Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

My wife has a 2002 Blazer LS. 2 WD 2 DR. A couple of months ago the temperature gauge would shoot up and the check guages light would come on. I took it to the garage. They flushed the radiator. All was fine until two weeks ago. The same thing happened again. Temp gauge goes up and check gauge light goes on. She was driving home when this happened. She went to pull off the road and as she turned off the main road, the truck shut off. The truck has about 110,000 miles on it. I suspect that with the mileage the water pump and thermostat need to be replaced. A friend who is a mechanic said he would change these for us. He towed the truck to his house. He couldn't get the truck to start. Thought the battery might have been low. Recharged the battery but the truck still will not start. Could some sort of overheat protection have tripped and need to be reset? Totally unrelated problem? Or could have towing the truck locked something out? The truck just has the factory standard stuff installed. She bought it new off the car carrier with only 16 delivery miles on it. All responses and thoughts are welcomed. We hope she did not blow the head gasket.

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

If the water pump were bad it would probably be leaking and/or squealing. The thermostat could be bad, but it could also be a bad ECT (engine coolant temperature) sensor.

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

Well hopefully this isnt the case but just to rule out a worst case scenario trydraining the oil and check for milky fluid in the oil. If thats there then ya blew the head gaskets. More than likely probably warped the heads too. Seeing as its overheated muliple times andwont start its very likely this is the causeunfortunately.If you are at that stage youneed to havethe the top end rebuilt and the heads machined but you are looking at a decent chunk of change. Possibly if your buddy the mechanic can do it you might save a bit of cash.

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

I would recommend pulling the spark plugs, have one person crank over the engine while someone watches for coolant coming out of the cylinders. I'd also recommend a compression check.

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

Well, I hope the head gasket didn't blow. I will have the mechanic check the oil for signs of coolant in the oil. Thanks for the insight. We will let you know what happens.

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

same thing happened to me 98 4x4 4.3, I was hoping the intake gaskets, they look fine I am attempting the head gaskets tommrow,I hope the heads are not warped, Tell me how you turn out... [email protected] Thanks

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

I got the news from the garage. There is anti-freeze in the cylinders and in the oil.[:o] Either the head gasket is blown or she cracked the block. This was the quick look. We need to now have them do a further investigation to see what needs to be done to fix the engine. I am not sure what to do at this point. We still have about $6K to pay off on it. The mileage is up around 110K. Open to any suggestions on how to proceed.

RE: Wife's Blazer Overheated and won't start
 

Well now that's not good news.

To determine if it is a cracked block or blown head gasket, have them drain the coolant out of the block and do a compression test (after getting as much of the antifreeze out of the cylinder(s)) with all plugs out. If all of the compression is equal, then it most likely will be a failed intake manifold gasket. If you find one cylinder off, then it probably was a blown head gasket. A failed intake manifold gasket can do some pretty weird things and is far more likely to go than a head gasket.

One thing you have to question is how good the rest of the engine is if there was coolant in the oil. Chances are there will be bearing damage due to the coolant. You won't know how bad unless you open up the bottom of the engine.

Basically, if the headgasket is blown, I would have them price the repair of the headgasket as well as the price to install a replacement junkyard motor. It is quite possible that you will be able to find a motor with much less mileage than your engine currently has. Now, there are a few things to look at. I believe you'll need an engine out of an 2002-current vehicle for everything to match up right (knock sensor, egr system, etc).