Water leaking in to cylinder(s) on 93 Blazer
 

I've been battling a water leak for quite some time. Originally, I had a leak in the radiator at the upper oil coolant line joint in the plastic tank. Put in a new GM radiator and was all set. Or so I thought! After awhile I noticed I was running low on coolant, it just kept getting worse, losing it quicker all the time. I never had any visual leaks, nothing coming out of the exhaust, but always a faint coolant smell. I was all set to tackle a heater core problem only the heater core wasn't leaking inside or outside the vehicle (thank goodness, not something I wanted to tackle). I lost enough coolant, as I would add water, I eventually had nothing but water in the engine and the water was getting rusty. I decided it was time to do a leak down test. I pumped up the coolant system to 16 lbs. one evening (engine not 100% cool, but really close) and left it over night. Next morning I still had 14 lbs. This problem was becoming a real pain! I decided on trying some KW block sealant. That is quite a process as the engine needs to be flushed, and no antifreeze can be present (my water was already rusty, so antifreeze was all gone:)). I ran a bottle of flush through the engine after I had thoroughly flushed the heater core, block, radiator and coolant tank. Water was running out crystal clear. Time to add the KW block/head gasket sealant. You premix the sealant with 3 quarts of hot water and add to radiator, start engine and top off cooling system with water. Allow engine to run AT LEAST 30 minutes (I let mine run for 1 hour). Allow engine to cool down, drain coolant system and leave open for 24 hours to thoroughly dry out. Flush system with water until it flow out clean and clear, drain, and top off with appropriate antifreeze mixture. Wow, I was finally done. After a whole week of driving, my radiator and over flow tank were still full! Finally, I fixed the blasted leak!

Previously, I had pulled the plugs and found the middle cylinder's plug on the passenger side of the vehicle to be burning white, as if it were lean, but I figured it was water (I did this when my system was purely water and no antifreeze). The front cylinder on the same side had a slight water burn look to it as well.

After about a month, she started losing antifreeze again, this time at about twice the previous rate! It is leaking bad enough now that I can tell in the mornings when I start the engine it is missing on a cylinder for a brief period, then smoothes out. Run fine down the road but idle is rough, similar to a leaky CPI. I called around to see who and how much labor would be to replace the head gaskets, prices ran from 600 to 1200. I figured I'd just do it myself. Well, this evening I tore in to it, 3 hours later I had the passenger side head off. The middle cylinder was the worst, the front has a little indication in it as well. Trouble is, I couldn't for the life of me tell where the head gasket was giving a problem. I'm hopeful it is not a cracked head. I'm still leaning towards a head gasket seep since it affects two cylinders. Attached are pictures of the cylinders and head. Notice the white flakey residue in the cylinder and the build up on the head and the prominently white valves of the middle cylinder. When viewing the pistons, you can see that the front two cylinders are been decarboned due to the water, the rear piston is still carboned up.

What I want to do is clean it up and replace the right head gasket and put it back together. However, I probably should have the head checked for cracks Any thoughts from the gurus on here?


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RE: Water leaking in to cylinder(s) on 93 Blazer
 

It would have been nice to see a picture of all the cylinders to compare. It does look like those pistons have been steam cleaned. As you already have the head off, get it checked for cracks.

RE: Water leaking in to cylinder(s) on 93 Blazer
 

yeah, you can't really tell if there is a crack without cleaning them first. Then it's even difficult. You really need to have them magna-flux'd

RE: Water leaking in to cylinder(s) on 93 Blazer
 

yeah you've got it dude...even if it were obvious that the gasket blew,.....I would still pay the $15.00 to have the head checked while it was already off...since it isn't obviously a blown gasket you have to have that head checked...magna-fluxed or pressure tested.

RE: Water leaking in to cylinder(s) on 93 Blazer
 

You can see the rear cylinder, the front portion, next to the steam cleaned middle cylinder. After careful examination, I found where the metal band that crimps around the gasket material at the cylinder opening had a hairline crack, both cylinders. The cracks were back to back on the cylinders. To late for a head check, nothing doing around these parts over the weekend and come Monday I have other jobs to do. I'm only doing the right head since I found the cracks in the head gasket and the previous knowledge of only those two spark plugs showing any sort of varying burn from the other cylinders.

On another note, I discoverdd what could have been a potential problem and probably what was causing my random lifter tick. I'll post pictures of this when I get home. In the mean time, it was a faulty rocker arm that had a bur that was gualding the ball valve. Apparently it has been at it quite some time as it had reshaped the side of the rocker arm. This was only a problem a the very front rocker arm.

Another problem I found was the rear most oil drain hole in the right head had been plugged up with silicone sealer. This engine had a bad oil leak which was the valve cover gasket. The entire lower rear corner of the gasket was folded in the to the top of the head. I had replaced the gasket when I first got the Blazer, but was un-aware of the attempt that had been made to fill the void with sealer. I found it when I was unable to get a socket on the rear head bolt, it was completely covered in silicone.

I'm getting ready to load the antifreeze and fire it up. Will just have the hood and grille to install for tomorrow.