Head gasket likely, advice/confirmation?

Me personally I have learned my lesson with this engine and model and I wouldn't be preparing to do any such thing get me $2,02,500 out of the vehicle if it's possible and make arrangements I know it's a cute sexy looking car but now that should have worn off. Or be prepared to put a few grand in the mess and pray and hope with proper looking checking the deck height and all of this stuff It could work a while or it could not and you have this money vaporized so if you have money to vaporize and it wouldn't really affect you then by all means play the game that's what it's all about

 

that's pretty much the size of it, although i would say you got your moneys worth at 200k, if you haven't done the engine, battery or brake actuator.
there are plenty of threads here from people who have replaced their head gasket, swapped engines and even put in a gen 4.

 

Sounds like you did the EGR angioplasty about 50,000 miles too late and it weakened the HG.

Since you're able to DIY the head replacement I'd be tempted by this.
If the car makes a 1,000 mile return hop on a bars-leak repaired bottom end then you're probably OK there, plus you have to consider the cost AND hassle delta between replacing the head and the motor.
If both are small for you then a JDM motor might be your way to go.
If replacing the bottom is beyond your situation then that makes the head replacement the least sucky option.
You're looking at a 13-year-old car with 200k miles - BUT......
You live in the PN-Dubbs and I'm betting that gas, used cars, candy bars, EVERYTHING is more expensive than it is in other places - so that also is a factor.

Good Luck!

Be different......
Check back in and let us know how it shakes out.

Oops.
Bad metaphor?

 

I tried to get me 2000 or 2500 out of what's left of the vehicle and move on me personally before I have five or six grand in the necessary repairs to a car that I can't see from here may not be worth three. That's all I'm saying I would probably want to start bowing out now before I start playing coolant loss games with engines that have no room for mistakes machining or any of it that's how they get this lightweight high gas mileage etc an old 350 V8 has plenty of metal to machine and straighten out and remove to bring things back in to qualifying specifications a Toyota 2ZZ doesn't have that luxury It's design It is part of the grand production process as it moves forward I guess

 

Yes and you've done well at 200k chalk it up and be good about it No worries If you start playing these thousand-dollar games and antics you're going to wind up or you don't want to be so maybe not do that hell for two grand you can buy a pretty good running generation too yeah for some people that may be a step backwards In reality I don't see how anyone could think that except looking with their eyes It's not as new and if that's where we are then I'll bow out and we're good I'm here for the long haul my friend I am not interested in fly by night vehicles that'll be here for a few minutes so that I can play initial d games or whatever not at all All of my cars make $500,000 miles except one or two and they were like Chevrolets or something no Oldsmobile

 

The only car in my life right now sitting just at 70 years old that has ever cost me any money that I would even breathe or talk about is a Gen 3 Prius I promise you I have the paperwork whatever all of my other vehicles going back Toyota 40 some odd years never anything like the 2013 Prius Persona which was just two owner car from oursman dealership network in Virginia DC area and the two owners lived across the street from each other they were good friends The car was never beat on nothing boringly driven to DC to work and parked in a parking garage and driven back home with two or three occupants. All other Toyota's I loan since the KE Corolla of the late '60s early '70s all the way up until that 13 Persona made 400k or better looked decent doing it and cost me almost nothing It was ridiculous That's why I say in the 40 years I've been fiddle farting around with cars I haven't paid any money and I'm not looking to start now I have friends of mine that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on car nonsense over the same 40 years doing whatever doesn't really matter and not with super expensive cars either regular run of the mill boring get to work type stuff

 

Putting the pretend head gasket sealer was your downfall.
Heavy cleaning of the radiator, heater core, water pump(or replacing), replacing the
thermostat, cleaning out the small passages. Hopefully the head gasket is not warped.

What type of coolant did she use? Using the incorrect coolant could cause it to jell....
Then it doesn't flow. Then seizing the engine. Hopefully, she used Toyota 50/50 coolant.

Since it just started leaking, once it gets over the initial knocking, by shutting the engine off
a few times, driving will likely be okay as long as she doesn't wait long enough for the engine
to cool and fluid leak into the cylinder.

 

Almost definitely the head gasket. Did the check engine light ever come on? I don't think a negative combustion gas test is super reliable on these cars. Stop leak will probably get her home but you'll have to deal with that if you do the job as it has potential to clog other things up.

