I had my blazer running better than ever......I took a ride today and turned the heater on for the first time since last winter and had no heat.....i looked down at at the temp and it was reading a little over half way......when I pulled over to stop,... the engine died and would not start and stay running......

I checked radiator and it was empty........But the oil pan was full :-(.....

My question is.....could the intake gasket have finally given up and let that much coolant go all at once........and am i right to assume that it is just the intake gasket??

Damn that sure made me mad..I had it purring.....

 

That's exactly how it happened to me.
Had it running perfect and less than an hour later the LIM blew.
Sounds like you probably hit the diagnosis right on the head (unfortunately).

 

I've been holding my breath, hoping that the job had been done before I got it.....I think it probably lasted this long because it has been well cared for...

I did a spider job on it a month ago, I came close to going a little deeper........I should have......

 

The brown stuff is mixed well.........it feels thick and oily ......I can't feel any drag or friction between my fingers...and there is no separation [water/oil that i can see on the dipstick] ....

I shut it down as soon as I realized what had happened and sent for my son, his pickup, and my flatbed........



I have ordered the felpro gasket set and am going to drain the pan and start the tear down and cleanup.....wish me luck.......

any comments will be appreciated......or words of encouragement........I hate for stuff like this to happen, because i try my best to take care of my cars.....I think this might be the second time 50+ years of driving that i have been dead on the road......

funny thing......I pay for tow insurance........but too dumb to think of it ;-)

 

I consulted several YouTube videos and several other guides on the web to accomplish the job.
I've been doing this a long time so I was able to pick out the good stuff from each tutorial and get through it trouble free.
You will need a crow's foot to access the bolt on the distributor.
Line wrenches for the fuel lines.
Brass brushes to clean surfaces.
The most annoying part was having to loosen the power steering bracket just to clear that one bolt at the corner of the intake. Would have cut that corner off if I had a good cutting wheel at the time.
Happy wrenching!!

 

Thanks for the tips.....I do need to go find a crow's foot and also an inch pound torque wrench......I don't want to do any quess work on the torque....because i sure don't want to do this again.......there is just too much junk to wade thru to get to the work....it used to be soooo much simpler....


I just need to get the fuel lines off and the disty out....then cleanup begins..what a mess......I got 7 quarts of chocolate cream out of the oil pan and haven't spun the filter off yet......the stuff is the consistency of 90 weight gear oil.....I held the magnet on the plug up to the stream and did not get any metal at all.......glad of that ;-)

 

I've been thinking [that could be dangerous ;-)] about clean up, I know that it will be coated with that brown sludge all over,.....when i get the intake and the valve covers off, I'm wondering if i can go buy a couple gallons of diesel and put it in my weed sprayer and use that to do the initial flushing......then air and shop vac......??

 

well it's cleaner than i thought.......but I can see the sludge more on the top side .....I have about 7 quarts of the sludge that came out of the oil pan.......I can see some breaks in the gasket, so i know that was a definite problem.....



Now this may sound like a dumb question, since it was running great 5 minutes before it shut down, do i have any reason to think that I also have head gasket failure,,,,,,,,,,,???....I also had NO pressure on the radiator, and i popped the radiator cap right after it shut down.....I hope that i have answered my own question.......but can some point me right if I'm wrong on my assumption???

clean up begans

 

A compression test should answer part of the question on the head gasket.

If you had access to an endoscope I would have a look at all the cylinders and see if one looks as if power washed. e.g. no carbon deposit on the piston crown.

The trouble is that with all the water gone you're not sure if it did overheat as the sensor may have been uncovered. It may also depend on your impression when you popped the hood. Did you have the impression of an overheated stove or not.

Being that far in the engine...

...you can probably quess now where I'm headed with that thought. But that would come to the point where you'd probably just pull the engine.

I think the idea of the diesel is a valid one.

As you have to pull the pan anyway I would also pull at least one of the inner main bearings and one or two of the rod caps to have a look for heat damage and other damage. Pull the #1 or #2 which are furthest away from the oil pump and damage would show first.

If all is put together I would add an important step. Before you mount the distributor back, get one of the rods that can be used with a drill to pre-pressurize the oil system. Eventually use two or three quarts of some cheapo oil to flush all the bearings in the process, drain again, replace filter again and fill with regular oil, then pre-pressurize again before starting.

 

the engine was not abnormally hot, and did not smell hot, i opened the rad, cap with bare hand and felt hoses .......no smoke.....I think the damage to engine is minimal, I've been around a few that have been cooked, and I didn't get that impression when i opened the hood...........I've got the gaskets and am ready to put it back together.....I'm hoping for the best........

thanks for the tips......