head gasket?

There are 3 expensive things that will eventually fail on the 3rd gen

Brake booster $1000 part
HV battery $2000 part
Head gasket $300 parts needed

So just the new parts alone without labor will run you over $3000. You can possibly get used parts but you'll have to redo the labor if the used part fails again. If the car's condition is still good, then maybe it's worthwhile to fix it. But if it's in poor shape, lots of rust, bad paint, other broken parts etc, then you may have to possibly junk it.

All the other failures will be common failures with cars over 10 years old. So if you bought a car without any of the 3 items addressed, it'll be quite an expense to get the car running again.

 

Burning 1 quart in less than 1000 miles is pretty severe. You might want to address that while you're taking apart the engine for the head gasket. That oil buring is just going to get worse

 

Burning a lot of oil... Maybe a complete remanufactured engine?
Hybrid pit sells them for around $2300.00.

 

Junk it. It is not worth fixing with 229k miles.

How much did you buy it for?

 

Instead of the hiss test - they make a combustion gasses test kit that's sold at most auto parts stores. It comes with a blue liquid and a squeeze bulb. You use it on the radiator to suck in from the coolant overflow tank and the fluid turns green if there's combustion gasses in your coolant. YouTube some of the videos.

 

That rarely works for the Prius, because the coolant leaks INTO the cylinder and
is blown out the exhaust.
A bore scope can look inside the cylinder and see what the piston looks like.
Along with a coolant system pressure test. With pressure on the system it's very
likely you'll see the coolant dripping into the cylinder, usually #1 and/or #2.

 

Boroscope inspection of the cylinders, preferably with the cooling system pressurized, to accelerate coolant leakage past head gasket, is what a lot are using. Or leak-down test.

Another test: with 229K and presumably EGR never cleaned, it's virtually guaranteed you have a blown head gasket. Cars of that vintage and condition, for sale, often have a stop-leak product in the coolant, a short-term mask of symptoms.

Between that and the oil-burning, and overall condition, maybe swap in a salvage engine?

Consider too, just walking away from it, sell for scrap value. How much did you pay for it?

 

I'm trying seafoam, for 3 oil changes. 4oz before changing and ran for 4-500 miles
before changing. And now I'm trying the Valvoline Restore and Protect oil. It's only
$5 more per oil change. And they said it will "restore" the engine in 3 straight oil changes.
I've got 3000 miles on the first change now, and I just added 1qt.
And I've been driving faster than I usually drive and using about the same amount, so it's an improvement
so far.
But I'm not sold just yet. I'll wait for the next 2 changes and see what happens.
Since 90% of my driving is highway, and usually 2-3 hours at a time, it will get plenty of time
to continuously "clean" the engine.
If it doesn't work, I'm only out about $25.00. It's worth the chance.

 

Like I said just take your boriscope whether you buy it rent It whatever looking cylinder one and two you can look at the Piston all you want but look down and then up at the head gasket on the exhaust edge which is the edge that faces you when you're sitting in the car and there's where you'll see your water droplets they'll be there more than likely.

 

Thermal somebody another makes this two-part sealer you pour one part in then you put the other and you take your thermostat out. And do it all like the label says it might work for a couple years you got really nothing to lose you're talking about spending piles of money if this works for you for a few months then so be it. It's worked quite well for a few people.

 

You need a brake booster AND a high end scanner needed to bleed and calibrate the brake booster assembly.

A new oem hybrid battery is possible for $2k but usually is more like $2.5k installed. It does require some disassembly of the hv battery assembly as you keep your original battery ecus, cables and fans. Of the known issues this one has a variety of used and aftermarket options, all of which are a bad idea for reliability and in one case, safety.

With excessive oil burning due to flawed pistons and rings, you need a replacement engine. JDM used or professionally rebuilt. Installed $2500–$7500 depending on shop and used vs rebuilt. Rebuilt is your best bet as many “low mile” JDM engines used in Japan prove to be US salvage with the US vin plate removed. Rebuilt allows for revised pistons and rings that Toyota implemented mid 2014.

There are other issues that are common as well such as clogging of radiators and heater cores if stop leak was used to water pumps and wheel bearings. Egrs clog and oil burning clog $1800 cats.

I would punt.

 

Check ebay. You can find a bore scope for $20 or so that works with your phone or iPad.

 

Chemicals won’t fix these low tension rings. Many have tried, some have used everything out there. B12 Piston Soak reduced consumption for one YouTube guy who tried every product and changed the valve oil seals. But he finally resigned himself to a rebuild.

It would not be so bad putting in a quart every two fillups if it did not ultimately clog the $2,000 cat. Some run out of oil a few times between changes.

 

See post #10