Sooo....have had an oil leak for at least five years; thought it was the rear main seal, but after reading about the oil filter adapter and then seeing oil drips on the adapter bottom...it is likely the leak....at least that is what I am going with...
And since I am staying home now like most people, I have time to go after this....so the task begins.....
Not doing a step-by-step write-up....just going to hit the points.
So Blazer front on jack stands, front wheels off, got the plastic brush guard off and also the air snorkel...more room the better.
I read that the engine needs to be raised in order to get the oil filter adapter out.....and I read that usually the left motor mount is torn/separated anyways....so I put a jack with a wood block under the oil pan to raise the engine....nope....no go....Blazer fronts lifts.....hhmm....I guess the motor mounts are good. Ok....time to get the cross bolts out then.
Using all the racket extensions I had I finally got both cross bolts out. Probably took me an hour to get them both. Would have been quicker to have another person to hold a wrench on the nuts...so readers take note of that.

Next was to get to the remote oil filter lines block bolt that screws into the oil filter adapter. Again using all the extensions I had....got it off...then the front block bolt. I took a look at the new replacement remote lines and see the support....so now to find where this bolt is at under the oily mess. Found it at the very front of the engine...a 10mm bolt head. Probably took me a good 30 min to get this little bolt out. Very limited access to this bolt....but I got it out. Tried to pull the remote lines forward...nope....have to raise engine back-up to get the block to clear. Do that and out it comes.

Now to get the oil filter adapter out. Two bolts on the bottom....come out easily....now I read that the adapter will come-out, just requires a lot of twisting to do so. Took me probably 45 min to finally get the adapter to come-out. Had to have the engine raised and keep rotating the adapter and front driveshaft to finally find the "sweet" spot so that it will come-out.

Oh forgot to mention that the remote lines were NOT leaking...not at the pressed joints where rubber meets metal, nor at either block, the original seals were still holding. Read where others have found these lines leaking....oh well.

That is as far as I am getting today....have other things to do....besides my neck was getting really tired from holding my head in strange angles trying to find the various bolts.

I will update this as I make more progress. Next is to remove the motor mounts and replace the rubber ones with poly mounts.

Later,

 

Now you know why some people just ditch the oil cooler altogether.

 

This should relate to your fix.

We used to fix that by putting fittings onto the aluminium lines and brided or rubber hydraulic hoses with appropriate fittings. Instead of a one piece (engine adapter to remote oil filter) I have a three piece oil line assembly. Hmm - have to look on the computer if i can find the pictures - found them, nothing better than to be too lazy to search and have all fixes stored on the NAS.


This fix is holding up since 11 years and not lost a single drop since.

 

I thought about doing the same, either flaring the tubing or using compression fittings like you did. It would work for power steering hoses, too.

 

A trick I learned for reinstalling the oil filter adapter at the block was use use a thin layer of Vaseline to hold the gasket in place. Apparently this is something engine builders would use to prime their oil-pumps.

As you said although you can see it, getting the adapter out and then back in can be a chore.

I found that getting the bolt in that holds the hoses to the adapter was easiest with a really long extension and reaching in from the front. This is best once you get the bolt started of course as you wouldn't want to cross-thread the cast metal of the adapter.

 

Today's Progress....
Spent 5 hours with the Blazer today and all I got accomplished was in removing the left side motor mount (it was separated after all), getting the new Energy Suspension poly mount onto the block and 1 of the three bolts for the other half of the motor mount that goes to the frame.
Issues I had were of course getting to the six bolts to get the OEM mount out and then even more issues getting the two part poly mount attached to the block. I had taped the two pieces together, only way to do this. Once I finally got one bolt started the other two went in with minor effort.
Two other issues I had were finding the box with the poly mounts.....spent probably 20 minutes searching all over the garage for them. Finally decided to ask myself, "where would my wife put them?".....yep...went right to them. She had decided that the box sitting on the counter in the laundry room was not to her liking....so she moved it...and of course did not tell me.
Then there was the "lost" blue engine block bolt....thought it was still up around the front differential / suspension as it had fallen out of the mount (many times) when I was trying to get a bolt started. I looked for a good 20 min all over the front until I gave up and was going to call it a day....picked-up an oily paper towel off the garage floor.....and there was the "lost" blue bolt!.....back to work!

Neck muscles are quite tired.....where's the beer?

Christine....yep, I used all the extensions I had to reach the block bolt at the oil filter adapter. Going to make the wife assist me in getting that bolt started...when I get that far.

As I stated above, the original remote oil filter lines were not leaking....which surprised me since I had read about how they were prone to do so. Appears that the oil leak was from the O ring in to top of the oil filter adapter. I have used grease in the past to hold gaskets in place, never Vaseline, although I have used this on my motorcycle's speedo bushing. The O-ring fits into a groove in the oil filter adapter so there should be no reason to put the O-ring on the block....just put it in the oil filter adapter.....after I get it back through the the "sweet" spot......at my rate...this is not going to be until next week.

Later,.....I need another beer....

 

I ended up not unbolting the motor mounts in my case. I think my motor mounts were so worn out that I was able to get enough upwards movement just by putting a bottle jack under the engine with a board on the oil pan and lifting it up just high enough to get the clearance.

Was sketchy as all heck (not like wobbly sketchy, more like I was almost uncomfortable with the amount of force I had to put on the cast oil pan), but it worked out fine in the end. I tired every possible angle prying with different size, shape, and length pry bars that I could get my hands on, but nothing would budge the engine far enough like the jack under the pan did.

 

You mean like this...............

And of course oil continues to drip out of the filter housing from the oil cooler.

Here is the oily mess I am working with:


Got to thinking yesterday that since I am this far, perhaps I should go ahead and drop the front diff down, remove water pump, front cover, oil pan and take care of this oil leak as well. Not like I have anywhere to go.......

 

Today's update: have a problem with the poly engine mount. It bolts to the block just fine as shown in picture above, BUT....the other half of the mount, the one that bolts to the frame...bolt holes do not align. the poly mount would need to move forward about 1/2" to align all three holes.....I could only get the top bolt in...and that was a struggle. Soooo....these are not going to work. I get to remove the poly mount and replace with a rubber one. Not going to replace the right side mount as I am sure it is fine since it is always under compression. Which is a really good thing as I did look at those six bolts.....they are even more difficult than the left side!!

Tom A: sent you a PM.

Also have decided to go-ahead and drop the diff down to replace the oil pan gasket and front cover....get these oil leaks done at one time.

 

My left mount is hard to get a picture of because there's stuff in the way, so this is the best I could do.




Here, you can see the right side just fine, and there's no problem with the fitment, so I'm not sure why yours won't fit. As I mentioned in the PM, I never took the frame mounted half off, since the engine was out of the vehicle when I replaced them.