History of overheating, do I have a bad head gasket now?

217k miles, 2011 Prius with regular oil changes.

About 6 months / 8,000 miles ago my car was overheating, it turns out it was a bad thermostat.

I changed the thermostat and water pump, but not before the car had overheated about 6 times. Each time if the red thermometer overheat light came on, I pulled over immediately, but maybe I caused damage?

For the past 2 weeks I have been getting the engine knocking at startup, and when accelerating from a stop sign or red light (it's worse while turning left and accelerating).

I got check engine codes P0301, P0302, P0303.

Is this all indicative of a blown head gasket? Is there something else it could be?

Thanks in advance.

 

I don't have those other symptoms. I personally don't have the equipment to do a compression test, it might be time to take it to a mechanic who is gonna gouge me. I love my prius and don't want to send it to an early grave.

 

I am in the rio grande valley, in south texas.

 

that's smart, thanks!

 

I took it to a mechanic, turns out it's a blown head gasket. My mechanic who I trust said he's replaced two head gaskets on Prii, and they both failed within a year, so my mechanic said it's better to just replace the whole engine. Which might be ball-park of $1200 for engine and $800 for install.

Since it's a 2011 with 217k miles and some slight body damage, I will probably just sell it on craigslist for $2500 or something.

 

I posted about this car last week History of overheating, do I have a bad head gasket now? | PriusChat

Turns out I have a blown head gasket, and my mechanic said I should replace the engine, which would be ~$2k. He said he has repaired two blown head gaskets on prii and they both failed in less than a year.

Even if I did head gasket repair, he said it would be about $1600, engine repair $2k.

My plan is to just sell the car on craigslist for $2500 (it's still running for now), and buy another used Prius (I have bought over 50 prii for myself and friends so finding a good car for a good price isn't a concern, I just don't really wanna retire my lovely car too early, it has served me well, and I don't like to be wasteful to the environment, keeping a car on the road is better than retiring it and buying another if possible, also economically too!)

Does my plan of selling my car now, and buying another one sound like the best option? I considered trying a head gasket sealant but that doesn't seem great, I figured someone might appreciate the car and try to fix it, especially if I haven't put the sealant in it yet to mess up the other components.

Thoughts?

 

He said he fixed the warped heads before he changed the gasket, did not clean out the EGR system.

Mine blew because it overheated several times due to a bad thermostat.

I do like the car, but there's no reason to be emotionally attached to one car. I like the Toyota Prius because it's environmental and economical. But I'm not gonna throw money at a car that doesn't deserve it.

 

That's correct, a used engine installed untouched.

I wouldn't sell my car without letting the purchaser know the issues that it has. I think an industrial individual might try to repair it themselves, or at least part it out.

 

For the cat, and battery, and rest of the parts on the car, I think I can just sell the whole thing for 2k or something.

I used to have a used prius dealership, and flip prii in my own name. I can find a good deal on a well-maintained 1 owner prius.

 

Nothing has been done to my prius yet... My mechanic has done two other head gaskets on Prii, and he said they failed within a year... so he recommended against just doing a head gasket replacement, and instead suggested an engine replacement. Oh, and my mistake about switching threads, I figured people would want a new one since it was a different question. In the future I will keep it in one place, apologies.