This is by far not my first head gasket job so I'll start there I've become accustomed to it in the last few years...... that being said 2010 prius 208k miles headmaster blown on cylinder 2 and 4. No mix of oil and water only cylinder pressure leak down causing cool start up knocks and exhaust moisture. Engine was full of oil sludge and it took an act of congress to get the filter cover off. The filter I really don't think anyone was changing at the dealership as customer stated as it is horrible...... picture attached Intake, injectors, valve train, etc everything just filthy. I pulled and replaced head gasket and yes new bolts too along with timing chain kit and new fluids. Everything has been cleaned thoroughly. For some reason I cannot get rid of a valve train/cam ticking noise. Everytime I set the timing the intake camshaft vvt gear wants to lunge forward. And I'm having to rotate to a back position to set timing it's like it's spring loaded. Needless to say rotating the engine to release the tensioner it automatically will skip teeth and marks on chain will be off but the engine looks to still be set in time If anyone would like to throw in a few words of wisdom I'll take it. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Are you sure teeth have really been skipped? On a properly timed Gen 3 engine, the marks will only match up every ninth time you see the painted chain links. If you started with the links on the marks, then you rotate the engine until you see the painted links again, they won't be on the marks. Keep rotating until you see them eight more times and voilà, there they are on the marks again. Just magic. Or math. The way the math works out for the Gen 3 is here. If the timing is really off, you'll be able to turn the engine till you've seen the painted links nine times and they won't have been on the marks even once.
With all that slug in the filter, and rest of the engine, perhaps the lifters are clogged up also???? That could be your tapping noise.
Nothing wrong with Toyota filters. Get some cheap automatic transmission fluid and idle the engine for 10-15 minutes with that. Not sure what seafoam has, but any good engine cleanout mix should help.
When we had meet ups, about half of the filters I removed from Pruis vehicles were warped. That prompted me to seek higher quality filters!
VVT gear or spun rod bearing. That motor wasn't worth doing that job on and that's the hardest pill to swallow of this whole thing. I'm so sorry man. I'm a mechanic like you. My advice is don't use aftermarket oil filters. It's just not worth it. The best engineers work for the manufacturer and you can absolutely guarantee that the oil filters sold by the dealer meat specification. Anything else is a promise that it's better and it may be or it may not be. But that promise is made by somebody who's not necessarily an engineer and definitely not one who's reached the pinnacle of his career by working with pride for the manufacturer. And that's a risk I don't take anymore.
Considering how nasty the whole engine looked, it's NOT the filters fault. It is possible that is NOT a Toyota filter, but a chinese copy. Which is much cheaper. Go ahead and leave that wix filter in for 100,000 miles and never change the oil and see how it looks. After watching a video about the cheap chinese knock off filters that looked like Toyota filter, I bought some Toyota filters from the Toyota dealership. Most definiately a huge difference! The chinese filters were not even half as stiff as the real filters from Toyota. The oem's were much more solid. Even the box was better! So for the extra dollar per filter, I'll be buying them from the dealership. And they even gave me the drain plug seals!
Describe why you think the vvt gear would be the culprit? Do you think it stuck in the locked position due to dirty oil? Because now we're getting somewhere in this conversation. I've got engines sitting out back where I've replaced them for blown head gaskets when they was plentiful and cheap and I'm not above pulling the vvt from another. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
