Jimmy repair project

[chembrad]

Howdy all, I thought I would post my repair project. I have a white '94 S15 Jimmy 4.3L V6 vortec W CPI. The truck has 113k actual miles on it. The passenger compartment is clean except for the rust colored stains on the carpet from the heater vents.

I wish I knew how to post pictures.

Problems:
1. the truck runs, but gets only 8mpg and stalls at stops
2. the engine compartment has a lot of rusting going on
3. the engine appears to be leaking oil through the head gasket, but it is difficult to tell until I clean it up

Positive:
1. the A/C looks good. cleaned off the rust splash.

Fix:
1. pulled the coolant reservoir. rusty liquid and sludge inside. since it is all plastic and not leaking, all I had to do was give it a thorough cleaning. Replaced reservoir hose leading to radiator. Replaced pinch clamps (hate them) with screw clamps (easier for me to replace in the future).
2. pulled the battery (in order to get at the fan shroud bolts) and saw that the battery box base was rusted extensively. The plate felt strong, so I ground off the surface rust to shiny metal and will prime and paint it (gloss black). one bolt had to be accessed from inside the wheel well.
3. pulled all the coolant hoses. They crackled when squeezed. I'm not sure they have ever been replaced.
4. rusty sludge oozing out of inlet & outlet of the heater core. Gonna pull the dash and replace the heater core (only a $20 part, but a 4 hour job). Did I ever claim to be fast?
5. pulled airfilter box and air intake to expose the fan shroud.
6. pulled the upper and lower fan shroud. a couple of bolts by the battery were difficult to get at until I removed the battery
7. disconnected everything from the radiator. lower drivers side of radiator had two metal tubes that oozed black oil. I didn't know there was an oil cooler in this truck.
8. drained & pulled the radiator. The drainplug is on the lower driverside and it drains right onto the steering column.
9. Now I can really see how much rusting is going on. From the radiator back towards the engine, everything is covered in rust. It appears to all be surface, but will take a lot of grinding/cleaning to get off.

ran out of light

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by chembrad

Howdy all, I thought I would post my repair project. I have a white '94 S15 Jimmy 4.3L V6 vortec W CPI. The truck has 113k actual miles on it. The passenger compartment is clean except for the rust colored stains on the carpet from the heater vents.

I wish I knew how to post pictures.

Problems:
1. the truck runs, but gets only 8mpg and stalls at stops
2. the engine compartment has a lot of rusting going on
3. the engine appears to be leaking oil through the head gasket, but it is difficult to tell until I clean it up

Positive:
1. the A/C looks good. cleaned off the rust splash.

Fix:
1. pulled the coolant reservoir. rusty liquid and sludge inside. since it is all plastic and not leaking, all I had to do was give it a thorough cleaning. Replaced reservoir hose leading to radiator. Replaced pinch clamps (hate them) with screw clamps (easier for me to replace in the future).
2. pulled the battery (in order to get at the fan shroud bolts) and saw that the battery box base was rusted extensively. The plate felt strong, so I ground off the surface rust to shiny metal and will prime and paint it (gloss black). one bolt had to be accessed from inside the wheel well.
3. pulled all the coolant hoses. They crackled when squeezed. I'm not sure they have ever been replaced.
4. rusty sludge oozing out of inlet & outlet of the heater core. Gonna pull the dash and replace the heater core (only a $20 part, but a 4 hour job). Did I ever claim to be fast?
5. pulled airfilter box and air intake to expose the fan shroud.
6. pulled the upper and lower fan shroud. a couple of bolts by the battery were difficult to get at until I removed the battery
7. disconnected everything from the radiator. lower drivers side of radiator had two metal tubes that oozed black oil. I didn't know there was an oil cooler in this truck.
8. drained & pulled the radiator. The drainplug is on the lower driverside and it drains right onto the steering column.
9. Now I can really see how much rusting is going on. From the radiator back towards the engine, everything is covered in rust. It appears to all be surface, but will take a lot of grinding/cleaning to get off.

ran out of light

Problems:

1.) CPI injector and Nut kit leaking in upper plenum.
2.) Spray it wil rustproofing oil liberally. It will stop the rust.
3.) Head Gasket or Valve cover gasket?

