Ashyukun's Winter Beater: The Blazer of Glory

It never cease to amaze me how fast I get things from McMaster-Carr... the stainless nuts for the exhaust got here in about a day. Unfortunately I've confirmed that one of the studs on the new engine's exhaust manifold got bent removing the engine so the nut won't go on easily. Trying to decide whether to keep trying to bang it straight enough with a hammer or try and remove one of them from the 'spare' manifolds to replace it. Ran a die over the other studs to make sure the nuts will go on smoothly.

Pulled the oil pan off and cleaned it out, and attacked the valve covers and upper intake with cleaners to get them looking a bit better. Undecided if I want to try painting them (not going to paint the rest of the engine- would just be too much work for not enough real probability of return...) but do want them clean and looking as good as possible. May try cleaning off the oil pan a bit more while it's off, but again- not a huge likely value in having it really clean since it will just get dirty again, fast.

Did some poking around under the truck and have decided that it doesn't look like the transmission oil cooler lines were damaged when I didn't have them fully unhooked from the engine when I started pulling it, so I'm not going to replace them.

Got the new engine mounts ordered- we'll see when they arrive if they're actually what I need or not. The chassis has the holes for different mount setups, I'll just need to make sure that the actual mount locations match up between the new and old.

Well, the oil pan and intake are now installed on the 'new' engine with fresh gaskets and (hopefully) properly torqued bolts. Important safety tip: my 3/8" torque wrench is useless at trying to measure very low torque like the 2ft-lbs that the lower intake bolts are supposed to be torqued to initially.

I should easily have the distributor re-installed this evening along with likely putting the new water pump on. I'd LIKE to be cleaning up and prepping the engine bay, but it's looking like it will be raining so I'll be limited to stuff in the garage. Which is fine- there's not that much that really NEEDS to be done in the engine bay, but there are a number of things that would be nice.

my manual calls for 12 foot pounds, if you only went 2 , you may end up with a leak?

Anything under 10ft.-lbs. does not require a torque wrench. Tighten in sequence and you're good.

warpedredneck wrote: my manual calls for 12 foot pounds, if you only went 2 , you may end up with a leak?

For the lower intake the manual calls out a 3-step torque: 2, 9, and 11. I had the wrench set for 2 and I just wasn't doing anything at all. Eventually just set it to 9 after snugging the bolts and went from there.

Have pretty much everything ready for putting the engine back in the truck now. Just have to work out how to get the distro in, but will need the engine on the hoist since my stand interferes with them flex plate and I can't currently rotate the engine to get to TDC-1...

Really hope to get the engine in and started before the end of the weekend since I'm only a week or so from the end of the warranty period on it...

How are we two pages into this build thread without any photos?

I barely know what I'm reading about if I don't have a picture every second paragraph to help me along.

Keep up the progress!

I'm usually posting from my phone so don't do well at posting in-line photos. I did post the photobucket link early on: Blazer of Glory

Took a half day off yesterday to get some stuff done at home including fighting with the Blazer's engine- and right before calling it quits for the day finally managed to get it landed on the mounts properly. Still have to get all the pins and one of the exhaust pipes lined up, but it's at last moving along.

Spent the last week working on getting the engine in and aligned properly- only to finally learn yesterday that the reason I was having such a bear of a time was that I hadn't realized that the Astro van I pulled the engine from uses a different driver's side manifold than the Blazers and thus wasn't fitting in through the narrower frame. Something that would have meant I'd have had the engine all the way in a week ago and probably be about done with everything else by this point.

Since I had to cut two of the studs off of the Blazer's original manifold to get it out of the truck and further snapped one off even closer to the manifold trying to get it out myself, I either need to take it to a local shop to have the old studs removed and pick up replacement ones or outright buy a new manifold (which tends to come with the new studs as well). Which I do will depend on how much it will cost to have the studs pulled- a friend at work said it had cost him $25 to have two broken studs pulled from a cylinder on his plane's engine, but these should be a LOT easier than that would have been. A new manifold is about $85 shipped from Amazon.

Otherwise, the engine is now lined up and all but a few of the bellhousing bolts attached. After the manifolds the next fun thing will be getting the flex plate bolted to the torque converter...

Took the manifold to the exhaust shop this morning on the way to work- was $30 to have the studs replaced (including the new studs themselves). Less than half what buying a new one would cost- works for me! Probably won't get to work on it much until Friday at the earliest, have things with SWMBO going on the next two evenings.

