Ashyukun's Winter Beater: The Blazer of Glory

Haven't updated in a while, but it has definitely been something of a comedy of errors with the truck the last few weeks.

The good news: I borrowed a coolant system pressure tester and tested both the truck and the radiator cap. The truck held pressure just fine- the radiator cap did not, so it was replaced. So far I'm not seeing the loss of coolant that I was before and I've had it sitting in traffic for a while getting hot so I'm pretty confident that issue is resolved.

The oil leak problem- not so much...

At last count, I'd just put the inner 'D' gasket in that I had left off- only to find that the thing was leaking even more than it was before. So, pull the adapter off a second time and realized that the outer large o-ring gasket that is on the adapter is a LOT thinner than the one that was stuck to the old block. OK, swap in the old gasket and re-install the adapter. This took me a LOT less time than the first time I did this- but I found that it was still leaking. Some research online shows that the aftermarket inner gasket is a few microns too thick- so it doesn't allow the outer gasket to seal properly. The solution: use the actual OEM part.

Fine- drive to the nearby Chevy dealership and pay the (surprisingly low price, to be honest, of) $5 for the two gaskets and replace both gaskets. This time the job takes even less time- but right off the bat I'm still seeing oil dripping from the adapter. Only now? It's not coming from the adapter itself but where one of the hard lines from the adapter meets the fitting that screws into the adapter.

So- one more part that I need to replace. The good news is that from some YouTube videos it should be possible to replace it with just jacking the engine up a little bit so I can line out (it runs snug along the side of the block). The bad is that I don't think I can pull another one from a junkyard truck- you have to jack up the engine to get it out and that's really not easy in a junkyard. I'll try it though before I spend the $75 on a new one (there's a $40 aftermarket one but most of the reviews of it say that it's horrible quality and falls apart quickly).

I was planning on going to hit the salvage yard on Saturday anyway since it is supposed to be nice out and SWMBO has to work the whole day- will add this to my list of parts to try and get and if I can't pull one I'll have to suck it up and order a new one.

Saturday's salvage yard run was an odd mix of very successful and frustrating.

On the good side of things, I did come home with both a replacement oil filter adapter line and a throttle body with IACV & TPS. It was also useful because I now should be able to swap that oil filter line fairly quickly on my Blazer. Hopefully the new line won't leak and the IACV is indeed the problem and the replacement one will fix that code (and the stuttering under heavy load).

On the bad/annoying side of things, I was also trying to get replacement speakers. Apparently- and unfortunately- I have one of the few non-9.5Ohm speakered Blazers out there, and all of the ones I found in the u-pull-it were 9.5 Ohm. So unfortunately I wasted the time and $12 or so getting those speakers. I've given up and just ordered 2 pairs of cheap 6.5" speakers for it from Amazon- the $25 they cost is about what I'd spend on gas going out to the u-pull-it lots again, so I think it's worth it to have a fully-functioning stereo.

If the rain abates this afternoon I'll try and take care of the mechanical issues so the Blazer will be drivable without worrying about it, and I'll pull the door panels in prep for the speakers getting in on Wednesday. Also plan to pick up the vinyl spray paint to take care of matching the interior pieces.

Well, aside from the continuing CEL complaining about the idle speed different from what was being asked for by the computer, the Blazer appears to be pretty much ready for prime time.

The oil leak appears to FINALLY be resolved- replacing the lines I grabbed in the last salvage run seem to have done the trick as it didn't look like it leaked any oil at all on the drive in this morning- we'll see how it handles heating up a bit more as I drive around this afternoon after work. This ironically means it probably leaks LESS than SWMBO's daily driver Mariner now. Everything else mechanically seems to be doing well too. I'm not quite sure yet what to do about the whole idle speed issue, but for the moment it's not really impacting driving the car so I'm just not worrying about it.

We had some surprisingly warm days this last week, so I spent a few hours cleaning the heck out of the interior and then soaking every fabric surface in Febreeze which seems to have done a rather good job of cutting down on the smoke smell. I'm hoping to give it the boiling vinegar treatment this evening after I get back home which should largely take care of the interior. The new speakers (a whopping $25 for all 4) are installed and are a significant improvement, though it appears the aux input on my junkyard stereo has some issues (oh, well- it works otherwise). While the weather was warm I also used my cheap HF dent-puller and massively improved the look of the passenger front fender by pulling out the big dents (they're now much smaller dents- still noticeable but don't look like it got hit by baseballs). Unfortunately I didn't run the car through a car wash while the weather was still warmer and now washing it will be a bit more challenging with the weather hovering around freezing.

Things to be done before I try and list it (likely for solidly less than it would be worth):

1. Fix the CEL. Easier said than done unfortunately...
2. Install the replacement handle on the driver's seat

Much shorter list than when I started, that's for sure!

So, I left something off the list from yesterday: Figure out why the power mirrors aren't working and correct it.

Something new I discovered today: the parking brake occasionally doesn't want to release- figure out why (though I think it may just have been (literally, as it was 18 degrees out) frozen.

