This pic is of the front left corner of the valve cover. I cut the quarter inch notch here to lift the fuel rail out of the way in preparation to pull the bad motor. The Gen 3 does not have this ring...about 1 inch in diameter...and I can't figure out what purpose it serves. Maybe it protects the fuel rail from impact but it would still serve this purpose with the notch cut. Anyway, I'm thinking of adding the convenience notch to the replacement motor.
That baffled me too, seven years ago.... injectors ... valve cover?!? | PriusChat Happily, I found out there was enough room in the 'ring' to maneuver the injectors out, without taking extreme measures!
I tried but maybe wasn't patient enough. I really don't see any liability with minor surgery in this case.
Also found reassembling the 'constrained fuel rail' onto the mounted injectors one by one to be a pain, and thought of the dremel as well. Instead I did the job a couple of times over until it stopped pissing fuel, which in turned cleaned up the top of the intake manifold. Notching it really makes the most sense, unless you are taking off the valve cover, or have a desire to repeat the job while huffing gas fumes.
