$31,500 was the new price including LT options in 2004 for this 4 x 4 automatic transfer from rear wheel drive TrailBlazer truck frame.
Repairs over 18 (19) years have been another $40K or so and the rest for paid oil changes.
Who knows how much on fuel? Probably another $20K? Also car insurance another $20K probably.
So the car costs probably $14 a day including all the above costs (that's not figuring in the environmental and health costs of course - if I had been riding a bicycle I would be much healthier and would have saved $20,000 at least). hahaha.
A new 2022 SUV 4 x 4 runs from $40K to $80K
So the TrailBlazer is still in contention with "new" SUVs - what does it have going for it?
A good thing about this truck is the heat works right away.
What does it have going for it that the others don't have? Mainly sentimental historical value.
Also it has a truck frame (yes the next repair is a welding repair kit for the frame!!)
Truck frames overall are stronger though.
It has an inline 6 engine that is in high demand for turbo charging - in fact GM is (most likely) putting out a NEW "straight 6" turbo engine in a Silverado... (NOPE got canceled!)
the reliability of a straight 6 is Legendary and low end torque.
This truck accelerates fast due to the torque (but I drove it too hard for that - see below - I had too much fun)...
Well the Eco-Apocalypse should only be five years away - so if the truck (SUV) can last that long then... it's a lot cheaper than needing another car.
I had to get the brakes and tires replaced many times - four times at least - maybe five times? I used the car to haul organic fruit and deliver organic fruit! I had the car completely filled with organic fruit for two years!! So I burned through a ton of brakes and tires during that time.
My dad bought the truck - call it "my truck" and he used it to haul boats. He had the trailer hitch rust in as a rust weld - he told me it was "welded" in. haha. I am now going to try to file away the rust so I can put in a trail hitch. I'm not planning on hauling any trailers though but who knows?
I had the fan clutch replaced twice to try to fix the AC (didn't work - still is broken - the AC requires a PCM update that most mechanics, even at the dealer, don't do. Oops - so that was $2500K down the drain).
Just as a remanufactured transmission installed!! (biggest repair at about $5K including a new CV axle installed and a transmission crossmember and Transfer Case seals installed)
Someone (not me) had an accident - so body repair and drive axle and U joint replaced -
Water pump replaced
power steering pump replaced
Many pinion and axle seals replaced and almost all the underbody suspension parts.
The fuel speed sensor on the accelerator pedal had to be replaced.
Tie rods, CV joints, Ball joints, suspension links (twice in the front and twice in the rear), transmission crossmember, rear differential cover and new struts/shocks and even new rear coil springs!!
Also I replaced the rear lower trailing arms - they have the most torque. The upper trailing arms have a stripped U-bracket and that U-clip part can not be replaced! I can't find it anywhere. So I just rust treated that upper trailing arm (lateral arm) and it seems ok. The trailing arm brackets themselves have survived thus far - with rust treatment. I did put some JB weld on one of them.
The car is a very smooth ride now but there is one front suspension link that is probably loose or going bad again. It makes a noise sometimes when going slow over a bump.
Fuel tank replaced along with the fuel neck and the steering cable (that was my "accident" when I got the truck stuck)....
Rust repairs (spare tire carrier and rear tail gate latch - actuator - twice - I did it on my own once!!).
I got a plate welded on to the rear of the driver's door - on the outside wall of the box frame - as that is where the salt spray hits from cars driving past. I was told I should have junked the car at that time but instead I went to a welder and he said - it's in the neutral zone and so he fixed it!! The mechanic who told me to junk it then refused to work on the truck and he got the other local mechanic to join in with him. That was two years ago.
New transmission cooler lines and now power steering lines.
Amazingly the engine has held up!!!!!
I have added Boron Nitride twice - and about to do so a third time. It is less than .5 microns and so goes through the oil filter and then turns into a quantum nonlocal hexagonal bond with the engine!! This provides super lubrication to the engine and repairs any metal damage.
I cleaned out the butterfly air dealie - what's that called again? I cleaned that a few times and I cleaned out the PVC hose. I should have replaced the PVC hose since I got a new one. Just didn't do it since the original one seems fine. The Throttle Body valve - that's what I cleaned out several times.
Oil change every 3,000 miles and now at 272,000 miles!!
Coolant flushed a few times.
Transmission flushed a couple times.
Pan drop and filter replaced.
I'll get the transmission flushed every 10,000 miles now just to be safe.
