sudden head gasket failure - or something else?

So this car has a battery from the Australian guy? I'd be interested in knowing about that. The 1 NZ engine is not in any way shape or form known for these kind of antics I can't wait to find out what happened? If the car is in good shape and maybe garaged in Maryland. It may be worth salvaging if you're getting 80 mi to the gallon and hybrid mode never heard of such a thing and 160 mi combined of whatever you're talking about then I would say the car would be worth salvaging unless for some reason it's a rusting away and falling apart My brother lives in Bethesda and some of their old Subarus are still in perfect condition so it's not as bad as Massachusetts or Connecticut which I used to live in many many years ago and would never do again just because cars can't last would be one of the main reasons and fighting the cold. Sounds like an interesting car but changing out a one NZ engine in a Prius is a very easy job so there's always that If this was my personal car here where I live the engine would be out tomorrow so that I could bust it open and see what has happened something doesn't sound correct but there's always that. There are tests you could do you should be having a massive leak somewhere if you're getting oil to mix with the coolant that looks like coffee light from Starbucks that's a pretty big leak for this engine huge actually I would be wondering if something broke internally not just a gasket seepage or leaking. It wouldn't be anything for me to have that torn down in an afternoon just to have a look I would be curious it would be killing me internally to know what has happened I have like four or five of these engines sitting around here in cars at all run all well over 200,000 and none of them have even thought about any problems like this not even close just say I'm shocked as an understatement but I guess like any internal combustion engine this can happen. Wow but I am interested in your battery setup that's kind of cool.

 

I've got about two or three engines here I didn't know they were selling for $1,500 a piece I got mine and cars that cost me a couple of hundred the engine is the least of their problems and that's a very quick change out in the generation too You got to be kidding I mean who are these professionals that don't want to change and want to do a bunch of fixing on an engine that I'm not sure what happened It sound like the head cracked or something or nothing happened in these people want to get your car because their kids thinks it's cool and wants to play with it I don't really have any answers but this is pretty rare for $140,000 mi generation too holy Jesus but you know I've seen people blow up engines with 30,000 miles on them of course there's certain types of people. But just let me know if need to be I can make the arrangements to come get it brother's home for a few months he'll be back out in thousand oaks California and probably 2 and 1/2 months and then it'll be another two or three months till he comes back to Maryland so there's a window when he's around He operates Bates white in DC.

 

Physically look at the heat storage tank It's a silver round thing If it doesn't have any dents in it you don't see water spewing out of it then it's not bad it's just a storage tank It's like a storage tank you'd store water in at your house for storing water except you'd want you know 140 gallons instead of whatever this thing holds. So there's nothing in the tank to really be bad there's a black fitting on the bottom of the tank that's your water inlet and outlet It's plastic If it was broken it would be spewing water all over the place making a mess The only other thing next to the heat storage tank is a little pump that could have got taken out when the curb jumping and all that nonsense was going on If that pump doesn't come on like 5 hours after the car's shut off then I think 11:51 code can be in the mix there's also other ways to test the system for the computer parts of it but that doesn't seem to break very often it would seem to me the pump doesn't come on 5 hours after shutdown and that's a milestone in a Prius shutdown for the generation too It samples that water temperature and notifies you accordingly with this code that you're getting so it may not be pumping the water so it can get a sample read it and not set the code I guess or something similar to this so the thing to do that I need to do with the car that might ex-wife is driving is I need to be around the car at right around the 5-hour mark after shutdown be sitting right next to the left front side of the car luckily hers has a hole in the fender liner I can see the pump and all without doing anything I could put my hand on it at 4 hours and 45 minutes and sit there and wait or rig up a test light on the wires and see when the bulb lights and then if the pump isn't pumping when the bulb lights I know there's a problem our 11:51 code only comes in extremely cold temperatures in the summer time it does not do this code at all The pump and the tank look clean and well not new but very clean no leaks no coolant loss so there can be no problem with the tank unless there was a huge clog in it and a water literally couldn't go in and out of it which I've disconnected it and blown air in and out of the tank without any problems nothing high pressure just you know 5 PSI in 5 PSI coming out on the gauge You can hear it everything is clear and there is a temp sensor on the tank It is remotely possible that could be bad or not reading properly possibly set some kind of code for that I don't know if it would be 11:51 or what but if you're already looking at all this you might test that temperature sensor right at the storage tank I have plenty of these storage tanks here I wouldn't pay $2,500 for anybody to do anything with the storage tank That's a job for the Amoco monkeys if you remember commercials in the automobile industry.

