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K5 blew a head gasket, had to leave... Got it back!

bigred88

bigred88

1/2 ton status
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
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Location
Divide, Colorado
So my wife was on her way to Colorado to visit her folks. She took the Blazer, I was tied up here and couldn't leave until tomorrow morning, so she drove out alone and I'm scheduled to fly out tomorrow. But the Blazer had other ideas and decided to blow a head gasket in the middle of Kansas. At least I'm pretty sure it's a head gasket, all the classic symptoms- dirty coolant (was green when I topped it off two days ago), overheating, excessive smoke out the exhaust pipe- I haven't seen it, but that all screams head gasket to me. Also, once she stopped it wouldn't turn over again, which I'm assuming means one of the cylinders is filled with coolant?

Her dad is about to pick her and the Blazer up and tow them back to his place, so that side of things is taken care of. I'm about to get on the road and drive out there- so I can bring all my tools that TSA wouldn't want to see, and also so we have another vehicle to get home in just in case the engine is completely toast. We've got to drive back home Wednesaday, so I've got a few days to get the truck running or it's stuck in Colorado, and I'll probably end up selling it, which I really don't want to do. I can fix whatever is wrong, and I can swap an engine easy enough, but it's hard to do that stuff when the truck is twelve hours away.

So, long story, but here's the help I need- since I'm about to drive out, I don't have time to search here or all over the internet for answers, so even though I know these are fairly commonly asked questions, I'd really appreciate if someone could take the time to answer them again. I've never blown a head gasket before, so though I've got a pretty good mental grasp of what's going on it's still new territory in terms of actually doing it. I probably won't be back on here until tomorrow, maybe briefly as I'm getting gas.

From those symptoms, is there anything else that comes to mind for anyone besides a blown head gasket? I'm pretty sure there, but I'd like to hear if someone has a different opinion, or even just something else I should check for.

How bad is coolant in the cylinders/crankcase? What is the proper way to deal with this? Obviously there would be a complete oil and coolant change once the new head gasket is on, but do I need to do some other sort of flushing or anything more than a straight forward fluids change?

She also didn't know how long it had been overheating, but there were no driveability symptoms, she just looked down, saw the temp gauge was 260 and climbing, and then she noticed the smoke out the exhaust, and pulled off and turned the truck off. She said it sounded fine, nothing abnormal other than the heat/smoke. So if there was damage done from overheating, what am I looking for? I really don't even know what parts could be damaged from that, or what evidence of that damage would look like.

Are head bolts on an 88 TBI 350 TTY? I'll probably just replace them anyway, but I wanted to know if they're absolutely not supposed to be reused.

What would cause a blown head gasket? I know a lot of times it can just be age and wear, but is there anything that could be a problem elsewhere in the engine that would just end up causing a new head gasket to blow again? I'd rather not have a repeat of being broken down in Kansas, this is already the second time we've had a vehicle break down in the same damn town.:doah:

If everything looks good, is there anything else I should be replacing besides the fluids and the head gasket? Anything else that normally gets taken out at the same time?

That's all I can think of for now, but if there's anything you think I'm missing, no matter how simple or basic, please let me know.

And thanks. I really really really appreciate any responses.
 
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I am in Ouray can't help much on motor but if I can do any thing let me know. If you have to have a place to leave it until later let me know.
 
On the temp, if it was running fine, i wouldnt worry too much about it. But it COULD have cracked a head/warped a head. Virtually every auto parts store carrys new head bolts and they are cheap. So just get new. "proper way" to deal with coolant in the crank case is drain the oil, fill it with new, run it for a bit, drain it again and fill with new again. Pretty safe at that point but still wouldnt run it for 3k miles. As far as a cause, its anyones guess. But as i said before, heat can warp the heads which would lead to head gaskets not lasting long.
 
Thanks for the answers. I'm near Colorado Springs right now. I got most of the fix done yesterday, it was definitely a blown head gasket. Everything else looked fine. I'll make sure to do two oil changes on it before driving back, then one more once we get back to Missouri. Thanks again!
 
You should have posted up. There are a bunch of us in the springs. We would have helped.

How long are you in town?
 
Thanks for all the offers! We're actually having a small family reunion, so all my brother in laws and my father in law have been helping out. I've got more help than I can even use! At the moment we're planning on leaving tomorrow, as long as we get the Blazer running today. If anything goes wrong today I'll definitely ask on here if there's anyone that can come by and lend a hand. Thanks again!
 
Check those heads got cracks if they're not on yet. I've had a couple of them crack on me.
 
