Damn, damn, damn... Well he did it. Of course with no puke tank if the radiator vents you gotta fill it back up. I told him this, several times... Well he let it run low and overheated the damn thing yesterday. Died on side of road.

He went back with water and a buddy and filled the radiator. but no joy - Clouds of white smoke and it died again. I am hoping he is only facing head gaskets but this thing is getting parked up until spring. I am more than a little pissed - Time he learns his own lessons. I am not gonna pay for it but I am gonna "help" him fix it - head work or maybe a junkyard motor. This poor knucklehead has trashed every vehicle he's had since turning 16...

In hindsight I probably could have rigged a temp tank with a gallon jug - lesson learned for me too, I guess...

Now he's driving my cherry 1 owner S10 - Gotta do something about that before he kills that too...

 

Doh!!! Slam head into rock multie time!

 

Sounds like a lesson learned on both parts. Sucks though. Hopefully it's not too serious. Growing up it was you break it you pay for it but Dad was always there to help fix it. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way.

 

The first internet said don't dolly tow a rear wheel drive vehicle without disconnecting the drive shaft. The second internet said no need to disconnect the drive shaft if you don't go more than 15 miles and no more than 25mph. So I listened to the second internet but did tow it about 20 miles - sue me - LOL!

I couldn't imagine winching this beast onto the flat bed. It was tough enough getting it up on the dolly. Of course the U-haul lady was a piece of work. "I can't rent you a dolly to tow a rear drive vehicle." - "Uhhh... OK - I am towing a 2014 Hyundai Accent."

We took surface streets and took it slow, even pulling over when the back up of cars got to about 8 or so - me being considerate. Even then people honked and were all mad - I can't believe how many people don't know how to pass on a 2-lane road... People are d*cks - (OK rant over - LOL)

The good news is after we got it home I cranked it and it started! It would not go off idle and was blowing a lot of smoke - wanted to try and drive it off the dolly but no joy ended up pulling it off with my S10. He may be lucky and only blown the manifold gasket. Compression check in the spring will tell more of the story.

The mighty Jeep saves the day - It was a heavy tow but felt pretty good.



Hauling Blazer ***...




This should be out of the way enough for a few months. The back garage holds my summer toys so they are all bedded down for winter as well...

 

I would kind of like to suggest letting him or getting him rather to read up on the Forum himself and maybe post a couple things and watch us respond in brotherly love to him as well... a little humble goes a long way with a kid who's got to ask help from those who know how he screwed it up... my dad forced me to schedule meetings with teachers, a local cop, principals and superintendents of the school a couple times... each time confession was more about humility, no new info was ever admitted LOL. just a thought...

 

Unfortunately this apple fell far from the tree - He just doesn't have the mind for complex "mechanicking." I keep telling him he better get rich because he's going to be paying a lot of mechanics a lot of money if he keeps driving used vehicles - LOL...

With the Blazer I will make him be there for "weak mind / strong back" and for moral support. At least he'll learn the consequences of ignoring warning lights and gauges...

 

I feel your pain. When I bought my Blazer, I had to winch it onto my trailer with ratchet straps because I hadn't gotten around to installing the winch on the trailer yet. It's been like three years now, and I still haven't installed it, lol.

 

Hey guys - Long winter and now quarantine - 60 year old smoker so I am taking it super careful...

Anyhoo - I posted in the engine forum but I'll also reach out here. I am planning to change the IM gasket and after I get the accessories off I am gonna do a compression check - I figure it will be easier once the engine is decluttered. It did start yesterday immediately and it idled fine. After a few minutes it started to blow a little white smoke and wouldn't really come off idle without stumbling badly.

Anyway is there a complete parts list somewhere for the intake manifold and head gaskets change out? I am ordering online and don't want to miss out on anything if I can.

 

Just want to say this is awesome what you are doing with your kid! 25 year old New Yorker here and I recently was gifted a 98 blazer same color as this one lol. I too have never been too crazy with a wrench But had the same idea as you and decided to make this my first project car. At this moment I’m just going through all the threads to build the knowledge and this thread is amazing To me lol hope to see updates in the near future!!

 

Welcome aboard! Strange that I haven't logged in for months and today log in and see a new post. Anyhow still haven't done the Blazer fix but planned for this weekend. Too many other projects and distractions.