YUCK! What a mess! Looks like it missed a few oil changes! In the image, it almost looks like the balance shaft is broken.

 

Yea it's pretty nasty underneath it all. Glad I took the time and bloody knuckles to tear it down. Now I can really clean this disaster. Negative on the balance shaft being broken. There's degreaser on it from me degreasing the heads so I had a more solid grip, but it is intact. If the balance shaft was broken, I'd pretty much toss the motor and start fresh.

 

you must really love that blazer to go thru all that, ill be praying for you to get it done and done right.

 

I have a deep running love for blazers in general. I don't plan on keeping this much longer, but at least it will be on the road that much longer, whoever is driving it. I think I can do it right, this is my 6th blazer and I've done manifolds on all 6 and heads on 4. I don't like tearing them down, but once the AC bracket is off, might as well go the whole way and never have to do it again.

 

Mighty good lookin' Blazer. It would be a shame just to let it die. Amazon & Rock auto are your friends when it comes to parts. Felpro MS98002T intake gaskets for sure! The injector upgrade manufacturer is not all that critcal, they all work. The Delphi comes with the new bracket so keep that in mind when price checking. If you chase the threads on the lower intake bolts, you won't need to replace them, but you do need to put sealer/locker on the threads. Follow the sequence & torque spec, very important.



Good luck & keep us posted, (I know you will).

 

Thanks for the diagram Captain. I never did multiple passes on the tightening sequence. Always just went straight to ~160 in/lbs and in a completely different sequence (pretty much dead opposite, starting from drivers side)

 

The diagram is right out of the GM shop manual. As long as you go in a circular pattern it's fine, doesn't matter which side you start on, but multiple passes are important to make sure it pulls down evenly.... ya don't want to tweek the block

 

Makes perfect sense breaking out the ol cleaning kit. Of course the weekend I decide to tear this thing apart, we get a surprise snow shower! Definitely pleased about that...... so since im not going to be underhood for a couple days (possibly, hopefully not) time to start polishing up a little bit better flow should increase gas mileage, if only marginally. During the teardown, I notice that a vast majority of the top has been tampered with, before my original undoing. A lot of clips we're never reattached and some things were routed in absolutely insane ways. This has been a fight from the beginning. But im going through everything to see what's no longer salvageable. I've already picked up a top end gasket kit from felpro, 2 sets of head bolts, delco double platinums, finally 5 qts garbage 10w30, 5 qts penzoil semi-syn, and some fram filters. Is it worth seafom? I've tried it once and never really noticed anything, even under the valve covers.

 

Careful with the seafoam, unless you're going to clean out the oil pump screen. That stuff will loosen up all kinds of crap and clog the screen. Then you end up spinning bearings. Who knows how much crap is in the lower end. Might want to stick with 5W30 or even 5W20 oil. Depending on your bearing clearances, 10W30 may be too thick to sufficiently supply the bearings with oil. More pressure, but lower volume. Fram filters are great for flush & clean, but that's about all they're good for. Don't leave them on there.

 

Glad to hear it about the seafoam, Captain. That will be forever crossed off the list. And that's just what the Frams are for, as they're $4 or so. I usually use 10W when over 100K on the clock. Should I use 5W throughout the lifespan.