Hey guys, Name is Andrew, 22 and joining the sign again lol.

I have an 88 S10 Blazer w/ a 350 swap
and just picked up a 98 4door 4wd blazer with 110xxx for $700 and runs like a champ!!!
I've also had a 94 s10 blazer, a 90 s10 (love s-series trucks)and now have a 07 Colorado.

I have a question, seeing if you guys can point me in the right direction and help me out.

My buddy has an 02 S10 Blazer and while he was driving it, it overheated and stalled out. Took it home, has no oil whatsoever and pulled the radiator and once it was almost out oil came rushing out on the driver side lower side.

My question is, is this a head gasket problem because we put oil in and it started leaking from the same spot. I've read it could be the intake manifold gasket but if there is oil in the radiator wouldn't that be a head gasket or no?

Any help is appreciated and thanks for reading!!\

(and i'll post pics of my trucks later on!)

 

Head gasket failures are extremely rare on the 4.3L engine. Intake gaskets are far more common, but they usually leak coolant, both internally, (into the oil) and externally. The radiator has an oil cooler in it. The 2 aluminum lines on the driver side of the radiator are the inlet and outlet from the remote oil filter mount under the radiator.

 

^^ Captain Hook again with some good info. Man he's all over this site haha. I'd say oil cooler is a good possibility. If not that or the lower intake gasket have a leakdown/compression test done. That will eliminate either headgasket failure or cracked heads etc.

The fact that it's coming out of the radiator though suggests it's oil under pressure entering the cooling system which to me says oil cooler like Mr. Hook said.

 

Thank you guys for the responses!! So with the oil cooler in the radiator, a new radiator would be in order, correct?

 

If the oil cooler is bad yes. But honestly for my 98 i think i paid $50 for the radiator online so it'd be worth changing it just for piece of mind. The plastic side tanks like to crack on them....LOL

 

Awesome, thanks Mike, gonna get one tomorrow. Again, thanks guys for the responses!

 

just wanted to check back in, replaced the radiator and everything is a go! Thanks again fellas!

 

No problem. Glad to help