It drove perfect and had no issues when I test drove it. Paid for it and started randomly bogging out when accelerating on the way home. Then the smell started..Nasty burnt antifreeze smell. Yeah!!!! Went to give this thing a tune up and realized how much of a pain in the but working on anything for this vehicle is. Glad I found this forum because I am going to tackle it all myself.I think the guy put sawdust in the coolant to hide a heater core leak. Feels like sawdust anyways..man does that dex cool stink!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Welcome, you've definitely come to the right place to find guidance in solving your problems!

 

welcome to the family !!! it's very common for the heater core to rot out , it sucks but it is what it is .. just periodically flushing the cooling system won't prevent it either , you have to actually pull the hoses off the core at the firewall and flush it out with a good strong water pressure .. this doesn't help you now but...... for now at least you can just loop the lines around so it doesn't leak anymore until you replace it :/

 

Welcome! from the west coast of New Zealand.
Any pics?

 

1997 green. no pics yet. No fogging and no antifreeze in car? SMELLS horrible! I have had cores go in other cars but this smell is eye watering. I can't get the stink off of my hands from touching the radiator cap. WTF. I am going to try to get the engine running 1st then worry about the core since the heat works fine. What is more common of an issue the fuel pump or the regulator? Wish me luck. ITS FREEZING HERE IN DETROIT. Thanks for the welcome.

 

*moved to 2nd gen tech*

 

I find these truck are very easy to work on if you know the trick like you can acess bout anything on the side of the engine through the frame wells(plugs). Just pull the steering shaft to get to the last one its only one 11mm bolt.

As for the bogging when you got the plugs out check to see if they sell like antifreeze. If they do you may have eather a intake or head leak.

PS Welcome to BF from IOWA

 

Better check your oil too to see if any coolant/water is leaking into the crankcase if it does happen to have a blowed gasket. Moisture will also show up under the oil fill cap too if it's in the crancase. People used to put anything into the radiator to stop a leak long enough to sell, I've heard of putting black pepper in there, or some different types of "radiator stop leak". Is the coolant the "normal" color or does it look brownish looking? There is a stop leak product that will make the water/coolant turn brownish and make it smell funny.

 

yes its brown and stinks. This guy got me really good. Now I found a huge puddle of gas under the tank and a major oil leak. I bought a hunk of crap I think.s

 

Did you get it from an individual or dealer? Some states have different laws concerning issues like this and they may be different if bought from a dealer rather an individual. Sounds like it has some of that "pellet" type stop leak in it, stuff works but doesn't "fix" the problem, just postpones it. gas leak could be lines. Check the simplest things first.