Hello Blazer fans


I blew the intake gasket on my 2001 blazer, I noticed the temp going up which is not normal so I pulled off to the side of the road and it got to around 225 to 230 degrees so now I have the honey sludge type mess in my engine. It started running a little rough as I pulled off to the side and when I was almost stopped it quit. I am going to go ahead and change out the gasket as my normal friend that helps me is out of commission due to a car crash for 6 weeks.


I already have drained out 2 1/2 gallons of the coolant/oil mix out of the pan. Don't have the intake off yet as this will be my first time changing a intake gasket.


So my question is how many times do you guys change the oil and filter to get the rest of the honey sludge mixed crap out of my engine.


Do you guys just start it up and let it run and then dump oil and filter or what?


How many times?? Just point me in the right direction.


Should I pull the oil pan off and wipe it out too??


Thanks and waiting to hear your responses.

 

If it was that bad, my suggestion would be to change the oil and filter the first time, but when putting the fresh oil in, substitute one quart with marvel mystery oil or sea foam. After that, drive it for a couple hundred miles (provided the leak is fixed) and do another oil change. If you're in a hurry and you trust motor flush solutions, Napa sells a 5 minute motor flush that I've heard good things about.

 

Ouch! This sounds pretty severe compared to most intake leaks! If you had 2.5 gallons of liquid in the crankcase, the crankshaft was certainly hitting it and whipping into a mess. Probably why it died when slowed down. It may never be the same, but if you want to try to see if it can be resurrected....

There are tech articles about actually changing the intake gaskets elsewhere in the Blazer forum, so go there for basic instructions (see tech article index).

In your case, assuming bearings haven't yet been damaged and that replacing intake gaskets fixes the leak (no blown head gasket or cracks)..........

While completing the intake manifold gasket repair you can try to flush any goo in the intake galley down and out through the pan with something like odorless mineral oil (non-flammable). I won't advise you to use gasahol (10% ethanol) or even E85 (15% ethanol) as that could potentially be dangerous (flammable/explosive), even though it dissolves oil as well as some water and the ethylene glycol component of antifreeze. Limit amount of the flush to 5 quarts at a time (start with an empty overnight-drained oil pan with the plug put back in) and let it sit in the pan for a couple hours to help dissolve things - then pull the plug and drain rapidly. DO NOT turn the engine over during the flush. When finished flushing let dry overnight, fill with fresh oil by pouring all 5 quarts onto the camshaft lobes with the intake off (remember you just flushed all the oil off of them with solvent) (don't use heavy oil - use 5w30), and then install the intake.

Before reinstalling the distributor change the oil filter (letting oil lines drain as much as possible), and then use a real oil priming tool/drill to pressurize the oil system for maybe 5 minutes or so. In a Blazer your drill will need to have a short body like a cordless one does in order to fit on the priming tool (interference with the firewall). DO NOT prime until the intake manifold is back on, as drill brush particles falling into your engine is not good. Priming should hopefully push out any residual goo from the oil cooler lines, oil cooler, and passages in the engine and give the bearings enough fresh oil that they may have a chance to live when the engine is started. Then install the distributor and finish.

As soon as the engine is warmed up and the coolant leak has been verified to be fixed, drain the oil again hot and put fresh filter/oil in at least one more time - again use 5w30. Then pray. This is about all you can do, and how many times to change oil depends on how the oil looks when you drain it. Either it lives or it doesn't.