So a buddy that I work with bought a 92 S10 4 door 2WD Blazer for his daughter's first car (4.3L, not TBI). I have been helping him get it into shape to be a safe, reliable vehicle for her. So far I have replaced the water pump, cap/rotor/plugs/wires (took longer than the water pump...lol) and the shocks (took even longer thanks to a snapped bolt requiring a junkyard run the next day ).

Next up are new front swaybar end-links (one is broken), and fixing an oil leak. This is where it is getting interesting and I need your help.

I have tracked the oil leak down to one of two lines running from a plate at the oil filter to the radiator. Clearly this is an oil cooling system, but every place we call and everything I have found online only has oil coolant lines for 4wd Blazers.

The pictures that I have seen for the 4wd lines have moth ends of the lines connected to each other. On his truck, the lines are of course very close at the filter, but at the radiator one connects toward the top and the other toward the bottom, no where near close to one another.

My questions are:
Was an oil cooling system available on the 2wd blazers, or is this some aftermarket system that was installed later?
If it was available, does anyone know where to get replacement lines?
If it's aftermarket, are we screwed?

I don't have any pictures, as at the time of finding the leak I didn't forsee it being this difficult to find the parts. I will try to get him to bring it over so I can get some if that will help.

Our last resort at this point will be to just pull the lined and go buy some bolts that match the threads and just block off the system, but I would rather just fix it.

Thanks for your help!

(PS: I did search and went through several pages without finding any answers, I am a newb here, but not to cars or automotive forums )

 

Could you just have some lines made?

 

We might be able to, but I would have to find a place that could do it, and we were hoping to make this a relatively quick Friday night fix.

 

I suspect that the parts stores are not looking for the right part. These are the cooler lines, not the remote filter lines.

I have never seen them on a 2wd, but that does not mean that it A) was not offered or B) was not something someone put on there from a 4wd. A 2wd should have the filter on the side of the engine block.

Have you decoded the RPO codes? Have you checked at the dealer parts counter?

 

No and no. We are going to stick with fixing the swaybar for now and I am going to get a better look at what I am dealing with on Friday. I'll get some pics too and see about checking the RPO code.

From what I saw, it did not look like the filter was relocated at all, just looked like there was a plate between the filter and the block that the lines came out of. The filter is on the driver's side at the back of the engine and is installed vertically, strait up and down.

 

Heck, then just remove the plate and screw the filter onto the block directly. With modern oils, you really do not need to cool the engine oil.

 

That's kind of what we are leaning towards at this point. I'll be able to make a decision once I get under there again and get a good look at everything.

 

I have a 4x4 myself.

after 2 replacements with OEM parts which started to leak again just after the warranty on the parts expired I got them fixed in a shop who does hydraulic hoses for construction or industrial equipment.

Nice stainless steel webbed type Teflon hoses with threaded joints mounted onto the original aluminium connectors.

Need to be heat resistant hoses up to 150 °C. The pressure is never a problem.

Solved the problem nicely with the advantage that they can be removed and taken apart.

 

Well, worked on it Friday night. Looks like a factory system to me. Two metal lines come out of the adapter at the oil filter, they run through a clamp attached to the power steering pump then change to rubber hose, then back to metal and one attached to the top of the radiator, the other to the bottom.

The leak was coming from the lower line where it goes from rubber back to metal. Somebody at some point clamped a piece of rubber over it to try and stop the leak (apparently this had been on there for years).

I ended up pulling the lines off completely. I pulled the adapter and found that there were no threads for the filter aside from on the adapter, so I had to plug the in and out on the adapter and reinstall. I couldn't find any plugs at the time do I ended up cutting the lines and flattening them then folding them over a couple of times and pounding them flat with my BFH, then reinstalling...lol.

 

Hi ssracer,

You may want to have a look at this "Build" thread I opened. Now with the pics added.

https://blazerforum.com/forum/showth...777#post212777

The original lines are built very cheaply. It is all Aluminium and once I took it apart I was tempted to try a cheap repair simply cutting down the original pressed aluminium outer cage and use two clamps instead. Then I went on using hydraulic fittings as the cost was the same as an OEM replacement.

Good luck