-98 Blazer lifters

After driving -93 Blazer for years now, I decided to update it to -98 Blazer LT. The car I found is just great! It looks like brand new. Only 75k miles on it. Only problem is that it is knockin. I did listen it with stethoscope, and the noise appeared to be lifter on the right side of the engine. The price was right, so I bought it.
Last weekend I removed the intake manifold, and I found bad lifter just as I expected. Lifter was filled with black carbon, and I guess the knocking is because of that.
I took a picture from lifters; left one is (almost) acceptable, right one is stucked.

http://www.bittitalo.fi/blazer/lifters.jpg

Now my question is for you:
1. Should I just change the lifters, clean the manifold, change oil, coolant and filter and start driving my new car??
2. Or, should I also remove cylinder heads, remove carbon there, check the valves ??
3. Or should I even expect that there is so much carbon in piston rings that I should I make a total overhaul to the engine??
Here is a picture from intake manifold and block manifold removed:

http://www.bittitalo.fi/blazer/manifold.jpg

http://www.bittitalo.fi/blazer/block.jpg

Thank you for your response. It's getting cold here in Finland, I expect after a couple of weeks it will snow. So I will need my 4x4...

Yours, Jari

Welcome. I would say the intake was leaking into the valley and caused the lifter problems, in fact noisy lifters are a first sign the intake is leaking internally. I would change them all at this point and flush the cam and the counter balance shaft with oil, then reassemble, run for a 100 miles and dump the oil and filter and install fresh. That should be good. Make sure you carefully reseal the front and rear on the intake and around the water passages in the front on each side with the gasket sealer that comes with the kit. 96up torque for the intake is only 12 ft lbs so do not over torque.

I disassembled couple of lifters yesterday evening and found glittering flakes inside them. I guess they are part of bearing :frown:. So I will lift out the engine and take a closer look ...
Flakes were in right side lifters only, does anyone know how the oil passages are routed inside block? I assume that oil is coming from distributor to right side lifters and goes to timing chain chamber after that. ??

So this is what I found. This car is driven without oil. Now I have to get a new cranksaft...

http://www.bittitalo.fi/blazer/bearing.jpg

One more question... This engine has aluminium oil pan. How can you bolt torque converter, there is no way to reach those bolts when engine is in place??? Older engines had a plate which you could remove without separating engine from transmission...???

Finally got all the replacement parts and I was able to assemble the engine. Put the engine back to car, started and.. everything worked well.
I want to thank you guys and this forum. Without you and the articles here, it would have been a pain for me to get it as good as it is now... :)
Thanks, Jari

great info jari. moving to tech info section.