What does this sound like? Blown Head Gasket, Bad Compressor or What?

[Kebo33]

I am out of town and my wife calls me this morning to deliver the good news........she said that starting yesterday the AC would sound funny, she would then smell something burning. After a minute or two it would stop and the AC would seem to go back to normal. This morning on her way to work she said it did the same thing except that the Temp guage went to max and the oil pressure dropped to 20 and them fluctuated between 20 and 40. She said that she immediately cut the AC off and everything went back to normal. That is all of the facts that I have considering I am not there. I told her to have somone at work check and make sure that there was oil and water in it before driving it again..........any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Kebo


Sorry, forgot to mention that this was a '99 Blazer with approximately 80,000 miles on it. Thanks

[tom3]

Couple things come to mind. Bad fan clutch, not enough air through radiators, very high head pressure on AC compressor as a result and a hot engine. (some have high pressure cutout, some don't) Or trash, leaves, etc build up between the two radiators, rad. and condensor that is. Not unusual to see this area half full. Remove top of fan shroud and look down in there. Or maybe even the famous Dexcrud deal. Dexcool antifreeze went to mud. Probably not the case here though. Seems like a head gasket would cause the problems with or without AC on.

[Kebo33]

Thanks for the reply.......it turned out to be the water pump. I replaced it yesterday and everything seems to be fine. Although, I can't beleive that she ran it hot twice and it didn't blow the head gasket. Knock on wood for that one. Thanks Kebo