Well, I was hoping my 96 blazeer LT would make it throught the winter, in August I put in a new fuel pump, MP3 player (factory CD died) and was hoping to get to next spring. Well on Friday I am driving home from work and see "Check Gages" flash. I look and I am close to red on the temp gauge.

I pull into Canadian tire, just happend to be passing one, and check the overflow, empty. I just assumed I was low on coolant so I went in a bought a premis Dexcool. It was very cold and windy so when I got out it was cool enough to open the rad. No coolant in sight. I poured half the jug in, the other half in the overflow. I had a bad feeling.

I did notice the last few days it was idling rough but I thought is might must need a good tuneup, 150KM only!

The next day I drove to the local gas station filled it up and checked the tires. Lots of heat and ran fine. This morning the wife took it shopping and when she got home said there was weird noises coming from the glove box. I told her it was air in the system but I would look at it. I went out and started it, temp was high so I shut her down. No coolant in the overflow. I pulled the oil dip stick and found my coolant! It is getting in the oil.

Strange thing is I do not see any white smoke that would indicate a blow head gaskget. Is there another gaskget or seal that might have blow?

Can anyone with a simular problem give me an idea what you spent to repair. Engine does start and run smooth so I do not think anything was damaged by the coolant in the oil and high temp.

Regards.

Mark.

 

Intake gasket's are leaking anti-freeze into the oil. Don't wait too long to fix them or it will wash all the oil of crankshaft and spin the bearings. Been there done that.

 

Sounds like a lower intake manifold gasket failure... Mostlikely is a failure at the waterjacket into which if it doesn't leak to the outside, it'll leak down into the lifter valley.

Cost to repair really depends on if you've wasted the crank/rod bearings with all of that coolant in the oil. If there is coolant in the oil, DO NOT run the engine any longer. If you must to move it around your property to do the repair, drain the cooling system and only run it for a minute or two at a time.

If you can do the work yourself, all you'll spend money on is the new intake manifold gaskets, that is if nothing else has been destroyed by the coolant in the oil...

 

Thanks for the fast response.

I suspect it was run for a bit with the coolant in the oil. I did start it and it seems to run Ok right now. My skills are slowly improving but I am a novice at best. If this repair is just labor instensive I will attempt. Any gotcha's? Method of attack?

I am not afraid to try, I changed my own water pump recently in the driveway, what a mess!

M.

 

Well based on the advise above I had my Blazere towed to my local garage. He confirmed the intake has failed and estimates the repair around $600 to $700 CAN. I can take that pill but what concerns me is the bearings. I started the truck and it did run, no back firing, missing, rough idle. Just runs hot due to low coolant. The oil is obviously contaminated as the dip stick is almost to the top with coolant.

My question to anyone who may have had this problem, do I roll the dice and repair it or send her packing? It is a shame as it only has $150ish KM, no rust and in August I put a fuel pump in and CD player (Which I can pull).

I sitting at 50/50.

m.

 

Well, the true sign of whether there is bearing problems is to pull off the pan... If you don't hear any knocking with fresh oil in it... I don't know... How long was it run with coolant in the oil, rough guestimate?

 

I estimate an hour. I am not sure how long the coolant has been weeping into the oil. I am sure the major blow out was Friday on the way home, which is about 20 minutes from my house. The on the weekend the wife went out shopping, again close by. She did hear noises form the glove box area but I suspect that was air lock in the heater core.

Getting back to the bearing. I did start it when she came home it was hot and ran ok as noted below. My gut feeling is to repair the intake and see if I can make it through the winter. What are the signs the bearing is going or gone?

Thanks for the advice.

Mark.

 

If you spun a bearing, you would already know. It would be knocking for sure. If it was a main bearing, it would cut off oil flow and destroy the bottom end PDQ. Rod bearings may take a bit longer before they finally let loose, but you should still be able to hear it.

If it wore things hard enough, you may notice a drop in the oil pressure.

 

Well, rolled the dice and gave a green light to the garage. I like the guy as he is honest. He told me they ran it and did not hear anything and stated up front running coolant in the oil will hurt the bottom end but it may not be noticed for weeks or months. If I can get the winter out of it I am a happy camper.

Thanks,

Mark.