Hello

I have been searching a bit, but can't find a similar post..

Monday night it snowed like the dickens here in St. Louis. My cousin and I went out, to find some parking lots. We found them and had our fun.. for like 2 hours.

Blazer ran fine the whole time, no problems. Got home no problems. parked it, and slept.

Tuesday, uncle asks me to move it out of the driveway so he can get out. This was about 11AM. I go out and it starts up no problem. It doesn't sound or feel any different mechanically than it ever did. Drove itaround the cul-de-sac and parked it in front of the house. Fast forward to 5:30PM (same day - yesterday) and I go to start it. It just sits and cranks. Won't turn over! I'm thinking "oh great I forgot to put more gas in it after playing.." (I have the bad sending unit in gas tank) So I go fill up a 5 gallon gas can and empty it into the blazer. Try to start, no go. I put some "heet" in the tank with the gas, thinking maybe it's froze up somewhere. No effect. I'm at a loss!

Assuming nothing mechanically is wrong with it... Why would this happen? Could my truck still be half-frozen?

Thanks for any advice.

-Jeremy

 

what was the temp reading when you were "playing" as far as the engine temp

 

All readings were normal all night.

Update:
After browsing the forums more, and reading some unrelated (maybe? maybe not.. ) topics, I had an epiphany. I realized that I was not hearing the all too familiar "whine" of the fuel pump kicking on.. I went out and tested this theory. Correct! Fuel pump is not initializing for whatever reason... Is it possible the thing could have gotten, literally, "froze up?" (there were copious amounts of frozen packed snow all over the undercarriage in different spots..)

At any rate, I tried the "temporary fix" I read here on the forums, having someone turn the ignition to start, but not crank it, and then I started tapping on the gas tank with a rubber mallet. Bingo! all the sudden fuel pump starts whining, and truck fires right up..

Obviously I will need to have this replaced. I called the shop that I used when I had the lower ball joints replaced, and they quoted me at "a couple hours" and "$625." They said they will be using "AC-Delco OEM replacement parts."

Is this a reasonable price for the work? Also I have no idea what size gas tank I have. It's been so long since I filled it up to the top and I never let it go completely empty anyway... Any ideas on how I can tell?

Sorry I made a useless post, but I swear I was searching forEVER on here before I did!!!

-Jeremy

 

Jeremy, Thanks for the post you made, Useless Post, Not to me . As for the New pump and labor? Hummm, Why not do-it-yourself ? Could save some cash.

 

That doesn't sounds like too bad of a price, but yeah, you could DIY it. Depends on how the fasteners, etc look underneath.

 

I wish I could I've been reading about it on here since I figured out what was going on and it seems fairly straight forward and relatively "painless" as long as you can follow instructions..

My problem is I live at my aunt and uncle's house, and for one there isn't any real "room" to do this.. for two, they are both... "older".. and wouldn't appreciate me tearing apart my gas tank in front of their house... haha.

Soooooo.. I'm faced with having to pay to have it done.. But I guess it's a good opportunity to just get a bunch of stuff that needs to be done, taken care of..

- Seal around the driver door is corroded.. horrible wind noise.
- coolant flush
- tighten up the steering a bit (a lot of play in the steering wheel)
- tighten down the passenger side windshield wiper (starts "hovering" at highway speeds)
- Maybe some new tires.. Been reading that I can put 30" on stock wheels? Sounds like fun! but I would hate to take away from my stellar gas mileage

I dunno.. If it's gonna go in the shop again, it's gonna come out gleaming.

Any input you guys can give me, I'll absorb like a sponge. Promise!

-Jeremy

 

Well i am having the same problem, What did you pour in your tank? "heet". I tried pounding on my tank didnt work for me I went out playin in the snow yesterday, Pulled back in my garage come out today No Whine let me know about the Heet stuff

 

I can't definitively say that the "heet" helped.. I picked it up at walmart initially and added it, as the undercarriage of my truck was packed with snow that had frozen solid, so I figured I had frozen my gas (it did get down to 15 on top of that..) or something..
I didn't even think of the fuel pump until I was reading and digging earlier. I was focused on the snow aspect and not on the problem of it not starting in general.

I noticed that banging on the gas tank was all about timing. I guess you have to tap right under it, right when it's supposedly being initialized... when I did it that way, it buzzed back to life. I used a rubber mallet and hit it under one of the "Bands" on the tank (towards front of vehicle).

I had to have my cousin turn the key while I tapped. I would suggest getting someone to help you tag-team it real quick.

-Jeremy

 

Gasoline will not freeze in normal temperatures (not even in the Arctic). Heet is just alcohol and absorbs water. So if heet helped, you had water in your fuel. Here's to hoping that was your problem!

 

I had added the heet the night before.. and I was pretty sure that I had run the tank almost empty.. the heet itself may or may not have played a part.. can't really say for sure. I'll tell you what helped:

I hit the gas tank with a mallet right when my cousin turned the ignition to "on." then you heard the fuel pump buzz back to life.