Head gasket blown. Pink/orange tapioca. Have a few questions as to cleanup before proceeding.

Backstory: After reading up on here, I have been getting things ready to do the egr clean/replacement maintenance for my two 2010 prius(s). I have collected a bunch of manifolds and coolers from the pick n pull yard and was in the process of cleaning them in my ultrasonic and in various other solution baths. My plan was to keep one extra each on the shelf for the future maintenance. They are all clean as factory new now.

First car (My boy blue) has had the rougher life, came from the midwest and has 174K miles. Did the first attempt swap but I must have messed something up and it threw a ton of new codes. I think i had a gasket unseat or incorrect torque specs leading to a leak. Took me about a week of rewatching videos to get up the confidence after the first attempt and get it all back together correctly.

During this exact time, I was driving my second (Big Red) and it has been running perfect coming close to 200k. I was using it as a reference for tube routing, correct bolts and such. That is when I noticed my fluid was orange. Pulled off the cap and it was tapioca (photos). Grabbed the turkey baster and transferred it to a cup. Thick, greasy, and disappointing. There was no overheating, no death rattle on start up, but did get a p0102 the previous day.

I have watched hours of rebuild videos from all creators (especially the one recommended in the sticky) and think I am ready to start. But none of the videos had my exact situation.

Here is the questions:

How do I go about cleaning the goop out of everything?

Where else will this tapioca be? Inside the radiator? The cylinders?

Has anyone else run across this style of blowout before?

 

I have had it for over 10 years. Regularly maintained. Never used a stop leak. This is a brand new issue. Always used toyota super long life from the dealership.

It is def oil mixed in with coolant.

 

was supposed to be a reply. Cleared due to error.

 

I was getting ready to swap egr cooler and clean the manifold in both. I have cleaned extras from the scrap yard.

Have owned it for over 10 years. No stop leak has ever been in the car.

 

Dumping the goo from the reservoir. The amount of oil mixed in is crazy. My engine has burned oil for years but it never went into the coolant before.

 

Safe to assume this goop is all inside my radiator and water pump too? None in the secondary inverter reservoir though (perfectly pink).

Removed the coolant reservoir and trying to clean as much out of the system as possible.

Suggestions? What would be a cheap alternative coolant to use for flushing?

Did pick up a Combustion Leak Detector today to make sure that a blown head gasket is the issue. Only $27 this month at HF.

 

Water is good. haha.

Are the systems (inverter and main) on different loops? The main coolant reservoir was full of the goop so are the tubes leading to it. But the inverter coolant reservoir is clean and fresh. I am unsure at this point on how to check the radiator. Oil seems to be not be affected either.

 

I am still trying to figure out how the oil got in there. haha It is almost 100 today so going to wait for it to cool down a bit.

 

That would be a welcome theory but I am the 2nd owner and the one person who has maintained it for the past 10+ years. This is the only coolant i have ever put in my prius. Photo 1

This is what has me so confused. What showed up in the coolant is definitely oil based. You can see the separation of the goop in the milk carton. Photo 2

I used a pump to suck out as much as I could from the hoses leading to the reservoir. I cleaned that in the ultrasonic and pressure washed until it was free from all goop.

Would improper coolant (never has been flushed that I know of) make this oily sludge after 10 years of ownership?

 

Here is the todays update.

Took off the gooped up reservoir. I cleaned that in the ultrasonic and pressure washed until it was clear. Used a siphon pump to get the goop out of the hoses leading to the reservoir. Then put is all back together and filled it up with just plain water. I drove it around the block a few times and left the car running for a few hours in the heat just to see if any more goop came into the reservoir.

Tomorrow I will drive it a bit further and run it a bit longer to get a better idea. I will then use the head gasket leak tester to check if I truly have a blown gasket. If that comes up clean, I will flush the system and replace the coolant with Toyota long life and monitor.

I still need to do the clean egr cooler/manifold swap but I don't want to go through all the work to just find out I have to do a head gasket job.

Hopefully this is all been just some weird chemical reaction issue from some wrong coolant being in the system from the first owner over 10 years ago. That would be best case scenario.

Thanks for all the replies so far on this matter.