i just picked up a 89 tbi 2 door blazer with a dead #3 cyl. tried running some seafoam through it to see if it may just have a sticky valve. it diddnt. still as dead as it was before. im thinking it has burnt valves or broken valve springs. i can hear the miss popping up into the intake a little when popping the throttle.

question #1
how easy is it to swap on heads off of a cpi? i have 6 to steal parts from.

if i did this i think i would keep it tbi. dont feel like swapping over the wiring.

question #2
also there is one 93-94 cpi blazer with a missing front clip, which gives easy access to the engine. only thing is that the engine was run dry and threw the mains. think the heads are still ok? the engine still runs, but sounds like a jack hammer. dont know if the cam is still salvageable though.

question #3
the temp gauge doesnt seem to be working. i swapped in a good coolant temp sensor and still no reading at the gauge. are there many issues with temp gauges going bad? i diddnt test any wires. i just threw parts at it. i like doing that. should i throw a gauge at it or take the time to test the wiring?

question #4
i think the cat shot. im trying to build this thing up to be ran in colorado. will swapping a cat from a newer cpi rig be smart? if i were keeping it here in wyoming id just delete it. i dont think the thing even has a rear o2.

 

Heads shouldn't be too much different between the TBI and CPI.

I would think that the heads would still be ok, but I would have them checked out before installing them.

I would test the wiring, but I would rather spend time testing than spend money taking the shotgun approach. But I would rather spend money on more important things than just tossing into parts.

Just get a universal cat and weld it in. Shouldn't cost you more than $75 installed after finding the right shop to do the work for you.

I can't help but think that you should actually determine the cause of your troubles with your current engine so you do not end up wasting your time. I would recommend a compression test and a leak-down test. These should lead you to the problem.

 

i can get all the used parts i want for free. i try not to spend money on anything. i'm 2 tests from being an ase master tech and those will be done in a couple months. so paying a shop to work on my vehicle is kinda like hiring a hooker for a hand job. its something i can do all by myself.

i just tore the top end down. it was seriously coked up with burnt oil. about 1/2" thick under the valve covers. there is barely and crosshatching left on the cylinder walls ontop of it. this means that the engine has been ran hot and hard for a good long time. i didnt hear any rod knock, and the engine ran realy strong other than the one dead miss. im thinking it may be a lost cause. even though the rods arent knocking now, they may soon start. theres a ton of carbon in the block. havent pulled the engine out, but im sure the pan looks the same way. im thinking it will take an engine swap if i want to get life back into this thing. the entire vehicle is in pretty poor shape though. lots of rust under it and the body is kinda beat up. i havent paid anything for it yet. the guy let me tear it down to see if it was worth fixing up. i picked it up at a crush site. its the only s10 there with an open title. but there are plenty of parts rigs there to pick from. he wants $350 for it. and if i decide i want it i can pull pretty much any part i need out of the yard to get it on the road. its tempting, but i think im going to look the entire thing over and build a list of parts that i will need to make it a decent rig and go from there. right now i have so many projects going, i may want to hold off. im building a rock rig out of a suzuki samurai with a cpi 4.3,700r4, and toyota axles and i went sci-fi on the rear suspention, so it has grown into quite the monster project. this little blazer could turn out to be a decent rig, but it would seriously bite into the time i want to spend on the samurai. i may pay for it and store it until i feel like messing with it.

 

i looked the entire rig over realy well and ive decided to keep her. im also going to keep the block. once i brought the head into work and cleaned it up i found the failure. it was a cupped intake valve. couldnt tell with the thick carbon buildup, but once i got the big chunk knocked loose it was obvious. the carbon build up in the engine made me decide to pull it and drop the pan. ive gotta get it cleaned out and looked over realy good. i want to get a good look at the rod/main bearings. i may hone the cylinders and redo the rings. once i hit the cylinders with a good light, i could see that there was still some crosshatching on the cylinder walls. no grooves or pits of any kind. i may not even need to mess with it. once i get the pan off and clean it out, i may just run it.

im going to pull the other engine apart tomorow and see what it looks like. like i said it was ran out of oil, but when i started it, it ran on all 6. so im pretty sure the heads are going to be just fine. pulling these engines apart while they are still under the hood is sure a pain. i do have to say that. gotta love how the power steering pump pully is kinda like the key to getting the drivers side apart. freakin engineers have a real screwed up since of humor.