With the actual correct manifold and unhooking the steering shaft and swinging it up out of the way things went in a LOT more easily. After the weekends' worth of work, the only thing under the engine left to be done is tightening up the exhaust flange nuts and the top is probably about 70% put back together. Flex plate is bolted up to the TC (with Loctite), all the bellhousing bolts that are going back in are installed. I even got the driver's side accessory bracket with the PS pump on it bolted back onto the engine. I have some faint glimmer of hope that if I have a few hours this evening that I'll actually get the whole engine back together (though I doubt I'll get the doghouse put entirely back together so quickly...) and only be a bunch of checks and fluid filling away from being able to start it up.

Got the rest of the engine put together and hooked up and all of the fluids put back in over the last few weeks and was finally able to make a go of starting the 'new' engine for the first time on Monday. Initial attempts led to it just cranking over but not even remotely beginning to make an attempt at firing up. Guessed that I probably had the timing 180-degrees off so tried re-stabbing the distributor, and it fired up almost immediately- but ran quite roughly at idle. Did much better when at speed, but really stumbled when I let off the gas and eventually died.

Would NOT start back up- after a few tries and it not doing anything but dimming the lights, the starter would just whine when I turned the key. Took the starter out and had it checked- and the solenoid isn't working so have ordered a new one- along with a new rotor, distributor cap, and plug wires for good measure. I also dug out my actual piston stop so I can properly find TDC-1 and make sure I'm setting the time right- and crossing my fingers that something internal didn't break and seize up the engine (can turn the main crank pulley by hand, but it's very tough to do).

Will see what happens when the new parts show up... hopefully it was just something with the starter and not something with the engine itself that will mean having to pull it BACK out again...

Thanks to Amazon's Sunday delivery, the new ignition hardware showed up yesterday and I got to work yesterday afternoon putting it in. After a lot of checking I found that the distributor was probably one tooth off from where it should have been, so about 15 degrees off time- that would probably account for the rough running. Got it set right and the new rotor, distributor cap, and plug wires installed. Also tightened down all of the exhaust hardware since it was leaking exhaust all over the place when running. Theoretically the starter should show up today and if the weather is decent I'll get it on the truck and see about getting it started again.

Got some of the interior parts replaced last night since I had the time. The driver's panel needs to be repainted to be the right (dark) color, but at least now it HAS one. Unfortunately found out that I got the wrong center console lid- I apparently grabbed one from a pre-interior-redesign model, so will need to hit the salvage yard again to see about getting the right one. If the engine runs well and I get the rest of the front end back together, I may see about heading up and looking for one this weekend in the truck.

Got the new starter in yesterday and wasted no time throwing it on the truck and trying it out. With the new starter and the distributor finally set right it fired right up and ran pretty much perfectly- except for the fact that the driver's side exhaust manifold is quite clearly NOT sealing properly both from how it sounds and the fact that when I rev it up it blows little flamey bits out from near the #3 cylinder exhaust port. That's something I'll have to tackle tonight since it was too hot from running to try and deal with it last night. It's probably going to mean at least loosening the whole thing up and trying to check the gaskets- hopefully it won't mean having to pull the thing out completely, the EGR pipe is a BITCH to deal with if that's the case. I'll also probably have to pull the driver's fender off again AND finally pull the inner fender (which I should have done in the first place, would have made getting the engine in and realizing the issue with the wrong manifold MUCH easier) to accomplish that.

For some reason the marker lights on the passenger side front aren't coming on... will have to figure that one out before I can put the front end back together. And the blower motor for the HVAC isn't coming on at all, so I'll need to figure out if it's the motor itself, the resistor, or another issue entirely. Small stuff, but it does of course add up. Still hope to have it running and drivable by the weekend though, assuming I don't have to get a whole new manifold (which WILL mean making another salvage yard run since a manifold from there is 1/3 the cheapest I can find online).

So, lesson learned: I apparently suck pretty hard at installing the single-port exhaust manifold gaskets. Turns out I had the front two on the driver's side way off- once they were put on properly everything seems to run perfectly. So- the engine is done, though I do need to find a way to hold the fan shroud down a bit- some of the tabs were broken off and the fan occasionally rubs against it.

Tonight's plans:

Try and figure out what's up with the front right marker lights. If I can't figure it out but the turn signals still work, I'll not hold up putting the front end back together- I think I can access all of the wires easily enough with just the front fascia off, and it's just held on with tension clips if I need to pull it back off.

Secure the fan shroud (hello, zip-ties).

Try and figure out what's up with the blower. Is the motor shot? Is it the resistor? Fuse? Again, not something that will keep me from putting the body back together- I fully intend to have it put back together and drivable by the time SWMBO gets home from work.

