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1989 K5 - Gradual Learning

First 4x4 - learning basic maintenance / upkeep and maybe some small mods.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Ordered a new AC Delco EGR solenoid from Amazon. It was a bit cheaper on RockAuto but they can't ship to my house because of that new court decision. Kind of a drag because I enjoyed collecting the magnets they send with each order. Hopefully they can ship to Denver homes again soon.

The new EGR didn't fix my 32, unfortunately. I took a long drive yesterday out to Golden area and it came on during the trip. One difference with this new solenoid is that the light stayed on as opposed to floating in and a out mid-drive. When firing the truck up to head home from Golden, the light was gone and it stayed off the entire drive back. It's frustrating how inconsistent it seems to be.

In all honesty I'm thinking about taking the L on this one and bringing it to a shop to get an official diagnosis. After the new valve and new solenoid, I'm up to about $135 spent on this issue. I think it's time to throw in the towel.
 
It has been a while since I've checked-in. I haven't been working on the Blazer much, but I've been driving it quite a lot. I'm about to hit 150k on the odometer.

Lately, I've been doing a little gas mileage experiment. I have been logging my mileage between fill-ups and whatnot. It looks like I'm getting around 9 MPG in the city and about 11 or 12 MPG on the highway. I presume that's pretty standard for a TBI350 pulling 35" tires.

To do list for the truck once snowboard season ends:
  1. Patch the hole in my catalytic converter with putty and look for other exhaust leaks. I am due for emissions this year and I am assuming that holes in my exhaust will fail me at the testing facility.
  2. Replace my brake hardware (rotors and pads / drum hardware and shoes). I don't know how many miles are on the current stuff and it would make me feel better to start fresh.
  3. Install the shocks that Justin gave me and see if the ride quality changes (sorry for taking so long dude!!).
  4. Fluid swaps:
    1. Coolant
    2. Transfer Case
    3. Power Steering
  5. Clean and lube my front hubs. I don't know if that's ever been done.
  6. Install longer brake lines for summer wheeling.
  7. Install ORD shackle flip kit (?????). I want to get rid of my blocks pretty bad and I think I could pull off this installation now. Maybe.
 
FE181C12-06DC-4336-B0EB-FD969E275D3E.jpeg


I do believe I’d looks at replacing that cat with something aftermarket and hi flow. You’ll probably gain some power and mileage back, even if you don’t gain a lot
 
Scribbles said:
Why does the converter have a hole? Why not replace with new?
Click to expand...

It looks to be just a rust hole. I must not have noticed it when buying from the PO or it formed under my ownership. It's pretty sizeable, I think I could get my pinky finger through it if I tried. I hadn't considered buying a new one - I guess I was thinking I could fix it (i.e. pass emissions tests) with putty.

Bent77 said:
I do believe I’d looks at replacing that cat with something aftermarket and hi flow. You’ll probably gain some power and mileage back, even if you don’t gain a lot
Click to expand...

That's certainly nice to hear. I will start to shop around, but hit me with a link if you've got one. I don't know much of anything about replacing a cat but I'll start to dig into it...
 
Walker/dyno max make a good one, also magma flow

I typically oversize the cat if I can, but obviously works best as a system including the muffler. Gets very expensive fast if you don’t have a welder
 
if its a older pancake cat DITCH IT and go honey comb style newer or if no emmisions leave it off if you dont mind a little stink .

when i took off a good working pan cake cat years ago on a tbi 350 truck it was like adding 2 more cylinders for the power jump .
 
Yeah unfortunately he lives in the abyss, so he has to have one

@shima take a good look at what you have, and when you start shopping post up some options
 
The good news is that there isn't really a hole in my cat:

Catalytic Converter

Catalytic Converter

I thought the hole shown went all the way through the cat. It does not.

I had thought that the hole shown in the upper-right corner of the cat went all the way through. It does not.

The bad news is that holy cow I must be dealing with a lot of exhaust back pressure. I do not have a "true dual" exhaust. All of it is shuttled through the single cat and muffler. Yikes.

Also, it appears that the input side of the cat (closer to the engine) is not bolted in place. The output side does have a hose clamp.

Input side:
Input Side

Input Side

No bolts on the input side of the cat.

Output side:
Output Side

Output Side

Bolted-in on the rear side. This pipe goes straight into the muffler.

Additional bad news not related to the exhaust is that I'm still seeing red fluid on the ground beneath my driveshaft even though I replaced the transfer case seal shown in the "output side" pic above. Freaking annoying!
 
original pan cake cat - restrictive by todays and yesterdays standards . lots of them had no clamp on the front side and good luck getting them off the pipe .
 
If no one has told you yet, those "spacers" that are between your trans crossmember and the bottom of the framerail are actually supposed to go on top of the lower framerail flange and the crossmember goes up against the bottom of the flange. They are there to keep the bolts from snapping off when the frame flexes. You should move them.
full
 
And if you need the crossmember spaced down for driveshaft angle - which is why many people put the spacers under the frame - put some thick flat strap in there instead.
 
Thanks guys, I seriously appreciate everybody responding...

I checked out RockAuto and Summit for cats. I put in my make and model, but I doubt that really matters for something like cats (aside from exhaust tube diameter).

Anyhow, Summit returned six options. Here they are sorted by price:
https://www.summitracing.com/search...00422&SortBy=DisplayPrice&SortOrder=Ascending

This is the one from Summit that I would probably pick because it's from MagnaFlow which was mentioned here and it's a direct fit:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mpe-93476/overview/year/1989/make/chevrolet/model/blazer

RockAuto can't ship to my house in Denver (at least last I checked), but they have four options for me:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...6,exhaust+&+emission,catalytic+converter,5808

This is the one from RockAuto that I would probably pick, but I can't tell whether it's honeycomb style. It probably is:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=129297&cc=1061536&jsn=457

I suppose I want to ask what the real difference might be between the MagnaFlow from Summit and the Walker from RockAuto. If I won't get any benefit from spending the extra $80, then of course I'll pick the Walker. It's hard to tell being a newbie and not seeing specs on their flow rate. I bet both would be better than the cat I have on there now.
 
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