Hello everyone,

My 1997 Blazer was losing a lot of antifreeze lately - a half gallon every 25 miles or so. It would puddle under the passenger side about halfway back. I bought the service manuals off Ebay, used this as my photo guide, and 4 days later I got everything off (several things delayed me: lack of tools, working outside in 30degree weather, and daylight).

I just pulled the lower manifold off and towards the back of the engine found something caked in the openings highlighted...I'm guessing that was coolant mixed with oil? The openings circled were completely covered. Would that cause my engine to overheat as it has been? The gaskets broke into 9 or 10 pieces each while trying to remove them.

 

I want to do mine in the spring. Let me know what the hardest part is when you're all done.

Make sure to flush the cooling system when you're done. If it looks like that there, it's sure to be everywhere else as well. Good to change coolant every 5 years or whatever it is.

 

From looking at the intake/head cooling ports and the rust, I'd say that that's not your only prolbem with the overheating. If the intake manifold gaskets are that bad, you mentioned there is oil mixed, and I bet you have high mileage, you have blown or ready to go completely head gaskets. The area you marked is not the intake manifold, it's the heads where the int. manifold joins. If you chose not to do the head gaskets, you'll soon find out that you've wasted the time Because, all that has to come off again when you do the head gaskets. While you have the heads off, do the valves seals at least and you'll be on your way.

 

On my car anyway, the most difficult were:

[heater hoses (don't laugh, I tried to be gentle so I wouldn't tear them), the last nut on the a/c compressor bracket, the fuel lines, and removing the radiator fan (not necessary but I wanted to make it easier to get to the bottom of the radiator to drain the fluid.

chevygonzalez,

There's no rust in there, believe it or not. The car has about 130,000 miles on it. Valve seals? You mean the valve cover gaskets? I plan on it.

 

No he is talking about the actual seal on the valves themselves....You have to remove the valve springs and retainers to access the valve seals. It is just cheap insurance for down the road.
I would hate to see you do all this work and then later find out that you are burning some oil due to faulty valve seals.

 

Scary thing is I had the coolant flushed twice in the past year (was having trouble with transmission, couldn't shift out of 1st. mech. recc'ed I flush it to fix. Didn't help and the leak problems started. I have a feeling the previous owner filled the system with stop-leak. Thinking it gunked up the system. Having trouble getting the 10mm bolt holding the distributor back in correctly. Goes in real smooth halfway then suddenly there's no way I can budge it. I must have something stuck in the bolt thread.

 

Might try a thread cleaner.

 

I just wrapped up replacing my intake manifold gasket and putting the engine back together, but now the thing won't start! I was searching the forums to see if there is a post about it and that's what brought me to this post.

Anyways, I wanted to share my picture of the sludge buildup I encountered when I removed my lower intake. It was in the water port in the head and all I had was my Palm Pre to take the pic so they're not the greatest, but get the point across!





Nasty stuff!

Just wanted to share my pics on my travels through the forums for starting help!

 

Alright. Reinstalled everything...problem. The car cranks but won't start. Battery is fine. I think I reinstalled the distributor incorrectly. The shaft must have turned while it was out. Me and my father couldn't get the original match marks to line up (it would hang up a 1/4" gap if I did) so we installed it with the rotor 30degrees counterclockwise (which was one of two positions where it would actually sink all the way in). My OBDII scanner doesn't show up with any problems.

 

If you lost your references, you need to start from scratch using the procedure explained in the timing thread found in the Tech Article (DIY) Index link in my signature below.