What year are we talking about here???

LIM == Lower Intake Manifold and is the metal portion of the intake.
UIP == Upper Intake Plenum and is the plastic portion of the intake for the 96+ trucks.

Removing the heads will require you to remove the rocker arms and push rods. Keep everything in order so you can put them back onto the same cylinders (I find that a cardboard box with some holes punched into it works great for this). You will also have to remove the accessory drive brackets off the front of the engine and the exhaust manifolds. All of this can be like opening up a can of worms depending on the health of the fasteners, especially on the exhaust manifolds. That is why I recommend finding the proper tools to see if you actually need to remove a head. A bore scope could put your mind at ease.

You will need a torque wrench to put everything back together.

 

2001 4.3 2 door chevy blazer oh yes the lower has been removed for the second time. Alright well I will start the search for a bore scope , thanks for the advice HC

 

so I found a scope on ebya for the right price of $80 shipped but my ebay account was suspended before I could buy it LOL! I have been slow to really get motivated on this project but I have some good news! I would just like to say thanks for the help so far and the encouragement I got from your advice, thanks bruthas! I was just about to start stripping down th ehead / exhuast manifold when the wife had an idea. We decided to duck tape a smaller diameter hose inside the larger hose of the shop vac to get some better vacume. Well after about an hour and a half of sucking out the lifter valley, runners, and the ports all I got was antifreeze, oil, gunk and assorted goops! The filter on the vac was trashed YIKES! I decided to take the hood off so I could use the vac and air compresser around the edges of the block in hopes of dislodging the missing nut from the fule rail clamps to the top of the spider. While I was working around the block wiht the hood off something shiny caught my eye! When facing the motor the fourth port back had small shiny glint from right on top of the valve! Yeah!!!! Yep you guessed it the nut has been recovered!!! I just need to reinstall the compressor, electronics, and power steering pulley and I will be home free!!!! Thanks again hope it works out finaly!!!

 

Thats one of them good moments in life!

 

I would remove the intake manifold first. The nut should be laying in the intake port. I dont know how big the nut is but they valves dont open that far.

Hehe i just realized i didnt read the second page of this post

 

so things are going well almost everything went back togther just as easy as removal and I am almost ready to dump in the fluids YEAH!!! I need to fill the oil and anitfreeze and thats about it, whew finally LOL I do have one question about the power steering pump pulley? I had a very difficult time removing and even harder installing the last two times I have torn this girl apart and then back togther. However this time it has been nearly impossible to get the pulley back into posistion I basicaly bruised my palm pushing down on the wrench to move the thrust bearing forward on the tool to get the pulley back down the shaft Yikes!!! It seems way more difficult than the last two times, anyhow if the pulley is not all the way back into posistion and the belt is not completely inline with the tensioner and the other pulley is this really bad? I ask because I would like to fire up the engine and see if I got the distributor in correctly? I obviously dont wnat to hurt the motor or the belt, pulleys etc... but I want to be prepared to move things again if need be. I am afraid to completely reinstall the pulley in case I just have to remove it again? may be an air tool would the process? LOL so to recapp , sorry for the long post , if the blet is not in a perfect line wiht the other stuff and it is at a slight angle off the pulley will this cause any damage or me further grief LOL thanks in advance you guys have been great thanks again for all the support HC..>>

 

You can run the motor without the accessory drive belt for a bit. But I would not run the motor with a pulley out of alignment and the accessory drive belt installed.

 

alright I will keep working on it, any advice for getting that SOB back on LOL well its on but about another half inch to get lined up and the pulley puller tool I am using is about at its limit , WHEW

 

longer ratchet or breaker bar?? Some pulleys are more problematic than others. Hope you are not pushing a burr...

 

I hope not the ratchet is fine, braker bar wont fit I still have the radiator installed so the head of the braker bar does not fit but my 5/8 drive ratchet is fine to hold the puller shaft from spinning. Its the shaft that pushes the thrust bearing down to move the pulley down the pump shaft that I am just using an open ended wrench to tunr a 1/4 turn at a time and I still need like three complete turns and it rough to move it WOW, so a burr hungh? the last two times the shaft was tough but not impossible, this time almost impossible LOL I did notice a little bit of rust on the shaft that has developed. I had the hood off to gte better view and clearence and we got over 16 inches of rain in three days so I used some towles, a plastic tarp, and some a blanket to cover as much off the internals as possible then put the hood down over that. However it was alot of rain and it managed to seep into the towles in some places and just knda intruded on some parts of things in the engine compartment Oh sucky I know... I did use a bunch of wd40 to displace the water, the some shop towels, a wet dry vac, and the air compressor to get everything mostly clean. The pump shaft however now has some light rust I used penetrating spray but maybe it has just created a problem in thickness? I thought just light surface erosion would not get in the way? maybe I am wrong and the the tolerance between the pulley and the pump shaft are just that close? not sure really , thanks again