Just bought an 02 blazer w/ only 44k miles and I have a few questions... First off, I noticed it has a bad intake gasket. Im guessing this is b/c of the orange dexcool coolant. My question is, can I drain out that coolant and run regular green coolant? I want to change it cuz I dont want all my gaskets getting eaten up.. Also, can I drive it with that bad gasket for a little bit? Im gonna replace it within the next few weeks, but I wanna drive the blazer up north next weekend. It runs just under 210 degrees and doesnt overheat or smoke, but after you run it, you can deffinantly smell coolant.. Im also gonna flush the radiator, and change trans fluid, and convert everything over to synthetic.. Anything else I should look out for?

Thanks

 

It's not because it has DexCool, it's because the DexCool was never changed.

Flush it, change the intake manifold gasket, fill with new DexCool. Change the oil afterwards.

Is there any coolant in your oil? I personally wouldn't drive it far until you did the change because you can wipe the bearings and throw a rod...

 

Im taking it into autoshop this week to do the serpentine belt, flush the cooling system, and changing the gasket.. How long and hard is it to change the intake gasket?

 

I've never done one (though I think I'll have to soon on my '93), but I'd expect it to be an all-day job. Then if it takes less, it's a bonus. There is a write-up on here, I believe.

 

The problem is not with DexCool, it's the poor design of the intake gasket GM used on this and some other engines for awhile. Have it replaced with the one from Fel-Pro. I believe the part # is MS98002T. Even though DexCool is rated by GM for 5 years/100k miles, I recommend flushing and refilling it after no more than 3-4 years. If a shop does the gasket replacement it will run $600-$700.

 

Im in highschool, So im taking it to my autoshop class and gonna give it a try. The gasket is about 20 bucks... My autoshop teacher said it should only take about an hour or so. Plus like I said, im gunna flush the system, and I understand what you guys are saying, but theres no way im putting that dexcool back in my truck, im goin with the green stuff.

And to answer the earlier question, there is no coolant in the oil. The oil is clean

 

God bless the man who can do an intake manifold job in an hour. Jerry

 

The part # I gave you is for the complete Fel-Pro intake gasket kit (upper and lower) which will run you about $75. It's pointless not to use the full kit if you're pulling off the lower intake manifold, and if you don't use the Fel-Pro brand then you will be doing the job again further down the road. You can put in blue coolant if it will help you sleep better. You're not going to do the job in one hour. Just because your oil is not 'milkshake' does not mean there is no coolant in the oil. If the lower intake gasket is leaking, there is coolant in the oil.

 

I agree Fel-Pro is a great gasket and that is what I used two months ago on my S10. I also purchased a VICTOR REINZ Part # MIS16168 gasket to compare. The VR gasket has a neat feature for a backyard mechanic. The feature is a safeguard built in the gasket against over-torquing the manifold bolds.

Fel-Pro is the standard, but for a new mechanic, the VR might be more forgiving of installation issues. I would feel fully comfortable going with either.

 

talking to my auto shop teacher again today, he said it would take about 3-4 days, sense I only have it for 2 hours.. I'll go with the fel-pro gasket, thanks for the part #. So a quick rundown, flush the system, put in new thermostat while im in there, do lower and upper intake gasket, mite as well do spark plugs while im in there, then finish it off with an oil change.. Should I be set after that?