96 Blazer runs cool is this typical?

[jasonsblazer]

Hi I'm new to the forum and Have a few questions.
I recently traded my 95 wrangler for a 96 Blazer. It runs great has plenty of power and so far is not giving me any real problems except.... the temp gauge rarely gets over 100 I drove it for two hours and it was still quite cool. Is my thermostat likely the problem, also the heater doesn't pump out real hot air. its warm but not nearly as hot as I would expect it to be. could this also be related to the engine not getting warm?
I haven't gotten a chiltons or haynes manual for it just yet but I plan on it soon. I usually will perform my own maintenance and repairs but I usually like to get some advice before i dig in. Any advice, or common probelms that I probably don't know about would be great.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by jasonsblazer

Hi I'm new to the forum and Have a few questions.
I recently traded my 95 wrangler for a 96 Blazer. It runs great has plenty of power and so far is not giving me any real problems except.... the temp gauge rarely gets over 100 I drove it for two hours and it was still quite cool. Is my thermostat likely the problem, also the heater doesn't pump out real hot air. its warm but not nearly as hot as I would expect it to be. could this also be related to the engine not getting warm?
I haven't gotten a chiltons or haynes manual for it just yet but I plan on it soon. I usually will perform my own maintenance and repairs but I usually like to get some advice before i dig in. Any advice, or common probelms that I probably don't know about would be great.

Welcome to AF.
Is the rad full of coolant?
Cool air and low tempt speel bad/weak thermostat.
Install a good brand 195 stat.
And see what it does.
Your engine running tempt should come up to 192 degrees after warm up.
Make sure you burp air out when filling up coolant.
Also a good time to flush out and install new coolant.

[jasonsblazer]

OK so I grabbed a retired mechanic friend and asked him how to go about finding the thermostat on the blazer. It wasn't on either hose coming from the radiator its in a really weird spot on the head,where the coolant either enters or leaves the block. So while looking for it he says "since you just bought it check the fluids" so I popped the radiator open and its full of Chevrolets orange Kool Aid antifreeze with nice little gobs of rust everywhere! So now I'm going to flush the radiator with Prestone radiator flush and see if maybe just maybe the thermostat is stuck open with sludge. It's probably not but since the radiator needs the flush I will wait to replace the stat until the flush treatment. so thanks again for the pointers and I will keep you posted on my progress.