Ok I need some opinions here on the current situation my Blazer is in. About a month ago I began having starting troubles while we were in an extreme cold snap in my area. Took awhile to get the truck started but afterwards would run fine. Prior to this I was having trouble with my heat not working well, so I checked and I was about a gallon low on coolant. Added that and it was fine. During one of the days I noticed antifreeze dripping around the heater hoses. Upon getting the truck started and looking underneath I found antifreeze running down the block. Cut the truck off and let it sit. I thought the problem was the heater hose I noticed coolant around so I changed that. My dad was helping me and when I started it up he saw the antifreeze pouring out the bottom still. So we thought maybe I had blew a freeze plug. Called a local mechanic my dad has used many times to come pick it up and fix it. This is when it gets interesting. upon doing a pressure test he found that the intake gaskets needed to be replaced. He replaced those and then started the truck. He said that it was running rough and checked on of the cylinders and found coolant spitting from the spark plug hole. So he then said I either had bad intake gaskets or a cracked head. He then proceeded to take the heads off to test them and they were ok. He then says he found cracks in atleast one of my cylinders. So he said I needed a new motor. He has ordered that and we are now on week three with my truck still sitting in his shop. So my main question is, "Does this all sound possible?" My truck would run fine at any other time when it was not below 20 degrees. My mechanic said it was not cranking in the extreme cold due to water in the cylinders. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

To me, there are a lot of details that you didn't cover that could lead me to the "new engine" phase.

Cracks in the cylinders... Where were these cracks? In the block? That is highly unusual. In general, the heads will be the first to have heat related cracking, but more typical on these engines is to have the head gaskets fail if the motor has a prolonged exposure to high temperatures (overheating).

The intake manifold gasket is a VERY typical failure given the original gasket design, specifically the materials used. If the updated metal framed gaskets are installed properly, this condition should not reoccur in such a short order. I say "installed properly" because there are a lot of details that need to be followed precisely for a good, lasting seal. Two of the biggest being the torque of the manifold bolts and proper surface finish on the mating surfaces of the heads & lower intake manifold.

A faulty intake manifold gasket can allow coolant to leak into the intake runner at either the front (cylinders 1 & 2) or back (cylinders 5 & 6) as well as into the crankcase, contaminating the oil. Coolant contamination in the oil can lead to bearing failure in the motor. A blown head gasket can also allow coolant to leak into any one of the cylinders depending on the failure point.

A cylinder compression test as well as a leak down test should have been performed prior to removing the heads and intake. This would have indicated if there was a failure in cylinder containment and, if so, the most likely location of the failure.

 

All I can say is that he told my Dad that the cracks were in the cylinders. I never had an overheating problem, just low on coolant. He said he did a pressure test and found the intake gaskets were bad. As far as anything else I do not know. He has been giving us dates when it will be ready but then not meeting them. The not starting when cold started last winter, but the truck ran fine until this happened.

 

I am in a very similar situation with paint work on my truck. It sucks to sit and wait for work to be done, especially when you

As far as the hard start when cold is concerned, fuel pressure is typically the cause of this condition.

 

I had a couple of other mechanics say it was my fuel pump that was causing the hard starting during the cold weather. The mechanic working on my truck said when he found the cracks that there was water in there as well. He states that was what was causing the hard starts. But the coolant leak only started this past month.