My 98 Blazer has close to 200,000 miles and I have just discovered antifreeze coming out of the edge of the intake manifold. I found the leak because of the new lifter noise that is driving my wife crazy, and the noise is only when it's cold, and goes away on most trips. I am not sure where to buy my parts as well as if I should replace the lifters or not. If I just fix the intake gasket will that help the lifter? I saw a yellow Fram colored oil filter on my motor and read a post that got me worried about paper filter coming apart and clogging up lifters as well as it saying the oil filter may have a check valve in it that keeps the oil in the lifter. I have got to get this car perfect as my wife is already shopping for another SUV. I need torque specs, parts, and questioned answered about the lifters, and hesitation or miss that I have had. My friend said EGR valves on GM are often the reason for hesitation from complete stops which is why my service light was coming on last month but it has since cleared up on its own, even though I replaced the plugs and wires hoping that would help, but now I have to fix it while the intake gets pulled. I wish I could let my friend do it for me but he is sloppy and the last 2 jobs things come loose after he had done it and he wouldn't warranty nothing and I had to pay the wrecker for dragging my car halfway across Texas. His words were I was lucky. I wonder if anybody else has had lifter noises that went away after the coolant was filled back up, and or intake gasket replaced?
Any answers welcome David

 

Your lifter noise could be as simple as coolant leaking into your oil. The coolant will thin out the oil and cause lifter noise due to improper lubrication.

Of course if it has gone on for to long then there could be damage done to the lifter/s and it will need to be repaired. I got lucky on my 01 blazer and the lifter chatter stopped immediately when I changed the gasket and the oil and filter.

Telling us what the engine diagnostic code was will go a long way to helping with the hesitation issue as there could be dozens of things that can cause it. Even though the light is now off there is still a good chance that the code has been stored.

At 200k miles clearing up hesitation can be as simple as a good cleaning of the intake which you would do when you replace your upper and lower gasket sets. Or as difficult as running tests on a dozen different parts.

So I would advise changing the leaky gasket first along with the usual cleaning of the intake which includes the EGR, IAC, PCV hoses ect... and seeing where your list of problems stand from there. At that mileage a good cleaning of your oil system isn't a bad idea either and can clear up some hesitation all on it's own sometimes.

 

thanks AWE341 for your response.
I'am still so worried about the lifter noise I am going to pull the valve covers first and try to locate the noise and possibly replace that lifter only, with the intake manifold gasket. And yes I think a good cleaning on the throttle body and EGR is overdue as it has never been done. This should be easy as long as the warm weather holds out.
DAvid

 

well that job is long gone, the cheap Advanced lifters all are great. the light came on with the repair and now I am convinced the catalytic converter failed at the same time this gasket was leaking and got replaced. I know it smoked badly upon start up but I have replaced the front 2 O2 sensors and after 300 miles the code came right back inefficient catalytic converter. It already has had it cat. replaced once already now I am having it done again.

 

I also have a 98 blazer that is fully loaded. My wife was driving it a while ago and she felt a shutter. She stopped and shut the vehicle off right away. I ended up towing it home to be on the safe side. and when i got it hear i started it to back it off of the roll back. It was running ok but with a hesitation, and it sounded ruff. I parked it and pulled the oil nut, the oil was a milky color. I immediately thought head gasket. After doing some research i found out it was most likely the intake gasket, i am replacing mine in a few hours. but to make sure with yours i would call a garage that is trustworthy and just ask a few questions. If you need the specs and patters to tighten things down i can give you all of that information without a problem. Good luck.