End of the Road? (Bad HEAD GASKET?)

Yes. If you own a compression gauge, this is free to do at home. Even if you buy one, it's not very expensive.

The next question you will face is "if the head gasket is failed, is it worth it to change it on a car this old".

 

Well, if your thoroughness in working on this problem reflects that the rest of the car has been well taken care of as well, if I were you, I'd find a low mileage engine w/transmission from a wrecked Prius and turn back the clock and keep your car on the road for another 200K miles. Then add a brand new battery pack towards the end and then once you get past 1/2 million miles buy a used Prius that needs a new Battery pack for cheap!

 

A compression check will tell you if somethings wrong. You already know that something is wrong. Loss of compression can happen from blown rings, blown head, bad valves, etc. you won’t know which is the issue unless you tear into it. It’s very much possible it’s just leaky valves and the HG.

You could rebuild the engine for less $$ than a lower mileage used one but is quite a bit of work, or just drop in a used engine which might be faster. It can be a gamble either way since you won’t really know the history of the “new” engine.

I’d say if you have taken good care of the rest of it, have the time to do the work yourself, fix or replace your engine.

If you decide to get a new vehicle, go with 2015 or newer.


-Spiral

 

Why should he not take the head off and look at it first? If the blown head gasket hasn't resulted in too many other problems (is that likely?), replacing the head gasket and doing some other minor maintenance will be a lot cheaper than buying a replacement engine. Or am I writing nonsense?

 

Yeah.... It's the same debate with Hybrid batteries... Do you rebuild for a way less expensive short term fix, or do you spend big and double the lifespan of the car. Every person has a different budget. If you can afford it the long term fix is always better...

Perhaps the next step before deciding is to put a camera down the spark plug holes and see what it looks like in there without the hassle of taking it apart...

 

I like that suggestion.

 

Do the leak down test.

 

Good points. Maybe time to sell it.

 

A few hundred if you do it yourself. Head bolt kit is $100. Then you need gasket maker, the head gasket, etc. most comes apart with 10, 12, 14 mm socket. The head bolts you need 12 point torx type tool (I got a kit of them for $20.

If someone else does it I think your looking at $1k+. It is slightly time consuming.


-Spiral

 

Just for ready reference, there are 6 types of head gasket failures, and each area has its own symptoms.

 

I just replaced the head gasket and a bent connecting rod on a 2012 Prius a week ago and I would allow 18 hours for the head gasket.

It can be accomplished on a weekend as long as your excused from yard maintenance that weekend

If its drinking coolant you can be quite certain the head gasket is your problem and if you put it off to long you could run into a bent connecting rod or worse if the engine tries to compress a cylinder filled with coolant.

This you tube below video sums up the work/ tools required:

youtube prius head gasket - Bing video

To the tool list mentioned above add a 1/2" torque wrench

I used this eBay head gasket set and was content with its quality/price:

Fits 10-15 Toyota Prius V Lexus CT200h 1.8L Hybrid Head Gasket Set Bolts 2ZRFXE 738614975338 | eBay

I resurfaced the cylinder head myself with sand paper glued to glass and was able to easily able to get the head deck to one thousand of an inch tolerance.

 

Here's a video, two we-come-to-you guys. They do the bare-bones, and the engine cover is filthy before they start, and they don't care to clean it off. But a good video. There's a significant amount of prep-for-access not shown.

Also, some Repair manual info attached. Also a Toyota service bulletin, which has gasket kit part number.

Still, I like what you said about the miles on this car; it might be time to move on.

 

If it is burning coolant and you take a camera and look down the spark plug hole. The cylinder should look squeaky clean.. no carbon. The coolant is steam cleaning the engine.
You could be loosing coolant from someplace and not see it... Also bad radiator cap can cause an u explained coolant lose. The cap lets out the pressure into the over flow, eventually the overflow fills up and then dumps the coolant into the ground.. usually when your driving so you may NOT see a puddle.
Then it sucks in the coolant when it cools off.. this process eventually leads to low coolant in the radiator.

The misfires are a common issue with coils.. perhaps bad ones.. or bad plugs or bad injectors.

It seems like a lot of issues cam up after you did your routine maintenance... Buy maybe I misunderstood the timing of it all.

I would use a camera and do a compression test... And or leak down test.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Hi 500k and still on original battery and drives like new replaced water pump and aux battery so you have nothing to worry about just drive it gently

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About 12 hours.

I have a link to my HG replacement thread in my signature.

 

For the amount of effort here taking care of the car a check engine light for a failing battery is a big enough game changer to start thinking about a used battery or a new car. In the interim to fix your gasket drain the coolant and put liquid glass sealer in the radiator, it will seal up your block and replace the oem coolant back in. This will buy you a year or two more to save for a good down payment. If you plan on keeping a money pit car get a used battery and take your engine to a machine shop and get it rebuilt correctly.

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15h if done alone. 19h if your friends help.