1. TroyPrius

    TroyPrius New Member

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    Hello,

    First, the history: 2011 Prius with 250K miles on it. It has been doing the morning rattle and shake in the mornings for a long time but other than that was working fine. About 1000 miles ago the hose to the HVAC going inside the cabin came off while driving. I nursed it home, trying not to get it overheated by stopping to cool down and adding water. Fixed that issue and seemed like everything was fine for about 1000 miles.
    One day it died after driving it for about 100 feet. Noticed the coolant was gone so I thought the head gasket finally went so I took it apart planning to replace the head gasket. While taking it apart, a lot of coolant came out of the intake manifold. The oil was fool of coolant.
    At this point, I am not sure if the head gasket could cause all this or am I looking at another issue.

    The head gasket (see attached images) does not appear to me to be causing all the coolant in the oil but I don't know.
    Any suggestions?

    Thank you,

    Troy

    5.jpg 4.jpg 3.jpg 2.jpg 1.jpg
     
  2. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    Rust on the top of your pistons is NEVER a good sign. Neither is the clogged water jackets on that gasket, in the block. Someone dumped 'stop leak' into it?

    IMHO; I'd look for another car. Even if your able to fix this with a head gasket, there's a good chance something is bent and you'll have cooling system issues in the summer months. Mainly due to the stop leak blocking your coolant system and making your heat exhangers inefficient. Coolant in the intake could be a leak in the EGR cooler. Other issues may also be present; cracked and/or warped head and/or block; since the car has been running w/o coolant. When you blew the heater hose, you pumped all the coolant out of your engine and radiator. It has an electronic water pump, so as soon as your key-on; it fires up that pump.

    Sorry...
     
  3. TroyPrius

    TroyPrius New Member

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    Thank you.
    There was never any stop leak added to it.

    Troy
     
  4. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    The change or rebuild engine light just came on.
    The path that the coolant took to get to the oil sump probably didn't happen because of something in the HVAC loop. ;)

    A head gasket is like a circuit breaker - or more appropriately, a fuse.
    In Priuses they don't fail because 'the head gasket went bad.'
    The head gasket was gasketing, and trying to keep your bottom end from hydro-locking.
    THAT is what all the shaking was about (Prius Death Rattles are......aptly named.)
    If the coolant passages are clogged with pepper, bars-leak, unicorn hoof shavings or whatever was used in an attempt to keep the coolant from getting into the oil - then I'd just get a replacement motor, rebuild it, and THEN fix whatever got all of this started in the first place - probably the EGR loop and/or intake.

    I'm not a good enough wrench to know if you can unclog coolant passages, but for an engine with Lunar mileage?
    I would not want to bet a rebuild's worth of time, parts, and sweat-equity on finding out.

    Good Luck!
     
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  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    The head gasket does have coolant to cylinder compromise on all but cylinder 4. That's not a happy engine.
     
  6. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    15 years and 250K miles is a good run for "any" car...if you catch my drift.
     
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  7. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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  8. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    Can you explain the discoloration in the block coolant, #1-2 vs #3-4, counting from top to bottom. Pictures 2-4. There was definitely something going on for that discoloration and build-up to take place on just those two cylinders. Looks like calcium deposits, water instead of antifreeze; but weird thing is that it didn't effect #3-4. Those two running hotter than the later or is it just the angle of the picture?
     
    #8 BiomedO1, Apr 10, 2026 at 4:51 PM
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2026 at 4:57 PM