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I haven't had much news, but today, I drove the Bravada to Colorado Springs for Pridefest.
It's the first time I had it out of town. It handled the I-25 traffic like a champ, cruised at 75-80 with no problem at all. It shook a bit at higher speeds, which I think is from the wheels being slightly out of balance. The A/C works, although it has some difficulty blowing cool air when the temp is above 90ºF. The only thing it had a bit of difficulty with was going up Monument Hill (~7900 feet) northbound back toward Denver. If I would have shut off the A/C and gave it a bit more throttle, it probably would have been fine.
Next time I take it out of town, I'll head up to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Then, later on to the Dakotas once I'm comfortable that it'll be able to handle the longer trips.
Nice to hear you had a good trip with it. . . sounds just like my recent trip in mine lol. Were you able to get your MPG up from 13? I can't remember now if you did, but have you checked/cleaned your EGR? Pretty sure thats where a lot of my poor acceleration issues were coming from, will see once I can drive again. Waiting on new Starter and Alternator to show up.
Doesn’t it always seem like the starter and alternator need to be replaced at or around the same time? I had to do both of those at the same time on my first car: a 1988 Chevy Celebrity.
The last two times I’ve filled up, it’s been at 14.5 mpg, with almost 100% city driving. I’ll fill up on my way home so I can calculate the mpg for the trip. The fuel gauge still reads “full,” but something is off with the sending unit, and it’s a bit optimistic, by about 1/4 of a tank.
I saw your post about the EGR. I definitely need to check mine. Is that the thing that makes the engine sometimes sound muffled when you take off the first time after starting it?
Yea. . Really hoping it's not the battery now that I've bought the starter/alt. . which both needed done anyway. I really want to do a yellow top optima, but that's another like $275.
I'd be curious to see what your trip mileage is since my city driving numbers were close to yours.
Lol yea. . these digital gauges don't seem very accurate.
Not sure if the EGR valve is what makes that noise or not, but you should inspect it since I know it's a common issue for them to clog up with carbon.
You guys aren't going to believe this. I still don't believe it myself.
Odometer reading before I left Denver yesterday: 186,110 miles.
Odometer reading when I filled up after work today: 186,269 miles.
Distance traveled: 159 miles.
Gallons used: 6.97 =22.8 MPG.
I still don't believe it.
Maybe I'm a bit too heavy on the throttle when I drive it in town, because my best city mileage has been 14.5.
You guys aren't going to believe this. I still don't believe it myself.
Odometer reading before I left Denver yesterday: 186,110 miles.
Odometer reading when I filled up after work today: 186,269 miles.
Distance traveled: 159 miles.
Gallons used: 6.97 =22.8 MPG.
I still don't believe it.
Maybe I'm a bit too heavy on the throttle when I drive it in town, because my best city mileage has been 14.5.
Wow, That's Awesome!. .. . I think that's some of the best mileage I've seen reported for a 1st gen 4.3. What kind of speeds? I have a feeling I'd have hit 20 if I'd have kept it under 70mph.
Lol my goal is now to at least get mine to meet this benchmark!
There was heavy traffic for half of the trip, each way. About half of the time, I was able to go 75, and the other half of the time, the speeds varied quite a bit. My average speed was probably in the 50’s. I would guess that if I had gone 75 the whole way, my mileage would have been closer to 20. I’ll see what happens the next time I take it out of town.
That's really even more encouraging with heavy traffic. . . Keep us posted, and I'll do the same once I'm putting miles on it again.
I'm considering making a belly pan / skid plate for mine, out of an old sheet metal sign I have lying around. My old camry saw like a 12% increase in MPG from adding one, and it was far more aerodynamic than the blazer. We'll see what happens. . if I ever get around to doing that.
I just noticed that none of my pics were showing up, so I just spent an hour editing all of the posts to put the images back in. Not sure what was going on with the Google Photos links, but it's fixed now.
I can't remember if I mentioned this before or not, but the swivels on the sun visors were extremely loose. If I put the visor down, it would swing back and hit me in the face when I accellerated. So, I ordered new hinges for them. I'm sure several of you have noticed though, that the regular S10 replacement hinges won't work, because there's a screw where the wires come out for the vanity mirror lights.
So, I came up with a different solution. Since there's no way to tighten the swivel spring on the existing hinge, I pried up on the spring with a flat screwdriver, and stuck a piece of a wire coathanger in the space to tighten the spring.
And it worked! I installed the visors back in the car, and they no longer hit me in the face!
07-15-2018, 05:04 PM
. . I think that's some of the best mileage I've seen reported for a 1st gen 4.3. What kind of speeds? I have a feeling I'd have hit 20 if I'd have kept it under 70mph. 
