1996 blazer loosing coolant??

[vis_inc]

My 96 blazer is loosing coolant close to a half gallon just driving a few miles. No exterior coolant showing and no evidence at the tail pipe also none on dip stick.

Please help.

Thanks

[blazee]

did you check the tranny fluid? Passenger side floor?

[Rick Norwood]

Originally Posted by vis_inc

My 96 blazer is loosing coolant close to a half gallon just driving a few miles. No exterior coolant showing and no evidence at the tail pipe also none on dip stick.

Please help.

Thanks

Have you tried borrowing a pressure cap from Autozone and pumping up your system to check for leaks? The pressure cap comes with a small tire pump on it and a pressure gauge. When the truck is cool, you can pressurize your system and crawl over, under, and around to look for leaks. Autozone usually loans these things free.

[BlazerLT]

It has to being going somewhere.

Oil chocolate milk like?

Check the tranny fluid, if there is coolant in it it will look like a stawberry milkshake.

[lou S.]

If the engine or tranny fluid looks milky get it fixed immediately and don't drive it any more. Anti-freeze in either fluid will eventually cause catostrophic failure.

[tom3]

With the high engine temps and strong PCV system you won't always see the coolant in the oil these days. First indication might be the lifters making noise on cold startup. Pull the oil fill cap off and look at the underside for moisture. Get the engine hot and change the oil. Look for real thin looking oil and maybe even some steam off the oil. The intake gaskets are a special GM feature, designed to fail after the warranty is out, builds up retirement pensions of mechanics everywhere.

[Rick Norwood]

Originally Posted by tom3

With the high engine temps and strong PCV system you won't always see the coolant in the oil these days. First indication might be the lifters making noise on cold startup. Pull the oil fill cap off and look at the underside for moisture. Get the engine hot and change the oil. Look for real thin looking oil and maybe even some steam off the oil. The intake gaskets are a special GM feature, designed to fail after the warranty is out, builds up retirement pensions of mechanics everywhere.

This is amazing, My 2000 Jimmy SLE just turned 60,000 miles last month. I changed the oil and flushed the cooling system.

Over the weekend, on Sunday morning, and again this morning, I have a very loud tappet/lifter noise that wasn't there on Saturday. The lifter noise goes away after a couple of minutes, but now I'm a little worried.

Thanks for the tips, please elaborate with more info if you can think of anything else. I'm not sure if this is my problem or not, I'll check more after work this afternoon.

Has GM possibly seen the errors of their ways and changed gaskets after a specific year? (Wishful thinkin')

[tom3]

Rick: Best bet is to fill the coolant tank to the "hot" level while the engine is cool after sitting all night. GM recommends this now from what I read. Then keep a close eye on the level in the coolant tank. If you are losing coolant enough to cause problems like this, you'll see it pretty quick. Our Blazer is a 2001 and had this problem at 13,000 miles. Trips to two service departments just got me pretty upset. Long story there.

[blazee]

Originally Posted by tom3

Rick: Best bet is to fill the coolant tank to the "hot" level while the engine is cool after sitting all night. GM recommends this now from what I read. Then keep a close eye on the level in the coolant tank. If you are losing coolant enough to cause problems like this, you'll see it pretty quick. Our Blazer is a 2001 and had this problem at 13,000 miles. Trips to two service departments just got me pretty upset. Long story there.

If you fill it to the hot level while it is cool, when the engine warms up the coolant will leak out the overflow tube. This will tell you nothing.

[Rick Norwood]

Originally Posted by vis_inc

My 96 blazer is loosing coolant close to a half gallon just driving a few miles. No exterior coolant showing and no evidence at the tail pipe also none on dip stick.

Please help.

Thanks

Vis inc, did you find where your antifreeze is going yet?

[Rick Norwood]

Originally Posted by tom3

With the high engine temps and strong PCV system you won't always see the coolant in the oil these days. First indication might be the lifters making noise on cold startup. Pull the oil fill cap off and look at the underside for moisture. Get the engine hot and change the oil. Look for real thin looking oil and maybe even some steam off the oil. The intake gaskets are a special GM feature, designed to fail after the warranty is out, builds up retirement pensions of mechanics everywhere.

tom3, Thanks for the great tips. I'm going to start my own thread on this issue rather than screw up this one.

Thanks - Rick