My training Friday afternoon was moved up to tomorrow, so I can now safely take the whole day off Friday to run up to the salvage yards in search of the interior pieces and other fun things. And possibly pick up a tow dolly if I'm feeling really adventurous (and it's still around...).

Well the Blazer made its first trip under its own power yesterday evening, running to the nearest Advance Auto to get a new turn signal bulb and some antifreeze.

The front lights turned out to be the simplest possible solution: both the side marker and turn signal bulbs were burned out (they likely got abused a bit when the harness was largely loose). The side marker I had a spare of sitting around but none of my other vehicles use the same bulb as the turn signal so I needed to get new ones.

I did lots of testing of the blower motor & resistor and had assumed that it was the resistor and was prepared to replace it (since I'd tested the motor with straight 12V and it ran) but when I drove to the store I found that the fan actually worked, so for the moment am leaving it be and seeing what happens with it.

I think I've got the fan shroud issue resolved with a very large zip-tie.

Of course, with it now actually moving, more issues have come up that will need to be addressed. Almost immediately after getting it on the road the CEL came on- I've not had the chance to pull the codes (I got it running shortly after SWMBO got back from work so only had time to run to the store and back before we needed to get dinner going), but I'd put good money on it being an ABS code- several times at very low speeds when the truck was almost stopped (under 5 mph) the ABS seemed to kick in and caused the brakes to pulse (scared the crap out of me the first time).

Speaking of the brakes, they're kind of soft so I probably need to try and bleed them. They work well enough though, but compared to the other cars (including the generally-similar Mariner) they're quite soft. It's also unfortunately quite apparent that the shocks need to be replaced. The good is that they're pretty much dirt cheap... $70 should get me all four corners of the basic variety. Will obviously take some effort to replace them though...

Things to hopefully do this evening:

1. Flush the coolant and refill it- I put a coolant system cleaner in it when I filled it and should have had it circulating enough over the last few days for it to do its job. I have a back-flush kit to install to make this easier.

2. Read the CEL code. Strong bets are it will be a problem with one of the front ABS sensors since that appears to be a common issue with the S-10s/Blazers. Unfortunately all the local parts stores charge 3-4x what I can get a new one from online, so it will be a day or so before I get a new one in if that is the problem.

3. Maybe try bleeding the brakes.

Also will need to clean the crap out of (or off of) the windows- almost need to do more cleaning on the inside than the outside it seems!

But- ultimately even with the quibbling issues: I now have a drivable winter beater that I should be able to do some towing with if the chance arises.

Once you've cleaned up the interior as much as possible, here's a trick I used to reduce the smoke smell in the minivan.

Heat up vinegar to boiling on the stovetop (probably in a pot you don't care about). Set the pot of hot vinegar in the car ( I put it on a chunk of wood, didn't know if it could stain/scorch the carpet.) Start the engine and run the blower at full speed until the vinegar has cooled down. Repeat a few times.

I may have seen this idea from someone on the board here.

eastsidemav wrote: Once you've cleaned up the interior as much as possible, here's a trick I used to reduce the smoke smell in the minivan. Heat up vinegar to boiling on the stovetop (probably in a pot you don't care about). Set the pot of hot vinegar in the car ( I put it on a chunk of wood, didn't know if it could stain/scorch the carpet.) Start the engine and run the blower at full speed until the vinegar has cooled down. Repeat a few times. I may have seen this idea from someone on the board here.

Thanks for the tip! I'll probably take it and have the interior cleaned by the place that cleaned up the Prius and the Mariner. It's not particularly cheap (but the cheapest for a full interior detail that I know of locally) but they're quite thorough and honestly I really don't like having to scrub interiors. If their cleaning doesn't knock out the smoke smell enough I'll give the vinegar a go.

So, the (extended, for me...) weekend was interesting for the Blazer. After checking it out and everything seemingly being OK on Thursday I set out Friday to head up to Cinci to hit the salvage yards to find some of the remaining parts (mostly interior trim) I wanted for the truck (as well as just having a nice peaceful day playing in the junkyard). I was a little worried about there possibly being an exhaust leak- so I picked up a CO detector at WalMart and put it on the passenger seat (I'd been getting headaches when driving it around town and wasn't sure it was the heavy smoke smell in the truck or exhaust).

