+1. Even if you were inclined to try this type of unconventional treatment, you have not even verified that your cat is fried and so this could actually make things worse.

George

 

The OP is asking about a lot of different issues in this thread and at the same time, trying to save some money. He is trying to learn and be self sufficient so we are giving him options to try and educate and help him in response to his many concerns. This is a community of people that work together trying to help others and are respectful of the opinions here. By all means, give the OP your suggestion on how you think that he should proceed so we can work together to help him. Of course he likely has a dead cat and in this thread are suggestions on how to verify this. Also there are suggestions to identify the root cause so that he does not kill the replacement if he goes that route. Its easy to take pot shots at the community here giving their personal time to offer help for free and at the OP while he is trying to learn. The real contribution is to guide those asking for help with a recommended game plan.

George

 

No need for the long winded attack boys, in fact I was referring to the ridiculous you tube fix. I certainly don’t come here to be lectured about “don’t confuse your opinions as always being fact”
Any good mechanic knows you always go for the most likely suspect first, and then prove yourself right or wrong through diagnosis and then act accordingly. It’s only an opinion based on what was said in previous posts by the OP, Don’t be so easily offended guys, we’re all here to help each other

 

what is your suggestion for the OP?

George

 

a) Yes the Blazer drives alright, like I said, there's no hang ups or anything. Everything shifts fine, there is no hang ups or anything.
b) Sorta, I can go through the easy stuff first before things start getting pricey!
c) Yeah I do want the light to go away, but I want it to go away the right way.


I won't run seafoam through then!
Since the Cat seems to be the prime suspect here, I'll go ahead and see about inspecting it myself with a laser thermometer!

Is the fluid level dropping in coolant system?
-No, I don't believe it is. I recently changed the radiator out and flushed the system with new coolant. So far, it hasn't dropped.
Although, I did taste the water coming from the exhaust, it was kinda sour.

what do the plugs look like?
-Brand new, struggled with them last summer
if you have a scanner, looking at the O2 sensors in live data
-Don't have a scanner but I'll get my hands on one
tapping on the cat to check for loose pieces
-Tapped it, nothing seemed to be loose inside. I tapped the exhaust too and it gave a nuts and bolts rattle I believe.
checking the ECT sensor.
-Ill look at this.
if you have an infrared thermometer, checking the cat input and output temps
-Noted! I will try this as well.
checking compression
-Don't know how to do this, I will use my google-fu
as mentioned, the condition of the oil, bubbles in the radiator
-Oil should be fresh, I just changed it, didn't notice any bubbles in the radiator either.

On the white smoke though, I did take my car around the block, when I got back there was no white smoke coming from the exhaust.
However, I did raise the RPMS some, to around 3-5 and noticed that the white smoke came back. Head Gaskets?

Also for what its worth, the car started up almost immediately this time when I turned the ignition.

 

Ok good, this gives us a little direction in which way to go.
Lets start with something that costs nothing, and will rule out some possibilities while confirming something else.
Swap out the O2 sensor from behind the catalyst with whichever side O2 sensor you feel you’ll be able to get to/remove easiest.
Clear the codes, and then drive the vehicle around a while.
If the 0420 goes away, but you then have a code for whichever side O2 sensor you swapped, you’ll know you had a bad downstream sensor.
However, if you have the same 0420 code, you’ll know for sure you’ve got either a bad cat or (unlikely) a wiring issue, which can easily be confirmed with a good multimeter.

Remember like what I said in the PM, baby steps to rule out most likely issues, then big picture eventually shows itself.

If you’re serious about learning more, and for general automotive knowledge, I’d strongly suggest picking up a couple good books. When I was studying for my ASE certifications, I found the Mitchell study guides for Engine Performance and Advanced Engine Performance (L1) to be great overall learning tools that could help you in general automotive knowledge for the rest of your adult life.

One last thing to consider is picking up one of these:

http://gopointtech.com/product/bt1a-for-apple-android/

This is just one of many systems available, but I found this particular tool very user friendly. You read it right off your phone app, it uses live data, and you can read/reset codes.

 

Alright! I'll swap the O2 Sensors sometime and give that a try!!
Although, I did recently swap out the Sensor behind the Cat, with an ACDelco O2 Sensor nonetheless.
It was this one, Did I put in the wrong sensor? Cause there's upstream and downstream sensors right, is there a difference?

Also, thank you for that tip! I'm thinking about getting the Hayne's Manual for my Blazer.

 

The sensors are all the same for this vehicle. Don’t waste your money on a Haynes manual, set up an eBay search for a GM service book for your year/make/model. Helm Corp. used to publish some for GM, and used ones pop up on eBay all the time. Just keep searching until you find one for the right price

 

Welcome to the team.

George

 

Thanks George, it’s all good

Bill