Well, I'm back in St. Louis, the Blazer is still in Woodland Park. I got it reassembled and couldn't for the life of me get it running. I figured I wasn't getting the distributor in right (even though I know how to and I did it over and over and over). We towed it to a shop in town where my father in law knows a good mechanic, he got it barely running with 10 degrees of advance, really lopey idle that smoothed out a little with some speed. I was really short on time so we decided to leave it with my wife's parents who have plenty of space. I think I might have over tightened the rocker arms, and the mechanic thought so, too, so it's going back in next week to get a full look over. At first the mechanic was saying he thought the cam might have sheared a lobe, but after thinking about it for a while he thought it might just be that the valve lash is too tight.

It's kind of out of my hands at this point, since I had to come back home and leave the truck in Colorado, hopefully this mechanic gets it running well next week.

It was really hard to leave, it almost felt like leaving a family member. I've had this Blazer for 6 years now, and put a lot of time into it. I just wish this had happened closer to home- I wouldn't have been so rushed to fix it, wouldn't have made any mistakes like overtightening the rocker arms, and even if I had it would be sitting in my garage for me to deal with the next day. This sucks.:frown1:

On the bright side, if it is more than just overtightened rocker arms and the engine is shot, I may drop a much more fun crate engine in it...

Oh, also, leaving Colorado without the Blazer was torture. It seemed like I was seeing a Blazer almost every mile heading east on US 24, reminding me I didn't have mine. There are so many Blazers there. I guess there's a reason why the site is Colorado K5, I see like 3 or 4 Blazers a year in St. Louis, I must have seen 30 or 40 in 5 days in Colorado.
 
Sure wish you would have responded more. Could have had dinner. And I guarantee you I would have made it run. Know those engines extremely well. Its just a matter of going through the steps. Having another brain to bounce things off of always helps also.

Let us know when you come back to get it.
 
Honestly, I was going so full tilt to get it back together I barely got on here. The time frame was just too short, and I was a little too stressed out doing all this 1,000 miles from home with little sleep and having a very hard deadline, plus I'm stubborn as hell and think I know everything. And I really don't like asking for help. This experience has been a lesson in humility and learning to recognize when I'm in over my head and how to ask for help earlier rather than later. I've also learned that I will never again do major repairs on vacation, because it absolutely ruined the vacation and left me more worn out at the end rather than rested. If any vehicle breaks down on future vacations, the hell with it, I'll take it to a shop and enjoy my vacation.

In retrospect, I should have just posted up here and asked if you or anyone else in the area could come by. I made more than one choice this past weekend that looking back I feel I should have chose differently. Oh well, lessons learned I suppose.

It will be a few weeks at least until I'm back for it. It won't be back to the shop until late next week, then we'll go from there based on what they find.
 
Heard from the mechanic yesterday. I overtightened the valves. Rookie mistake. No damage caused, they just needed readjustment. Which is frustrating, because as soon as I got a little time away from it I realized this was probably the culprit, but I was out of time to try and fix it. Oh well. He adjusted all the valves and said its running great, but there's a small vacuum leak he's going to find and fix, too. I'm not sure of the timetable, he's working on it as an inbetween other jobs type of thing, but it will probably be a couple weeks at least until I get it back. Which is fine.

I probably won't be back in Colorado Springs to pick it up. My father in law gave us his Suburban to drive, and he'll probably insist on meeting us halfway to exchange the two vehicles.
 
I can think of MUCH worse places to get stuck/stranded than Woodland Park. Love that little town!!

AND you LIVE in St Louis! Sheesh. We went there this past fall and LOVED it!! Of course Midland ain't much to write home about, but it is home.

Sorry to hear of the hassle. I know that must've really stunk.

Later,
Buddy
 
Woodland park is pretty amazing. My wife's parents live there, so it's nice to have a reason to get there a couple times a year. I would really like to move back out that way, but first I've got to find a job out there.

St. Louis on the other hand.... eh, we haven't had the best experience here. I've lived in 4 different cities (in 4 different states in 4 different time zones...), and St. Louis would be #4 on that list. That said, I've been pretty fortunate in the places I've lived (the other 3 were Florida, Colorado, and California), and there are far worse places to be than St. Louis.
 
The best thing about Woodland Park is the Hungry Bear restaurant. Excellent comfort food. Big portions at great prices. If you can get in.
 
I've had some good meals at the Hungry Bear. My wife and I had breakfast there the day I proposed. And Joanie's Deli right across the street- it's nothing more than your aveage deli, and a little pricey, but everything is good. I try and eat there every time I'm in town, but I didn't get the chance this last time.
 
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