 

No that's not the coolant pump you hear when the car is off that's the inverter pump that's right behind the coolant heat storage tank pump which is right next to your inverter You can reach down and touch it That's the pump that comes on when you open the door along with the ABS pump pumping which is the brakes the coolant heat storage tank pump seems to me from what I've read and I haven't done extensive reading because I don't have the three manual set in my hand yet The coolant heat storage tank pump will come on 5 hours almost to the letter after the car was turned off in the driveway or on the moon or wherever you are so you get to your house you turn your car off you lock the door and go in your house at 4:00 in the afternoon at 9:00 p.m. that coolant heat storage tank pump is going to turn on and it sounds like it's going to sample the water and if it doesn't see a temperature that it likes when you turn the car on it's going to set that 11:51 code now you can go get the factory manual get the troubleshooting section for the coolant heat storage tank and read letter for letter what the deal is but the only things in the system are some computer The coolant heat storage tanks temperature measuring unit or temperature sending unit and this pump the tank itself and the related hoses so I doubt you're hearing the CHS pump running even if you went out to the car at 4 hours and 45 minutes after shutdown sat in a little stool next to the left front wheel and waited by the time you hit the fifth hour plus or minus in a minute maybe You should hear the CHS pump command on some water would move through one of the tubes It would be somewhat warm It would be sampled by whatever samples the temperature or whatever the cars computers looking for and then turn off these pumps are pretty quiet You might even have to put your hand on the fender to feel the vibration You have not opened the door or done anything to the car preferably left the remote in the house and all you're doing is sitting by the left front wheel right where the coolant heat storage tank and the pump in the temperature sender are located and you're waiting for on the 5th hour plus or minus 60 or 70 seconds that that pump comes on If it doesn't in the manual it explains why wouldn't win I imagine you would replace the pump it's a 12 volt little tiny circulation pump looking device.

 

The tank is a thermos of some sort. Has anybody cut one open to see what is inside? A lunchbox thermos is usually glass on the inside with a vacuum between the inside and outside surfaces. If the Prius tank is the same then in a crash the glass might break. Tiny pieces could enter the coolant loop where I suppose they could damage the main water pump, the little pump under the tank, and the three way valve. The error code doesn't reflect any of those failures though. The glass bits might also jam up cooling passages in the engine.

The thing is, on searching, I could not find a single post where anybody described having glass in their coolant. Lots of Prius's have been in crashes worse than the OP's and repaired. Suggests to me that the thermos has some other form of construction, maybe metal on both surfaces with plastic insulating pads between them?

It might be worth doing a close inspection of the hoses underneath the tank. If one of those is pinched, or if the little pump down there is running but not at full capacity, maybe the car cannot distinguish between that and a bad thermos?

 

No I believe it's double wall the aluminum or steel construction You can take the fitting off the bottom which is very much like a well t EE. I don't see how the tank could be messed up unless it was in an accident and was real dented and that might could impede flow I believe this thing is built like a yeti cup or Tumblr water hat water goes through it or it doesn't I know I don't think it is glass lined I've dropped a few a couple of times and nothing seemed to break like an old style thermostat was glass lined back in the day I don't even think they glass line hot water heaters and stuff like that anymore I think those days have been gone for a minute. I can't imagine Toyota doing something like that but would be wild I would think if the thing is not acting right it would be the pump or that sending unit the temp sender that screwed into the tank itself I believe they're testable.

 

Umm, unless I'm missing something, the inverter coolant pump does not run when the car is off – it only runs when the car is IG-ON or READY. On the other hand, the heat storage tank pump runs when you first turn the car on when making it READY and then again when you turn the car off.

 

Whot ever runs wen ya open doors etc walk up to car etc usually that's the brake pump the inverter pump whatever I don't think you will hear the CHS pump or the heater booster pump that's up in between the brake master cylinder and actuator on the generation 2 the 14.1 volt pump and the CHS pump are pretty dang quiet You are some hearing somebody if you're hearing those pumps I have a CHS pump running as my inverter pump It's almost dead silent what I hear more than anything when I open the doors or get near the car any of that nonsense is the break actuator pump pumping the fluid The brake fluid likes a little rattling noise. But anyway if you read the instructions for troubleshooting the CHS system it talks about something happening at 5 hours after parking that's the big thing seemingly with the CHS system is after 5 hours of being parked the pump comes on something samples water that comes out of that CHS tank at the 5-hour mark a computer I would imagine see something it doesn't like like the pump not coming on it can't sample the water temperature something and then when you turn the car on you get this 1151 code least that's somewhat of the way I understand it I have not taken the time yet to mess with the silver car which has the 1151 problem sometimes in certain weather seems to be when it's real cold when it's warm out it never sets the code I have to literally go out to the car at 4 hours and 45 minutes and sit there and wait and listen and touch the CHS pump for 15 minutes to see if it comes on at the 5-hour mark after shutdown I just haven't done that so when I do do that and the pump doesn't come on between 4 hours and 45 minutes and 5 hours and say 2 minutes after the 5 hours then the pump is probably broken and not moving the liquid If it does come on then what the sensor's bad or the computer that samples the information from the sensor is bad possibly.