The drive up to Cinci was largely uneventful beyond my thinking that it was sucking down a lot more gas than I thought it should- it blew through about half a tank in the ~80 miles between home and the salvage yard. The drive between yards was also uneventful beyond finding that it didn't like sitting at a stop sign and idling- it would stutter a bit. The drive between the 2nd yard and eastsidemav's place was a bit more interesting- it involved a considerable hill, and the truck did NOT like that one bit- it just felt like the engine had no power or that it wasn't getting to the wheels. Also a few miles from getting there a REALLY loud whine started coming from the front end, that weirdly disappeared after I came to a complete stop. Some driving around and testing it after I got there seemed to indicate that it was something to do with the front diff- seemingly it was dragging a bit when coasting, but it completely went away at higher (highway) speeds. Beyond the mileage again being a bit low on the drive back and the diff whine showing up when I got off the highway near home, the drive back went fine.

The diff whine was pretty much constant when I tried taking the truck to church yesterday. Some research says that it may be that the actuator to engage the 4wd may be misbehaving, so I'll be trying to diagnose that when I change out the front wheel bearings- it seems pretty apparent both front ones need it and they're likely where the ABS problem is coming from too.

Also showing up on the OBD scanner is that shift solenoid A has an electrical fault, so I ordered replacement solenoids and a new filter so will be dropping the pan and valve housing and seeing about replacing the solenoids.

The likely reason for the lack of power and efficiency is that both forward and the rearmost O2 sensors were throwing codes (front ones a heater code, the back was completely unresponsive). Checking under the hood I found that the fuse for them was blown- replaced it before driving it yesterday and will see if it stayed intact- if not, I'll have to figure out what is causing it to blow.

So- it's technically drivable, but does have some issues.

The new shift solenoids and transmission filter showed up yesterday- unfortunately the wheel hubs won't show up until later this week at the earliest (chose to save a bit of money on them instead of getting them more quickly since it's not crucial to have them immediately). I would have gotten into replacing the solenoids but it was raining out, so I tackled something way less crucial: replacing the stereo. I'd picked up a decent-looking but dusty Sony head unit at the salvage yard and had tested that it at least powered on over the weekend, so grabbed the adapter I'd found on my first Blazer part-hunt some time ago and pulled the dash apart to replace the stock stereo. Half the illumination didn't work on the stock one and it had no aux input, plus I was curious if the fact the rear passenger speaker didn't work was a fault with the speaker (since it LOOKS fine) or the stereo. Unfortunately the new stereo didn't fix the speaker, so I'll replace it with the junkyard one I grabbed. If that still doesn't do it, it's something with the wiring which will NOT be fun to hunt down.

While I was doing things inside the cabin, I pulled out the original door switch and replaced it with the one that matches the door panel currently on the driver's door. Unfortunately, this did not fix the power mirrors not working. Annoyingly, the schematic for the power window system is apparently NOT in the repair manual so I can't as easily diagnose what's wrong. I do have ANOTHER switch (in the color the door panel is supposed to be...) I can try too, but I'm not that confident in it working either. Not crucial- I've adjusted the mirrors by hand- just annoying.

When I took the Blazer out to the store, the first few times I started and stopped the grinding/dragging from the front right was very prominent, but after the 3rd stop/start it went away completely and didn't return through stopping at 3 stores (annoyingly had bought the new blower resistor and an add-on transmission drain plug kit from the wrong Advance). Still not 100% certain what it is, but when I replace the hubs I'll pull the battery and check the 4wd actuator under the battery since it seems that's a likely culprit.

If the weather is better tonight I'll try and replace the solenoids and inspect the O2 sensors- after my driving around yesterday the O2 sensor fuse had not blown, so that's encouraging. Didn't get the chance to pull the codes though and see if the O2 sensor codes are still showing up or not. I am unfortunately still noticing idle issues, so I'm guessing I'll need to replace the IACV- will try and test the current one first though.

Also still seeing coolant loss though even through all the driving I've done it's not overheated at all- it just pulls all the coolant out of the overflow bottle...

On Tuesday the new transmission solenoids came in, so that evening I was finally able to get to pulling the transmission pan and seeing about replacing them. While I was at it installed a drain setup to the pan to make servicing it easier down the line, which meant that I couldn't put the pan right back on because of needing to wait for the RTV I put on to make sure it sealed to dry. Was able to get the pan back on last night and also replaced the blower resistor which was indeed the problem with the blower. The new front hubs came in yesterday too, so I should be able to tackle that on my vacation day tomorrow.

Debating if things go really well with the hubs to run out to Louisville to the other salvage yards there for a few things- it seems likely I need a new IAC, and I wouldn't mind picking up the 4WD vacuum actuator and switch to see if that resolves the issue with the font diff/transfer case. Would also give me a chance to see how the O2 sensors do- I've not seen the codes for them since replacing the blown O2 sensor fuse so hopefully that will improve the gas mileage. Will probably see about cleaning the MAF as well for good measure.

