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350, 000 miles and head gasket has finally let go

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by taxidriver50005, Mar 12, 2023.

  1. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    Well finally got the cold startup misfire on cylinder number 1, started using a little water too.
    As this is my work vehicle I decided time for a change and bought a corolla touring sports 2.0 hybrid excel, drives wonderfully with more than enough poke.
    BUT here's the thing.... I'm still missing my old prius, doing the taxi thing in an older car has its advantages... Its generally less worrying about the abuse the car gets.
    I'm now sitting here looking at my old prius thinking should I just fix the blown gasket and give my misses the corolla, the prius is in excellent shape inside and out and would be a shame to scrap it. 1316646434.jpeg 471642909.jpeg

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  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Top pic (red) is a Prius v, and the bottom pic (silver) Prius has the blown head gasket?

    As to how you got to 350K miles: did you clean the EGR and intake along the way, and if so when and how often?

    As to what to do, it's your call. I'm guessing you've done the EGR cleaning? Have floor jack, safety stands, torque wrench, menagerie of tools and so on??

    Our 2010 is pretty much a dead ringer for yours, same rims, LED headlights. The fog lights in corner of grill are different; ours integrated into signal lights. They're useless fwiw, lol.

    (I know we've talked before, but I've got a sieve for memory...)
     
    #2 Mendel Leisk, Mar 12, 2023
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2023
  3. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Oil burner? Somebody will fix it so consider who makes the money after its repaired. The resale value difference here is significant enough to consider the repair assuming the battery, oil consumption and brake booster issues are good.
     
  4. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    Zero oil consumption, never has and I always do an oil flush every third oil change. EGR only cleaned once at 140,000 which is when I started doing oil flushing.. Still getting good flow numbers on EGR.
    Ask for fixing I'm going to get an estimate from local garage I use somtimes, the job is not beyond me but time lost at work verses cost need to be assessed.
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  5. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    The prius v is called the prius plus in the UK, this is corolla estate or corolla touring sports in the uk
    20230226_142315.jpeg 162835088.jpeg

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  6. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    He just want to get a JDM engine and a shoe hornet into the Prius The car that's broke and avoid all the hours of messing with the open deck block assembly you have just swap it out You got good mileage out of it call it a day You're going to put one in there that's got like 65,000 mi on it or something like that so that car will be ready to go for another I don't know 10 years or so with the other things when they need to get done brakes battery etc but it's a great setup and like you say if somebody gets in the card pees on the floorboard it's not a big deal like in your brand new Corolla you'll be noticing every smell every time somebody gets out of the car screw that use the old car for that kind of stuff it just makes good sense if you're one to worry about your newer car cost damages all of that some people look at vehicles differently than others but yes that's what I would do fix the Prius run the ever living h a l e out of it and use it to make your money or whatever still decent looking car so you should be good.
     
  7. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    For data keepers, what was your oil change intervals?
     
  8. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    10,000 miles fully synthetic of any brand that was on offer that met the API SN specification, oil was flushed every third change with liquid Molly pro engine flush this has kept my oil consumption to zero( well it never needs hoping up between 10,000 mile changes).
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  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Inspection of intake manifold will likely reveal solidly carbon-blocked EGR passages; if it hasn’t been revisited in over 200k miles.

    They typically clog in sequence starting with cylinder one (right end). Perhaps “good flow numbers” are overrated, in particular with the uneven clog pattern of the intake: exhaust gasses still managing to trickle through on cylinders four and three, with one and two getting nothing.
     
  10. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    New Corolla hybrid, my current recommendation for someone who wants an affordable Toyota hybrid

    Clogged egr and no oil burning made 350,000 miles? I like your thinking!
     
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  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Looks for all the world like a North American Prius v. Because it is?? And of course not available here?
     
  12. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    It is available here
    C765C4FC-C4EE-417B-A1DC-D5BB4549840E.jpeg 8D14AD49-71FD-4C4C-AC42-33E26F4CB5F3.jpeg 7015E48B-14BE-449D-975F-051B7AEE731B.jpeg
     
    #12 rjparker, Mar 13, 2023
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2023
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  13. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    Well had a estimate from my local garage..... £7-800..so the prius isn't dead yet.
    Our prices over here in the UK differ from how your garages charge, you all seam to be quated from a book figure of how long the job should take, the book says 15hrs so you pay 15hrs labour. Over here you pay by how long it took them irrespective of what crazy figures the book says so it pays to find a good garage who can do the work quickly, finding a garage you trust can be the hard thing.
    Cars booked in for next month as the guy is always super busy.. I will post results and costs.

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  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Clean the intake and EGR when you've got a chance.
     
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  15. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Here a Toyota dealer charges by book hours where independent shops may or may not charge by the book. In fact, most dealer mechanics are paid by a fixed job price based on the book. As a result, dealer mechanics are incentivized to get the work done quickly so that they can get more jobs in per day. A typical dealer head gasket job may be $3500.

    For a customer the better prices are always independent shops when the shop knows what they're doing based on past experience. They know how long it has taken in the past, often want to beat a competition price and charge accordingly. An experienced independent may charge anywhere from $1500 to the dealer's price.
     
    #15 rjparker, Mar 13, 2023
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2023
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  16. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    My engine was changed in North Carolina in about six and a half hours by a guy who has his son in the shop with him Not sure how much the sun does. It took the guy about six and a half hours to swap out my engine and transmission to JDM and into my car and the guy that did this is by no means a crackerjack mechanic He's a good guy and a decent mechanic but he's not all that but he does good work and he guessed it would take about 8 hours and he was right on point and he does a lot of engine swaps and a lot of vehicles doesn't matter to him all of those particulars during the day he works at one of the largest salvage operations in this city and they are huge and he's been there about 15 years decent guy
     
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  17. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    Right car is finally at garage getting gasket done, quick inspection reveals very little varnish inside motor so engine flush is doing its job... Mechanic seamed impressed at condition of motor considering mileage.. No real obvious sign of leaking on the gasket apart from a cleaner number 1 piston. IMG_20230421_163506.jpeg IMG_20230421_163910.jpeg IMG_20230421_164845.jpeg IMG_20230421_164215.jpeg

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  18. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    I see scoring on the cylinder wall, on the left.
    He should have looked at ALL the cylinders....

     
  19. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Watch for very common head warping, the reason the gasket is not physically blown. The warping causes very slow hg onset which quickly clears; excessive thermal cycling.
     
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  20. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    First attachment is head specific, warpage spec. Second attachment has any-and-all.