after a long ordeal my first round of major repairs were a new muffler, cat, unclogged the part before the cat and replaced my 2 front cv axels (both boots were torn) I was over charged and not happy but I had no choice.
shes in decent running condition now.
just making a battle plan now on what to start with to get normal performance,

Truck has bad fuel mileage. having bigger tires shouldn't make that much of a deference do they ? i have 29.5" heavy duty mud tires

feels it has a rough idle at 600RPM (is that low)

There is a loud squeak in the morning on first warm up and then it goes away after 5 min so I'm guessing that's the serpentine belt.

My brake fluid flush (its a green tint) I read up that's factory color ?? its not tan, or dark goopy color, its like green tea on the paper towel.

Rad flush, no coolant leaks, (res and rad both look nice, no rust or chunkies) new cab air filters at the same time. i find that fun stuff

steering is a bit sloppy, steering wheel has maybe an 8th of wiggle .... looking to tighten gear box soon , also gear box looks like it has oil leak on it. not sure if that is from outside or inside or if that's the reason its sloppy.
is power steering fluid the same fluid as the transmission fluid?

I may have a small oil leak

also I noticed my oil smells like gasoline and visibly looks diluted. not sure if that has to do with my poor acceleration and fuel economy. I changed the oil and there was no signs of fuel bubbles or an over whelming scent. just some small metal chunks 🤢
hopefully that's not there next oil change.

and then I was looking to clean air intake, fuel injectors, get a new fuel filter and maybe fuel pump, that may also may have to do with my poor acceleration?

that should be it for basic maintenance?
Thank you for listening.

-Travis W-

 

Welcome to the forum.

Step one on running issues is scan for codes. Can you also look at live data?


George

 

Travis,

First off, Ditto to George's suggestion to get a reading of all the codes and pending codes. This will take the use of a good scanner. Many autoparts stores will do this for you for free.

Speaking to your identified problems first:

• Steering: Be sure to check the rag-joint that connects the steering wheel shaft to the steering gear. After 15+ years, these tend to wear out. A replacement with a stock one will help but if you want to go for an upgrade, look to adding a Flaming River u-joint.
• The poor fuel mileage is hard to blame on any one things. However, you mentioned the smell of gasoline and perhaps gas in the oil. This could mean you have a fuel leak under the intake plenum from the fuel injector spider. This is not an uncommon issue with trucks this old.
• I've never heard of a green tint to brake fluid. You might want to do a flush of the whole system just so you know you it is fresh.
• The serpentine belt and the tensioner might need to be replaced. There are marks on the tensioner that show if the belt has stretched or not. The bearings of the tensioner or the idler pulley can be going bad too. This is not an uncommon repair.
• You can do an easy check for the fuel pump by borrowing a tool from an auto parts store to check the pressure it provides. This tool can also be used to find if the fuel pressure is dropping due to a leak. I'd not mess with the fuel pump unless you know it is bad. And to keep your pump running well, do not ever go below E on the gauge and better yet, full up by an 1/8 of a tank if not 1/4.
• A very common oil leak on our Blazers is due to the lines to the remote oil filter leaking. If you replace these, consider replacing the gasket and o-ring for the remote oil lines to block adapter. When the o-ring fails, it can drain a lot of oil pretty quickly whereas the leaks from the oil lines themselves tend to only weep.

Now for other things you did not mention that should be at least checked:

• The underhood vacuum hoses tend to rot. These supply vacuum to the HVAC actuators and to the front axle engagement actuator. If you have a 3-button transfer case, vacuum is also supplied to it. These are easy to replace.
• Check the idler arm. The original design was pretty weak. For a good replacement, the Proforged version is considered the best. If you want to upgrade look for the "1-ton idler arm upgrade".
• Check the upper ball joints. These tend to wear out on our Blazers. While the wheels are up, also check the front hubs for any wobble.
• Depending on the year of your 4.3L motor, you could have the lower intake manifold (LIM) gaskets that would sometimes burst dumping coolant into the lifter valley ruining the motor. These were corrected in the early 2000s but the ones on my 99 were definitely on the way out when I replaced them. As soon as I heard of this issue, I replaced them.
• You should check the fluid in the transfer case, front and rear axles. If it is a 4-button transfer case, you will need a special fluid for it. As for doing a flush on the transmission (assuming it is an AT) you might want to hold off on that if the fluid looks brown and not fresh. It has been reported that transmissions that are wearing out will have this process accelerate if new fluid is added that has more detergents that then cause the clutch plates to get decontaminated and then slip. It is counter intuitive but it is something to ask around about first.

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you George - Important Note: I just payed a huge repair bill to have a P0304 code fixed and they said it was connected to having a clogged catalytic converter and the cast iron part in front of it, they cut it open cleaned it and re-welded that part
i got a new cat but its tiny and ****ty, i bought it ghetto straight piped, so they got me a new muffler too and I'm at least happy with that. they said my O2 sensors were good still. basically my exhaust system is redone, sounds nice and i have not had a check engine light since! I have a code scanner Innova 3011 and used it (cheap one, shops in Vancouver wont do it for free). It has no live feed and no codes come up. Theres 3 lights on it, green, yellow, red . the lights on yellow so it detects some thing, just not a problem to trip a code.
The truck runs nice at this point, I'm currently troubleshooting small things.

And Christine, I'm defiantly going to look into a fuel leak under the intake plenum from the fuel injector spider, there's lagging with my acceleration. I've had the exact same engine (4.3L V6 Vortec) before and my acceleration now is weak.
The gas pedal sinks to the floor and shifts gears going up hill unless i press the pedal harder. not cool
I'm definitely going to get a fuel pressure tester.
flushing my brake fluid is on the asap list. ( I'm going to pay for that but do the rad flush at home this weekend)
I just had my ball joints and font end suspension inspected they said it was all good and tight.
transmission fluid is super clean, looks like its been changed recently. personally id like to look in the pan and replace the filter but i don't have that experience yet..
I'm on a mission to find some local blazer peoples in Vancouver BC who can drink, smoke and politic trucks with me.
would make small talk like this much faster and easier haha .
I'm also goin to upload a bunch more pictures of things as i go.

Thank you guys very much for responding.