 

While it is true the CHRS pump may run after five hours to check some temperature-related things, it definitely runs at shutdown to store hot coolant that is in turn pumped back into the engine at the next startup so, on those two occasions you would hear the pump run.

Yeah, the whatever pump is the accumulator pump. The inverter pump starts when you hit the Power button to go to IG-ON or READY. A few seconds later, the CHRS pump runs to transfer the hot coolant back into the engine block.

Whether you can hear them or not is not really the point. The information is for the benefit of the OP.

I understand you don't care too much for details, but that generally does help people who are new to all this and it can be confusing and even daunting for them when they are trying to get their head around a lot of new terms. Heck, I can barely follow a lot of your posts due to you calling things whatever you feel like calling them on the day. That's why I feel the need to clarify for the sake of the OP and others who follow along later and read this thread.

 

I care very much for details I have a car open right now that I'm dealing with some of this on trying to figure out what's going on with this system actually have two cars here with the front bumper cover off and so on so I can see and watch for this pump to run I just haven't had time to go out at the 4:45 Mark to 5.01 hr wise to view . I do know what I can hear run when I open the car door when I shut the car off walk away from it and all of that I have a car with everything exposed right now as well as hear it run I can actually reach my hand in and touch it because the car is one of them is so open but anyway the coolant heat storage tank is just a tank with no bladder in it I believe it's kind of double walled like a yeti cup If I have to go slice one in half and post pictures of it I guess we could do that just to destroy one for the hell of it. Like I say the code on the cars that I've had the code on looks very much temperature dependent like what's going on outside in the weather when it's nice and warm out like in spring and summer and North Carolina this car that's sitting right here that gets this code in the winter without hesitation. 1151 but all spring and summer nothing dashboards clear not an amber light in place nothing not a stored code hidden nothing as soon as it gets cold Bam in the morning only 11:51 car drives get the same gas mileage nothing happens just that code. Spring summer nothing all spring and summer this car is driven year round rarely sits.

 

On an '09 car with no codes and no problems car driven running everyday only code on the dash is the PO420 for the catalyst below threshold has been on for years Right now the front bumper cover is off the car as I just bolted on two new front fenders when I walked out to the car for the first time this morning 20 minutes ago open the door remote is already in the car it's where it's kept opening the door yields nothing stepping on the brake yields the accumulator pump obviously stepping on the brake and pushing the power button yields the CHRS pump on and then as soon as the engine starts seconds later my hand is on the CHRS pump and it seemingly off My inverter pump is on but the engine's running so obviously you can't hear it but my hand is on it and I can feel it running The pump that's in between the master cylinder and the accumulator pump for the heat doesn't seem to be running but I do not have the heat on. The engine runs I don't know about a minute and a half and then it turns off My hand is on the CHRS pump it's not running My inverter pump is and the pump for the heat is not with the engine off now I reach in and push the power button and turn the car off because I'm finished with this test so by the manual 5 hours from now that CHRS pump should come on and buy what it says in the description I thought I read was that it will sample the water to see if it's some kind of temperature it gives a number range and then shut off and then when you turn the car on if what it sampled wasn't in the range it's supposed to see you get the 11:51 code I don't have that portion or any portion of the manual to read this is what somebody had put online from the manual I do believe or portions thereof the whole test isn't there I don't have the three books set yet for this car.

 

Right, the CHRS pump runs briefly before starting the engine, to transfer the hot coolant from the thermos into the engine to speed warmup. Once that job is done, the engine can start and the CHRS pump can stop. The CHRS pump runs again briefly when you turn the car off, to store the engine's hot coolant in the thermos, and stops when that job is done.

So sure, you can learn some of this by playing with the power button and feeling with your hand, but you can learn more of it by reading where it's already explained in the manual, or where someone who already learned it has already posted. That can save you time, and also keep a forum thread a little shorter and clearer for other people also trying to learn.

So maybe dolj shouldn't have said exactly that you don't care for details. Reminds me a little of an autobiographical thing a friend of mine wrote from a rough time in her life: "But I do believe it. It's just that he does one thing about love and I do something different altogether." Maybe it's just that you do one thing when you care about details, when there's other stuff other people do when they care about details. And fairly often we see threads where you have some car open where you're dealing with trying to figure out what's going on, and see you'd be making that less hard for yourself if you'd do a little more of that other stuff.