Now if only I could figure out why I keep losing coolant...

Things Friday morning actually went halfway as planned and I got both front hubs replaced, surprisingly in about the amount of time I'd hoped for the job to take. The only real casualty was smashing the hell out of one of my little fingers hitting a wrench with a hammer to break a bolt free, but that's healing nicely.

I drove the truck around quite a lot that afternoon and evening and had none of the previous issues with noises or drag from the front end. The transmission code also didn't rear its head at all and the it shifted nicely; the O2 sensor codes have also not reappeared nor has the fuse blown. Also, after all of the driving the coolant level is actually still where it should be- the only change there was that I put the hose clamp back on the hose coming off the radiator neck to the overflow canister.

Unfortunately, all is still not completely well. Trying to accelerate in higher gears up a slight hill it still seems to bog down a bit- I don't know whether it's something with the fuel system (pump or filter) or something with the electronics (like the TPS). The temp gauge is also back to pointing straight down- there seems to be absolutely no consistency to it behaving or not. Some Googling shows that there is apparently a common issue with the gauges in these things... I guess I may have to pull one from a salvage yard and try and rebuilt it- or say 'berk it' and pick up a cheap aftermarket temp gauge and install that somewhere.

Finally, there's a rather bad oil drop coming from the where the remote oil filter adapter bolts to the block. I picked up the kit with all the gaskets for the remote filter setup, so will be draining the oil and replacing all of those- and trying to find the torque spec for that adapter.

Honestly, if I can get the oil problem resolved the truck will be completely drivable. The bogging down is an annoyance but shows up so little in driving around town that I'm not worried about it too much. Have not tried putting it into 4WD again yet- if it is still not working, will have to see about replacing the vacuum lines the control it as well as possible the fitting on the transfer case.

Last night slightly against my better judgement I bundled up and headed out into the cold to try and get the oil leak taken care of. Right off the bat I should have just decided to not bother- I started the Blazer up to warm the oil up a bit and was treated to the sight of coolant almost flowing down the front of the engine. I should have decided to put it off until after the holidays and when it was hopefully a bit warmer out- but no, I wanted to get things done, so pushed ahead.

Put the pan under the car and pulled the oil pan plug to start draining the oil and started trying to track down the source of the coolant. Eventually found that it seemed to be coming from around the passenger-side water pump-to-block connection- which unfortunately is buried completely under the passenger-side serpentine setup & alternator. So, unhook the battery and set to work pulling that side's worth of accessories. The good: as near as I can tell, it was apparently not an actual/true leak as much as it looked like it was leaking from around the ends of several hoses. I apparently didn't tighten the hose clamps down as tight as I should have and with the very cold weather this was allowing the coolant to escape. So I tightened up all the hose clamps and we'll see how that works. If I get the chance I'll check out a cooling system pressure tester from one of the parts stores before I put it back together so I can see if that was indeed the issue.

But that was only the START of the fun. The main thing I set out to do was to replace (so I thought, in reality it appears I'd left it out completely- which would explain the leak...) the gasket that sits at the top of the remote oil filter adapter which bolts to the bottom of the block.

For those unfamiliar with this setup, it's REALLY inaccessible with everything installed on the car. The driveshaft from the transfer case to the front diff is in the way, as is the front diff itself and the driver's side exhaust also makes access difficult. Simply getting it dropped down far enough to get the gasket into place was a challenge- but getting it back up into position without the gasket moving out of place was nigh on impossible and required some massive contortions to accomplish with the truck on jack stands. The biggest problem (exacerbated massively by the very limited access) is that you pretty much NEED to have both of the bolts that hold the thing in place pushed up through the adapter to be able to get the gasket lined up and kept where it needs to be. Which means manipulating them with one hand while the other has to try and line up the gasket properly, and then push the adapter up into the block where it bolts up- with almost way to get your hands/arms to where they need to be. For like an hour and a half I could get ONE of the bolts to start into the block but could not get the second one to bite at all.

By the time I finally managed to get it lined up just right to get both bolts to screw into the block and the adapter secured, I could barely feel my toes from the cold. I got the oil system all put back together (short of putting the oil filter back on- somewhat undecided on whether to re-use the 'old' one (which has like 250 miles on it at most) or put the new one on. I'm thinking of putting some MMO through the system so may re-use the old one since I'd be draining and replacing it not too long down the line anyway. The cooling system will have to wait for another day.

HOPEFULLY this resolves the oil leak issue, since not having that gasket would understandably be an issue...

Ahh the joys of finding the cause of a problem largely offset by the pain of realizing the cause as simple unattentiveness.