Blazer Forum - Chevy Blazer Forums - Gasket or Cracked Head??

OK, I'm not too car savvy but I do know a little, and that does actually mean a little. Anyway, I have a 97 V6 Blazer, it has I'm guessing close to 200k miles on it, might take a second but I'll get to the problem just want to give a little history first. When we bought it the previous owner "said" he had replaced the water pump but I'm not sure as to why. We had it for about 2 years or so and last summer it started pouring water, I took it to a shop and it ended up being the water pump but also had a crack down the side of the radiator about 5-6 inches long. I had the pump replaced but couldn't afford the radiator at the time. The water was always muddy looking and when I had it flushed they said it almost looked like chocolate milk?? I didn't get a radiator until around January or so and verything seemed perfect until May. That's when my bog problem hit, for a week or so it had been kind of spuddering when I would hit the gas, but to me it only seemed to do it when it got up to temp. And then one day I was driving down he road and it started spuddering really BAD almost like it had trash in the line or was out of gas, then it died. I couldn't get it to start up again and them realized it was super hot, I had been watching the temp out of habit bc of the previous problems and it just shot up. I called my boyfriend and he tried to drive it back to the house, which was maybe a mile or so but it didn't make it. He towed it the rest of he way and when he checked the oil it was muddy looking. So my question is, is there an easy way to check what's wrong with it besides pulling the motor? I know it's not an easy job, but I'm sure if it's the gaskets that would be much easier then replacing the heads and cheaper. Any ideas??

Thanks