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Vlogger Carries On Blown-Engine Tradition With a Turbo K-Swapped Prius Hydrolock

The last time we checked out Emelia Hartford’s YouTube vlog channel, she was keeping herself busy with another pet project. That time around, it didn’t involve turbocharging her C8 Chevrolet Corvette and blowing up the engine, as she and her mechanic pals focused on something a little more exotic.
Hartford blows Honda K-Series swapped engine on Toyota Prius 20 photos
Photo: EmeliaHartford/YouTube
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And when we say that, we mean it in the quirkiest way possible. We have already seen an unassuming Toyota Prius hybrid get turned into a drag strip raging monster when powered by the Hellcat engine. So, getting another Prius through a Honda K-Series swap certainly qualifies as a downgrade in our logbook.

The only thing that got us smiling was the fact that her project also included the conversion to a manual transmission – and from the moment we saw the clutch pedal placement, we started laughing in anticipation of the moment she would have to drive the thing.

Now, at the end of that episode, she teased the arrival of an eBay-acquired turbo kit for the unwieldy Prius. In case you missed all the shenanigans, we’ve embedded that video (along with the one where the turbo gets fitted to the engine) down below for your own amazement.

But since we’re dealing with someone who’s dividing time in between blowing up the engine of the C8 Corvette (twice, by our own count) and trying to get more views on the vlog channel with the customary “shopping for my first supercar” bait (we dare not imagine what’s going to happen to the pour mechanical soul once the deal is done!) - our expectations were not very high with this build either.

And, of course, disaster did strike – while Emelia was more preoccupied because the cameras “didn’t even get the flame” coming out the exhaust (along with lots of smoke). We, on the other hand, were carefully listening to the rod knock.

Because she has experience with such issues, she took the news like a champion – and even explained the whole incident for the gearheads out there, from the 2:55 mark. The one thing we do appreciate about Emelia is the fact that she likes to get dirty and tinker with the cars herself – although it’s still a learning process since she dropped the bent cylinder rod in the engine bay at the 5:28 mark...

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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
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Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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