big issue with over heating
 

Excuse me for this but its gonna be long. Last winter my 96 blazer 4 wheel drive vortec engine 6 cyl. over heated died had smoke comming out. I took it to a shop they told me it was my lower intake manifold gasket. they replaced that.they did a test on it for head gasket and said no leaks. a month and a half later it over heated again. i took it to a friend and they replaced the radiator and the cap, the thermostat, the spark plugs and wires (there is a miss in the 1st cylinder was like that when i got it back from the shop) the miss is still there but everything was running great. So today i was coming home from taking my son to school and the transmission didn't want to shift when spedometer hit 35 when i was in over drive so i shifted to drive and same thing then all of a sudden the blazer died and smoke was coming from under the hood and it smelled like burnt antifreeze (dexcool) i opened the hood and and the dexcool was just pouring out of the radiator cap and it pretty much emptied it on the ground. i couldn't get the blazer to start and when i tried the temp went up when it shut off the temp was only 210. it wants to turn over but wont. Its cooling off on the side of the road as i type this. i just checked all my fluids yesterday they were all full and there didn't appear to be any dexcool in the oil because it wasn't foamy or cloudy greyish. i dont know much about vehicles at all i love my blazer what could be wrong with it. i need a cheap fix hopefully for it. im a single mom and we live paycheck to paycheck cant afford too big of a shop fee. any help would be great thanks

and i did notice the last week or so i wasn't getting heat. i did get heat yesterday for awhile but none today.

Just thinking out loud here, possibly a blockage somewhere? maybe a bad water pump? Maybe check the hoses to make sure they aren't leaking or closing while you are driving.

It has been my experience that some mechanics don't like to take the time needed to properly burp the coolant system when they have drained it. It takes too long to let the vehicle warm up fully so they don't. They fill it up pop the cap on and drive it out the door. My guess is you have an air lock. I would raise the front end take the rad cap off and fill it with the proper coolant. Run the engine with the cap off until it is completely warm topping off as needed. You should see/feel the thermostat open and the rad should get hot. When no more bubbles can be seen escaping you can put the rad cap back on.

X2 on air lock