Thanks Christine and Hess, the road test indeed went well and I have been daily driving it ever since. I just have P0420 still haunting me, I'm thinking about taking out my cat and putting in spark plug non-foulers to try and trick the computer from throwing a code. Either way, I'm done driving around with a SES light all the time now and will find some way to keep it off.

 

Well guys, it's been a minute since I last posted on here. I have mainly been trying to figure out a rough idle for some time now, however, over the weekend I was going a little too hard and lost control crashing the blazer into a rock wall. It all happened so fast, I was having fun in 2wd on the trails and kicked the tail out, next thing I knew I was in the rock wall. Anyways, I took off the front bumper and drove it home (the bumper was mashed up into the drivers tire), there is a small bit of frame damage but I'm confident I will be able to fix it up now. I have ordered a new inner fender, fender, grille, rad support, bumper lights, and front bumper. I ended up going with the affordable off-road bull bar bumper, figured more protection wouldn't hurt. I'm excited to get it all back together now and put the new bumper on! I'll keep posted on here with how the rebuild is going. For now enjoy this video from a few minutes before I ran it into a rock wall, and also these pictures.

 

Looks like mostly cosmetic damage. The new bumper should help with front end protection and look better.

 

Thanks Hess, it was mostly cosmetic damage. The frame's mounts were slightly bent but easily bent back with a hammer. I am proud to say my blazer is back on the road again! I need to give a big thanks to @LesMyer for giving me tons of help and advice when I needed it, Les I really can't thank you enough for all you have taught me! While I had the blazer down I decided to replace my leaking rear pinion seal as well, and with that of course all new u joints too. Well that turned out to be a bigger job than expected as I bent a driveshaft yoke ear while taking out a u joint, so off to the junk yard I went to get a new driveshaft. To my luck I found a new driveshaft and proceeded to take all of the U joints out of that one without bending anything. Anyways I painted and replaced all of the body parts that were damaged and now it's driving again! Just a few things are missing still, no airbags as front crash sensors are still on the old rad support, tranny cooler mounts (currently held on with a zip tie and exhaust strapping), no bumper side pieces (bumper hasn't been adjusted for 2" BL), inner fender not painted and does not fully line up with fender. These are all fairly easy fixes that I hope to get done on weekends in the next few weeks. Here are some pictures of the rebuild

 

Good to see you are getting it back together! I can't wait till my jimmy is back on the road.

 

Good job!!! Glad to see you have it repaired!!
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Looks real good!

 

Thanks guys I really appreciate it, and Hess I love your build I also can't wait to see it finished!

Holy smokes guys... This blazer has been very bad to me lately, like I mean I drive it for a few days then it's right back in my garage getting worked on for the next few days LOL. Let me explain, maybe a week ago now I was coming home from the university (it was dark out) and I came home to reverse into my spot, with the reverse lights on I saw a big puddle under where I park, turns out my water pump failed and was dumping coolant everywhere, so I fixed that up over a few days then it was back on the road. Now I have yet another puddle under the blazer, it is yet again, coolant. However, now it is coming from the rad support on the driver side, at least not around the water pump area. But seriously guys, this all started the day after filling up my blazer with dex cool, I was running 100% water all summer with no issues now I put dex cool in, and the day after my water pump blows, the week after now something else blows? I will come back tomorrow hopefully with what is leaking now!

 

So, is it possible you damaged the radiator when installing the water pump? Perhaps there was a loose hose.

And from what I've ever heard, running just water is normally frowned upon. The coolant helps both with increasing the boiling point and lower the freezing point. It also has corrosion inhibitors.

 

Hey Christine! I was running water ever since the rebuild and it was working over the summer so I just left it, but usually will run normal antifreeze. I was thinking with where it was leaking it was most likely the rad, the only other option being the upper rad hose, and it turned out to be the rad. I haven't physically seen it leak but the pictures below are pretty telling that it must be the rad... It seems it's leaking right where the plastic meets up with the aluminum. I can't believe this, water pump last week, rad this week, crazy!! Hopefully, I can drop a new rad in tomorrow.