The truck is a 96 4x4 blazer with a 4.3

Well, I was driving my blazer down the road and all the sudden it started to get hot... so I pulled over before it go too hot and checked the antifreeze. After walking to and from a gas station I put 2 gallons of antifreeze in. That filled it up, and after checking for any major leaks I went on my way. I figured it was just a small leak and I was running low before my trip. About a mile down the road the gauge was back at 3/4 hot again.... so I pulled over thinking I must have had a bubble in the cooling system. After pulling over at an auto parts store I put another 2 gallons in it. It was idleing and it got hot again. I shut it off and still didn't see any major leaks...... so I decided I'd better check the oil. Guess what? halfway up the stick with milkshake..... I changed the oil a few weeks ago and the oil was fine.

After a wonderful 220 dollar tow home it sits outside my house. So here the question. Coolant ran through my engine for about 10-15 minutes on an already old engine. Is it worth fixing if it's just a head gasket? Can this truck be reliable again after that milkshake running through it? I really don't want to do bearings. I didn't hear the truck knocking at any point. If it's a cracked head I don't think I'll bother, but seeing as the leak came really quickly I'm guessing it's a gasket. What do you guys think?

 

Your LIM gasket probably blew. I'd try tossing in a new set of intake manifold gaskets (get the metal framed felpro's) and see what happens.

 

The LIM crossed my mind... are they known for leaking really fast? It filled my crankcase up really fast. I guess a LIM leak that bad would be pretty obvious on the gasket. What do you think about the engine surviving the massive amount of coolant?

 

If the engine didn't die on you, the chances of survival are pretty good.

And yes, the LIM gasket can leak quite fast if the failure is sudden.

 

Well, the engine stall on me when hot, but restarted after cooling down. It ran fine until shut off at the auto parts store. I guess the plan will be to tear it down to the LIM and see if it looks like an obvious leak, if not maybe I'll keep going. Can the head bolts be reused if the head gaskets are needed?

 

A compression test will tell you if the head gasket is still intact.

 

Anybody know a good place online to get the metal felpro LIM gaskets? My local place only has the victor reinz. Is there a common place for me to look on the gasket to see if it is broken? Now that I've thought it through, it does make sense that the LIM is more likely for a fast leak. If I was leaking that much coolant from the head into a cylinder it probably would have thrown a rod by now, but I've been wrong before.

 

Google 'Fel-pro MS98002T'. That is the PN for the metal framed gaskets.

 

rock auto sells the felpro set for $62. only thing is, my 96 did the same thing bout 6 years ago . replaced the intake n everything was good for a couple weeks til i spun a main bearing. if the vehicle is in good shape, it might b worth finding a low mileage junk yard motor to swap out. if not , then an intake set isnt too expensive to roll the dice n see if u get lucky

 

Well, I got the intake done today, and it's running fine again. The right coolant port part of the gasket came off in 3 pieces. The left side wasn't far behind. I did 3 oil changes on it and don't see any moisture in the oil. Warm oil pressure is 15-20 PSI at idle, and 40+ going down the road. Not too bad for an old engine.

Hopefully there isn't a spun bearing in my future, I guess time will tell. After hearing the engine and seeing that the oil pressure is still very good I'm not too worried about it, not much I can do now if it decides to blow.

One word of advice: If you vehicle ran very much at all with milkshake in the crankcase it may be in your cylinders. I cranked the engine with the plugs out for about 30 seconds and had some nice size puddles from 3 cylinders. Despite doing that, I had a hard time restarting the engine. I'm not sure how well it would have started without doing that first.