Let me start off by introducing myself, my name is Jordan, I just signed up for membership and from what I've browsed so far, seems like an awesome place with some great, knowledgable people. I appreciate any help or suggestions that can be thrown my way.

With that said, I'm no mechanic, however not terribly inept when it comes to this kind of topic...so please bear with me.
I'll start off by saying I own a 1998 Bravada, I understand it's not a blazer, however much of the mechanics should be quite similar besides the obvious smart track setup (which I hate)

Here's the story: I pulled off the inlet and outlet tube for my heater core in order to blow out any debris in attempt to hopefully get a little more heat out of the thing, been extremely cold here in central PA over the past few weeks. So, of course, I pull off the tubes, and the (brown ) coolant blows everywhere, as expected. So I get out my trusty garden hose and start alternating between the inlet and outlet, trying to reverse the typical flow in order to break up as much sediment as possible. Needless to say, water is blowing everywhere in the engine bay, soaking absolutely everything. Keep in mind, this vehicle has 197,000 miles on it, I highly doubt shes as sealed up under there as once she once was.

I connect the tubes back on the heater core inlets, start it, let it run for a short amount of time to circulate the remaining coolant. I shut the vehicle off, and top off the radiator to compensate for the coolant lost when pulling the tubes in the first place. I start it back up, and drive it down the road. It starts blowing a little heat, which was a suprise. It was about 20 degrees out at this time.

I shut the vehicle off and had a beer with my buddy at the bar, I come out about a half hour later, and it turns about 4 or 5 times, completely stops, turns once or twice, stops, turns a few more times, stops...very inconsistent. It is NOT the battery, I hooked jumpers up to it while trying to start it. In between cranking, the lights completely turn off, and back on, like i'm completely losing a connection somewhere. On top of that, i started to see smoke from somewhere around the starter area. I let it sit for a day, went back to see if maybe by some miracle, it would start. Same thing, and it sounds very weird when its cranking, like the timing is not correct. It then proceded to make somewhat of a backfire noise from what sounded to be from in the intake area.

Needless to say, I'm lost. and without a vehicle. I really apologize about the length, but I wanted to provide with as much info as possible. So, if anyone can make it through the novel I just wrote, and offer any piece of advice besides taking it to the local scrap yard, I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks everyone, and please, any suggestion helps.

 

Definitely check all the wires around the starter then... totally possible in a vehicle that old that you got some coolant drenched exposed wiring. that would absolutely be my first guess.

 

looks good around the starter? check starter solenoid, then relay

 

Problem found! Thank you for the replies. Diagnosed a little further after putting the battery on the charger for a bit, checked out the distributer cap and it was pretty corroded, replaced it and it fired right up. Now my new problem, my transmission is gone. Still moves in drive, no reverse. About ready to give up. Anyone know what trannies will bolt up to this? Will the blazer and jimmy transmissions work? I know there may be some different plugs or setups, maybe something to do with the smart trak?

 

I am surprised that you got that transmission to last 197k. IIRC it should be a 4l60E, but I am not 100 percent sure on that. I think some of them came with a 4l65E. They are pretty common, you should be able to get a used one fairly in expensively. If it is in your budget I would shoot for a new one and not have to replace it for a long time.