shoulder of the wrench levered into the cover, dimpled/cracked it.

    In both cases JB Weld was used to seal it.
     
    #2 Mendel Leisk, Sep 2, 2017
  3. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    No pictures. The links are broken. If you're using Photo Bucket, they stopped allowing 3rd party access to pictures. I suggest you just upload the file with the "upload a file" button.
    Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 4.16.36 PM.png
    I can imagine that a hole in the valve cover would cause all sorts of craziness, but I tend to think that that code is unrelated. But it still should be addressed.

    I share @Mendel Leisk's theory on the cause of the hole.
     
    #3 jerrymildred, Sep 2, 2017
    Prodigyplace likes this.
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    With a previous car I managed to forget to replace the oil filler cap one time. Didn't trigger any warnings. Oily vapour was getting sucked into the cabin air intake though, bad news. :oops:
     
    #4 Mendel Leisk, Sep 2, 2017
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  5. socky_prius

    socky_prius New Member

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    Location:
    San Diego
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    ----USA----
    My apologies, looks like the first attempt at pictures didn't work. I did replace the pcv about a year ago. Don't recall any damage at the time, possible I weakened it and it broke. IMG_7342.JPG IMG_7343.JPG
     
    #5 socky_prius, Sep 2, 2017
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