If you have the time and space (and tools), pull it apart and get a proper straight edge to check it and go from there. That's what I did and was able to get the job done for about $350 including the $70 straight edge (I had already done the water pump and thermostat recently though, which you'll want to replace most likely especially having done the stop leak). If it fails again it's not a huge deal, but if it doesn't I saved a ton and I'm personally willing to take that gamble.

I don't see why you'd get a new head and not a new block though. I would do it the other way around based on my experience (car burns oil, but the head was in great shape).

 

How’d it look; any pictures?

 

Well at 200k when you look behind the valves which you can't see unless you knock the keepers in the springs off and let them fall out and see all the build up on the back that gets blasted off and they get ground and then he seats look pitted or messed up they get dinked in and new ones pressed in however it works in the particular head that's all lubed up all springs are checked everything's compressed put back together of course the head's been shaved decked milled whichever and all that is is they drop the head on a big belt sander table and hold it down until they have a nice sand pattern on it pick it up flip it over look at it drop a straight edge over it and that's it modern heads have no room for real milling.

 

He didn't get 200k out of it...he got roughly 20k if you read his post.

 

I thought the car had 200K on it total My bad if it didn't

 

Don’t waver- it’s normal on these engines with a hg leak. The only diagnostic that would have saved your girlfriend would have been a Borescope inspection. Too late now.

Obviously your mistake was letting her go on a trip when the shaking had started. An empty reservoir means it’s now an advanced late stage hg failure- it’s even possible the guy who sold it to your girlfriend 20k miles ago already hid the failure with previous sealer.

The latest sealer confirms the hg but as dogman says you now have a lot to clean up or better yet you should change the engine.

Odds are good it’s an oil burner as well and needs rings, pistons. rebuilt head, cleaned or new intake and a complete gasket set to support the timing chain cover etc. Assuming the block or head is not warped or the cylinders are not scored.

A so called “low mile” complete JDM used engine previously operated in Japan is about $1200 plus install. Probably as easy as a good head gasket job on your engine. But there is no real way to verify the “low miles” of a JDM engine. Still a decent option with some risk.



A rebuilt engine shipped from a company like Hybridpit in socal is another option that is likely to get you 100-150k miles without engine issues.

Doing nothing because it runs smooth now is a prescription for a hole in the block down the road.

It’s interesting Gasketmasters just published a video recommending preemptive hg replacements.
From 2022

 

It does...he bought it at 180k so he got 20k out of it...someone else got the 180k.

 

That is not excessive by Toyota standards but a good engine will burn no obvious oil in 5,000 miles. Mine burned no obvious oil for the first 100,000. Some is burned even in these best cases but fuel dilution and condensation make up the difference.

 

I figure the plugged EGR cooler weakened the HG.
Not really your fault, since it sounds like you jumped on the cleaning fairly quickly after you got the car.
5k oil changes are a wise move and I wouldn't be bothered by the 1/4q burn rate.

I feel ya.
I have a brother who is doing 20-to-life behind the Tinsel Curtain.
He married a local and they punched out three kids and now he's trapped.
PNW is cheaper.....

Keeping the car is ABSOLUTELY going to be cheaper.
Putting a JDM engine into the car and maintaining it properly will be the most expensive fix but you'll (probably) only have to do it once - and if the GF regularly does 1,000 mile jaunts in the car then it makes a 'once and done' repair more attractive.
Spending $300 on just replacing the HG and verifying that the head isn't warped might also be an attractive option.
You can scope the bottom and do some leak-down tests after to make sure that the gasket is still gasketing.

I figure that the HG is like a fuse.
They fail to protect more expensive things, which made all kinds of sense back in the days when a trip to an ER and a Mechanic did not result in the same number of zeroes in the bill.
If I had the tools, space, time, etc to replace the HG, and I knew that the engine wasn't overheated then that would be an very attractive option.

Gas is expensive up there, but it's NOT that expensive!!
What you're really trying to avoid is getting another car - because then you're either having to buy new, finance new, insure new, and pay taxes on new - or get another used car.
This would place you squarely where you are now minus the 20,000 miles of knowing your G3 and the knowledge that you actually like the car - warts and all.

The Prius is a little like your GF.
Cheaper to keep her.