Hi guys.

The other day I was changing the water pump and upon finishing the job, I noticed a coolant leak from the block, I found out it's probably the intake manifold gasket.

I will be doing this myself, and found out it's gonna take about 6-9 hours. I was wondering what other parts or fluids could I change while I'm at it?

Same question, while I'm rebuilding the tranny's valve body, in order to fix code p1870, what other things could I do?

Thanks

 

It does not take 6-9 hours. Maybe 3-4. An hour to 1.5 hours max to rip everything off. 30 minutes for the cleaning. The rest of the time to replace everything. I did this a couple months back.

No fluids you can really change while doing those. If you wanna change any parts, I guess the poppet nozzles and put in the conversion. That's if you wanna blow the $300 for it.

For the tranny, unless you really wanna get into it and rebuild the clutches, all you can do is a filter and fluid as far as I know.

 

Thanks for replying Tazz. I guess I didn't ask correctly. When I asked about changing parts I was refering to other parts like maybe the thermosate, spark plugs, some kind of sensors, cables or what not.

Also, are there any parts, hoses, sensors, etc I should check for cleanness?

 

Do a coolant flush and put in new hoses along with a thermostat. Maybe it's time to replace the serpentine belt. Spark plugs are really only necessary if it's time to change them. Maybe a new cap and rotor.

 

Right now I am back to that black plastic cap behind the throttle body. Has some type of a safety pin in it. Looks to be an electrical connector of sorts perhaps for the injector control. Is this just an electical connector to remove or is there something I am supposed to be watching out for when I remove this?

 

Pull the white safety pin straight out then use a small screw driver to disengage the little snaps on either side of the connector. One is below the wire the other is below where the white safety snap went. If you have all the right tools ie. short and long enough extension and stubby wrenches for the fuel lines and a distributor wrench it will be 3-4 hours, if you dont have any of those and you break anything it will be a lot longer. I would recommend doing a coolant flush and change the thermostat if its been awhile also change the oil after you are done. If your hoses are old or look bad change them since you have to take all but the lower radiator hose off to change the intake gasket. If you tare down the upper intake when you change the lower intake gaskets it will add another hour or so depending on how bad it looks inside.

 

Thanks, heated up one of my cheap taiwan wrenched and bent it for those fuel lines. Now I have two special blazer tools. The other is socket that I ground 1/4 shorter for the plug behind the steering colmum. I thought engineers were good with numbers. Good grief.
I just about have everything put back together now.

 

Yah they are good with numbers for requiring special tools, they make a special blazer #3 spark plug wrench. Its not cheap though since its very specialized.

 

Wel I got er done but I took my time. About 10-12 hours total. Went back togeather ok and no leaks but I was wondering about the area between the top of the block and the intake manifold. There originally were gaskets there but none came with the gasket kit. The internet thread I read made no reference to new gaskets going there. Just said to put RV sealant the whole length and width of that area. Was I supposed to get gaskets to go there. The other issue I have is I just bought this 2002 blazer with 86000 miles on it. Realized fast that I had to replace the intake manifold gasket but did not notice that the oil pressure was usually idling around 40 and going up to 45 or 50 when driving. On occasion it has droped to 20 on idle. I flushed the coolant system after doing the intake gasket and a bunch of crap came out like radioator sealant so they knew it was leaking. Oil and water were both low when I test drove it so it was using both. Wondering some engine damage had occured during the period of time that they kept driving it with the leaky intake gasket. The oil never appeared milly when it leaked. The intake was coated with both oil and anti freeze so it appears that the oil and anti freeze did not mix in the crank case but instead met at the intake and went out the exhause via the combustion chambers and out the sides of the intake manifold. Looking for ideas on these odd oil pressure readings. No knockng sounds are comming from the engine when the oil pressure is at 20-40 or 50. Never gets to 60.

 

Your oil pressure readings don't look bad to me. GM specifies a minimum of 8psi at idle and +10psi for every 1000RPM above idle up to ~60psi. So you should have a minimum of 18psi @ ~1800RPM, 28psi @ ~2800RPM, etc.