Hi everyone,
Im new too the sight but from the other postings I think im in the right place. I have a 96 Blazer, 4 door, 4 wheel drive with about 178,000 miles on it. When im driving there is a realy strong smell of radiator fluid. It may just be my imagination but it seems worse when the heator is running. Anyways, I cant find any leaks in the engine compartment, and its notleaking in the cab so I don't think it's the heater core. Does anyone have any sugestions?

 

hows the reservoir, still full.

 

I see that you're in California, so I imagine it's not to cold there.
If you start it cold in the morning does the windshield fog up a little?
Did you try pulling the front passenger carpet back a little and checking for moisture there?
Normally when you can smell coolant inside the cabin, it's the heater core.

 

I'm with Chevy Lover on this. It sounds like the start of a heater core leak that hasn't gotten to the "flood your floor" stage yet.

 

I got a little different perspective.

Look at your hoses again, especially at the ends. You'r looking for a little white residue, or little drops of anti-freeze. Crawl under the truck too, take the skid plate off, the one that goes between the engine and radiator. Shine a flash light on all your hose connections, and look at your water pump. Find the little weep hole, see if its leaking. The weep hole may be on top of the water pump so look for it on top as well. The weep hole is a hole in the pump about 1/4" in diameter, it is located about 1/2" from the from of the water pump, behind the flange the radiator fan mounts too. Its best to do these checks right after you shut the truck off. You could also do the checks with the engine running, however put it up on ramps first, its a safety thing. Do the checks after driving the truck for 20 minutes or so, you want everything up to operating temp when you chek it.

Where ever you see the signs of anti-freeze, thats your leak.

I jsut chased down a troubling anti-freeze leak in my sons truck, and we changed the hose last night. Same symtoms as yours, could smell it in the cab, and the odor got stronger when teh heater was on. His turned out to be the heater core hose where it attached to the radiator. I missed it the first few times. The leak was in a very difficult place to see. The hose was hard and not sealing very well, while ideling it sealed, but under pressure, engine rpms up, it was leaking. Yep, I found it while he was giving it gas and I had my flashlight out in the middle of the day.

Hope that helps, and keep us up to date on what you find, or dont find. We'll help you get it figured out, eventually.

 

Hanr3is probably right about some coolant seapage at hoses. Does it happen at all times or only when the engine is hot? have you had it pressure tested? heater cores are somewhat common causes on Chevy's so I 'd also check that.

 

I must be in the none common group. I have never had to replace a heater core.