So, last night I set out to do the boiled vinegar thing that eastsidemav had outlined earlier in the thread. However it seemed rather time and labor intensive, so I thought about how to make it a bit easier. I looked at Goodwill for an electric teapot (I have one at home and one at work, but no desire to be boiling vinegar in either...) or a cheap humidifier but couldn't find one. What I DID find was a very cheap, old porcelain-coated steel teakettle. Took this home, filled it with vinegar, and dug out the counter-top induction cooktop that I was given by my Grandmother a few years back when she got one for herself (the usual buy-1-get-1 as-seen-on-tv deal) when her stove went out. Set up the cooktop on the passenger seat, put the kettle on it and set the cooktop high enough to lightly boil the vinegar, and let it sit for a while.

The good: the Blazer now no longer reeks of smoke.

The bad: It now smells very strongly of vinegar.

The vinegar smell goes away after a while...still better than smoke. Did you have the blower motor going while you did this?

eastsidemav wrote: The vinegar smell goes away after a while...still better than smoke. Did you have the blower motor going while you did this?

I did have the blower going on full recirc through it. And yes- it does smell far better than the smoke and doesn't give me a headache like the smoke smell did. And makes for an amusing story at the least.

Boiling vinegar in a coffee/tea pot actually is a good way to clean it out.

Good tip though for dealing with poorly smelling car interiors though.

Aand, with the first somewhat appreciable snowfall of the year, the Blazer of Glory is now listed up on Craigslist: http://lexington.craigslist.org/cto/5399417972.html

I'm planning on taking it up to the top level of our garage and snapping some pictures while it's still nice and light out over lunch so I can add them to the listing later. Were the CEL fixed I'd be asking another $500, but figure that's not a bad starting price- and would still make me over twice what I originally paid for the truck if I get my asking price.

If you don't mind a little of free internet advice on your ad... I'll you give mine Your ad has way too much to read in it for a Craigslist ad. It's fine for an ad directed to your peers (like here on GRM), but this is for the average Joe as a winter truck.

I'd like you to consider this:

This is a 4-door 2000 Chevrolet Blazer with push-button four-wheel drive. The truck has fairly new light truck/SUV tires on it. An aftermarket Sony stereo was recently installed. Lots a new parts but still needs a little TLC.

Keep all the info on the right hand side that you filled in the boxes with, that's all good. Just throw a couple of pictures up of the outside, one of the front seats and one of the back seats.

It's really easy to pick a part pictures online, but when people see stuff in person they seem to care a little less about little things, like the door cards.

RossD wrote: If you don't mind a little of free internet advice on your ad... I'll you give mine Your ad has way too much to read in it for a Craigslist ad. It's fine for an ad directed to your peers (like here on GRM), but this is for the average Joe as a winter truck. I'd like you to consider this: This is a 4-door 2000 Chevrolet Blazer with push-button four-wheel drive. The truck has fairly new light truck/SUV tires on it. An aftermarket Sony stereo was recently installed. Lots a new parts but still needs a little TLC. Keep all the info on the right hand side that you filled in the boxes with, that's all good. Just throw a couple of pictures up of the outside, one of the front seats and one of the back seats. It's really easy to pick a part pictures online, but when people see stuff in person they seem to care a little less about little things, like the door cards.

Duly noted- I have a habit (in everything, including and especially when telling stories, much to SWMBO's occasional frustration ) of including way more info than necessary. I'll try and pare it down a bit. I took some decent (better than the usual CL posts I'd say) pics over lunch and will get them uploaded when I get home (can't really do it effectively from work).

Finally got the chance to try and put the replacement IACV on this last Sunday- and found that despite Amazon's system claiming it was the right one that the part I had gotten didn't fit. So it has been returned and one that should fit is on its way here.

Have had the truck listed for a few weeks, and gotten a few initial contacts about it. Most serious person said he wouldn't spend more than $1900 though, and I'm not quite ready to go that low yet.

The new IACV came in yesterday and I took the 10 minutes to throw it on the truck and reset the CEL before I headed out to do some shopping- and it appears to have worked! The CEL has stayed off, and the idle now sits at around 600 at stoplights. It still feels like it's missing slightly when at idle though, but on the whole it's running much better.

Aaaand, the Blazer of Glory is now SOLD and out of my hands. The IACV ended up not completely fixing the stumbling/miss at idle and the CEL kept coming back from a high idle speed, so I ended up coming down a bit in price and selling it for $2000- about a 25% profit since I had about $1500 total in it. I'd certainly have liked to have made a few hundred more on it, and would have held out for it were it not for the idle issues, but I figured I'd have spent at least a hundred in parts trying to get that fixed and that it was better to take what I could get and move on to something else.

Probably would have been smarter to have not sold it the day before we got hit by about 6" of snow and it was my only drivable vehicle besides the DeLorean- but at the same time it likely made it buyer more motivated since one of the main reasons they wanted it was because of the 4wd in the snow.