Did I kill my 4.3?
 

So i may have hurt my engine inadvertently. I was losing coolant and I saw it leaking out of where the upper radiator hose goes to the radiator. So I replaced the hose but I was still losing coolant. Well I changed my oil yesterday and when the oil came out it had some green streaks in it for just the first quart or so. There was no metal in the oil or on the drain plug. I think my oil cooler might be mixing coolant in the radiator. The radiator is lifetime so it won't cost me anything besides some coolant. Now, when I pulled the top oil line out of the radiator it looked really rusty inside and had some silver in it. Also, there were chunks on the dipstick but they almost looked like carbon but could me metal. I haven't started it since I changed the oil. The engine has good oil pressure and doesn't smoke or anything and it doesn't make any weird noises. So does it sound like I hurt my engine too bad? Once I sap out my radiator I may still have my local shop take a look at it and see if maybe it is the intake gaskets. Thanks guys.

When my LIM gaskets went, my oil was massively overfilled and looked like chocolate milk with who knows how many miles during that time. That was a few years ago and now after the LIM repair and a few oil changes I am at 205,000 miles.

George

You might install a oil drain plug with a magnet to capture any metal bits.

You could have a small leak in your LIM gaskets. In case you do, then you should have them replaced sooner rather than later.

Use a flashlight and look really good along the intake to head joints; look for any signs of coolant. If any, time to change-out the LIM gaskets....but could also be the oil cooler.

I got lucky in the fact that there was no chocolate milk to mine, it was just a little bit of coolant. I might swap the radiator out this week and have the shop check it anyway because the intake manifold gaskets were done almost 6 years ago. I would consider doing it myself but it is really cold outside and I don't have a garage.

So I got the radiator out, and of course the new (lifetime warranty) radiator doesn't come with new trans and oil cooler fittings. So I pulled them off. The ATF line connectors and the bottom oil cooler connector were fine. Then I took the top one off.


Here is the connector
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...783f54581f.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...f6f1a84479.jpg

This inside the top of the radiator.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...deb67b1676.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...1affb4c18b.jpg
It is really packed in there too, it appears to be orange RTV. I have no idea where it came from.

Dang! Do you know the history of repairs on your engine? Could some RTV had been squeezed into the water jacket?

But you still have a leak of coolant into the oil, right? As soon as I heard that the LIM gaskets could fail catastrophically with little or no warning, I decided to change them as soon as I could.

At first sight it looked like redwood chips...

Uh-oh, If it is RTV sealant somebody thought that more is better. But inside an engine you need "just the correct amount" of sealant spread on joints and gaskets. Seen stuff like that before. Engines stuck together with sealant which was in every passage.

That is the oil passage that is packed with this stuff. If the radiator wasn't lifetime warranty I would tear it apart to see what's up. I did order and LIM Fel-Pro kit. Rockauto had them super cheap yesterday. Today they went back up to normal price. I have the radiator in my trunk and I was able to pull it out. it is just like shredded RTV.

Look at this junk I pulled out of the radiator.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/blazerf...c2dc8c0984.jpg