FIX:

1.) Flush your cooling system and heater core. If your heater core is not leaking, don't replace it.
2.) Done
3.) Cooling hoses, replace them, cracked = problem
4.) See #1
5.)
6.)
7.) Remote oil filter assembly and cooler. If they are leaking, replace them or you will blow your motor is they let loose.
8.) see #1
9.) Soak it liberally with rust inhibitor and don't go and grind and repaint it. The rust spray will stop the rust.

[chembrad]

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

Problems:
1.) CPI injector and Nut kit leaking in upper plenum.

What is this "Nut kit" you are referring to?

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

2.) Spray it with rustproofing oil liberally. It will stop the rust.

What should be sprayed with rustproofing oil? What brand of RP oil you talking about?

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

3.) Head Gasket or Valve cover gasket?

Valve cover gasket. Undetermined if the head gasket is leaking externally. My mech friend seems to think the head is leaking internally on the drivers side.

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

FIX:

1.) Flush your cooling system and heater core. If your heater core is not leaking, don't replace it.

The heater core was plugged with rusty sludge. It was leaking rusty fluid into the passenger compartment floor through the heater vent ports. Message me your email and I will send you pix. The radiator might be ok. I can see that it is rusty down inside from the rad cap.

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

7.) Remote oil filter assembly and cooler. If they are leaking, replace them or you will blow your motor if they let loose.

I don't know what this is? Can you explain?

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

9.) Soak it liberally with rust inhibitor and don't go and grind and repaint it. The rust spray will stop the rust.

Most of the stuff should come off with a wire brush. Then I will spray the rustinhibitor. Thanks!

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by chembrad

What is this "Nut kit" you are referring to?

It is the internal fuel line kit that suplies fuel to the internal injector.

Originally Posted by chembrad

What should be sprayed with rustproofing oil? What brand of RP oil you talking about?

Look at what is available in your area.

Originally Posted by chembrad

Valve cover gasket. Undetermined if the head gasket is leaking externally. My mech friend seems to think the head is leaking internally on the drivers side.

How does he know a head gasket is leaking while looking from the outside of the engine. Valve cover gaskets are VERY easy to replace so that one should be a no brainer.

Originally Posted by chembrad

The heater core was plugged with rusty sludge. It was leaking rusty fluid into the passenger compartment floor through the heater vent ports. Message me your email and I will send you pix. The radiator might be ok. I can see that it is rusty down inside from the rad cap.

Ah, ok, yea, I would replace it.

Originally Posted by chembrad

I don't know what this is? Can you explain?

Do you have a remote oil filter assemble or does the oil filter attach right to the engine.

Originally Posted by chembrad

Most of the stuff should come off with a wire brush. Then I will spray the rustinhibitor. Thanks!

Ah, that would be good.

[chembrad]

Well I took the day off today so I could work on my Jimmy

I took off the plenum and saw that the inside was washed with gas on both sides. So the CPI unit is leaking and the fuel lines are also leaking.

There was also carbon buildup in the cover almost completely blocking it. It was the hole in the front of the cover. I chipped it out with a screwdriver.

I'm going to have to wait until the CPI unit gets here before reinstalling the cover. So I moved on to compartment work.

I pulled out the radio (junk that doesn't work), and put in the Sony CDX-S2000 CD/radio. That is a nice improvement.

The ashtray light was out so I tried removing the ashtray, but I had trouble. There was no quick release. I'm going to go take a pen light and see if there is a lever in the back holding it in.

I removed the floor box with the 12V adaptor. I removed the heater vent covers. Then I got stuck. I can't seem to get to the case. Do I need to remove the entire dash? If so, how do I go about that?

[BlazerLT]

Make sure to remove those pieces or carbon you chipped out and don't allow them to fall back into the intake.

Clean it completely.

That passage is for the EGR system.

[chembrad]

yep i got all the carbon out and didn't let it back into the intake. Can you help me with the heater core? I'm stuck. I can't seem to get to it. What do I need to remove?

[BlazerLT]

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d8018be55.jsp

[chembrad]

Well I finally got to the heater core. What a royal pain. I have no idea how the dash was designed to "rotate forward". But I was able to get the dash freely moving on the passenger side so I could access the heater core box. I pulled the old one that was leaking rusty crap and popped the new one in. Getting the core holding brackets in gave me trouble and I ran out of patience. So it was a good time to stop. Next time I get to finish the job.