I got a 96 blazer 4x4 with the 4.3 engine and was wondering what temperature should my vehicle be running at on my dash? I think I might have a over heating issue cause it warms up faster than before and the temp on the dash is hotter than before.

I had this brown thick gummy substance in my engine coolant reseviour which I just flushed out. Someone said chances are my head gasket is blown but I checked the oil dip stick and cap for milky substance and found nothing.
I opened the rad cap and its a nice neon green fluid in there with no traces of oil.

What im wondering is maybee before my vehicle wasnt running as hot as it should be and it was all gunked up someone and now its flushed out and running at normal operating temperature. Or the temp it was before was correct and now I have an over heating issue.

Before I would have to drive with the heat on constantly to stay warm but now I dont.

Anyways enough babbling and now time for some replys. As I am a noob to blazers and not really mechanically enclined but I can do mechanical stuff if I follow directions.

Any help and info you guys send my way I thank you.

Oh and forgot to mention that another friend suggested my thermostat is out of whack and needed replacing to cure the temp issues

 

The temp gauge should be about half way or straight up.

Air in the system is the likely cause of the crudy coolant. If the radiator cap were faulty or there was a leak in a gasket, air would be allowed into the system and it would not properly maintain pressure. The same thing can happen with the new coolant if the problem is not corrected.

I would start with a new t-stat and a new radiator cap. Both are cheap insurance against a potential cooling system problem.

You can also have your system pressure tested to see if there is a leak somewhere else.

The lower intake manifold gaskets are a known sore spot on these engines. If you find that they are faulty, get the updated Felpro design with the metal gasket carrier. The plastic ones were prone to failure due to water absorption in the carrier.

 

When you say pressure test is this something I could do myself? Where would I do the pressure test?
Someone told me to do a compression test on the spark plugs to check and see if its the head gasket so that is something im gonna go buy at princess auto. Is that what you mean when you say pressure test?

Also if you got a link about changing the tstat that would be awesome.

 

A cooling system pressure test typically is done at the radiator cap with a modified cap that has a provision for adding pressure to the system and a gauge for monitoring the pressure. The system needs to maintain 15-16psi for proper operation. You should be able to find the required parts at most Autoparts stores.

 

Kewl thanks for all the info and it helped. This morning I dropped it off at the mechanics for an inspection so im sure they are gonna do the tests and find out the problem for me.

I was searching on this website and seen in alot of threads that if air gets in the system and with the dex-cool it creates the gummy substance. It also show a picture of the brown liquid which is exactly what I have or had in the reseviour coolant. I flushed the reseviour but the rad itself is green.

So now the question is how did I get the air in the system lol which im sure the mechanic is gonna tell me in a few hours whether its the head gasket or whatever.

Im crossing my fingers thats its not the head gasket because money is something I dont have, atleast not in that price range lol.

I took it out for a spin last night to check the temp gauge and my gauge ranges from 40 to 125. 125 being the red the needle made it to just under 100. Can someone give me some input on that? im guessing that its normal temp and before when it was around 60 that was not normal and something was blocking the temperature but im no mechanic.

Once again people thanks for the help.