Amazingly the 4WD still works but I never have it on "automatic" since that destroys the 4WD.
I did drive the car "hard" - and that led to the transmission failing... but it lasted its rated lifetime so....
I used Titan Oil Stop Leak Seal Repair with a patented Silicone Polymer and it worked!! Saved me from having to replace the front inner shaft seal - and I even bought that seal. Only the whole drive train usually has to be taken apart to put in a $30 seal. haha.
I used Cosmoline RP-432 paraffin wax on the box frame along with internal frame coating paint from Eastwood. I got a boroscope to look inside the frame.
The catalytic converter and exhaust causes the heat to activate the winter salt to rust the frame on that side. So I had a frame repair kit designed by a laser welding machine engineer!!
Next I will have that repair kit installed by a farm mechanic.
I replaced the rear license plate lights (the 2nd time) but I also got new dome filters that go over the lights. The original ones had UV damage from over the years - so would no longer clear. NOW I have rear.
I took off the rear bumper and then did phosphoric acid rust treatment after I used the wire brush drill on the rear box frame. Painted it black. Then I got new screws for the rear bumper.
I need to rust treat the top of the frame under the car and paint it. I'll try do that next week.
I'll order more Cosmoline to get ready for the coming winter!!
I didn't know that I was supposed to be spraying water through the inside of the box frame each spring to make sure the salt got out of the inside of the frame. I did spray it out this summer. Then I tried more rust treatment.
I will double check again with the boroscope but I do this new paraffin wax spray from SEM - and it has that same "amber" color that looks the same as rust color!!
So the RP-432 Cosmoline paraffin wax I get is BLACK so you can make sure to see the difference.
But it does not have a 360 degree wand sprayer for the inside of the box frame - so it is difficult to make sure the wax gets spray on the inside of the frame. The internal frame coating paint does have a 360 spray wand - so I used that.
I also used a pump sprayer wand with phosphoric acid - on the inside of the frame.
The problem with the phosphoric acid is that it will create rust where there is no rust - even though it also converts rust to iron phosphate. So if there's a lot of rust than the phosphoric acid works great. Otherwise it will create rust. So it's kind of a catch-22.
So instead then I rely on the "internal rust converter" spray that also has a 360 degree wand. That Eastwood paint as rust converter does not create new rust. So it is a mild rust converter - I can't remember what kind of acid it is. A mild acid that does turn rust into black.
Now I wonder if the brake lines have been replaced? I don't think so and those can also rust out...
I used the Tital Oil stop leak silicone polymer in the crankcase - so hopefully that also will help repair any other possible seal leaks. Will that work for the head gasket? The Titan Head Gasket Stop Leak is put into the coolant system - so I need to study that more. I will add that if I think that might be a problem.
I had some coolant leak or evaporate but that is when the serpentine belt broke due to the idle pulley needing to be replaced. So amazingly the tow truck driver hooked up his friend to do the repair work for me - and the tow truck driver took me to the auto parts store to get the parts. Truly Awesome.
I want to thank all the mechanics that have worked on the car over the years - or Technicians - at the Dealer or local mechanics.
Hopefully the Truck will survive this winter assault of salt - and will keep trucking through to the Eco-Apocalypse.
I promised the last mechanic that I would keep the engine under 5000 RPM - before I was enjoying too much the "inline six" torque and accelerating that is very speedy.
This is a smooth engine but I use Marvel Mystery Oil in the gas tank to then lubricate the valves.
How much louder are the valves in the winter? I also replaced the high performance Dry Filter from - what's that brand? AEM dry filter. In the winter it lets in too much oxygen and so the MPG takes a dive - and it's probably hard in the engine also. So I put in an STP air filter - and that seems already better. The other day I got 24 mpg in the state highway.
It's rated 21 mpg for highway average so that is what I get overall.
https://www.trailvoy.com/threads/blown-head-gasket.35866/
This is my next concern - I might get the Titan Seal Head Gasket leak repair or at least the Coolant leak fix - as a preventative?
once a head bolt is set to torque, they need to be replaced, so re-tightening the bolts is not a common thing to do, especialy at 95K miles aprox..
So I guess I'm good!!
I have a pretty solid valve tap and I think the gasket is blown.
https://www.trailvoy.com/threads/head-gasket-replacement.23121/
Hmmm - interesting. I have a louder valve tap now also.... and I got that same code error (from when the transmission was going bad - so it was hard on the engine)....
The I6 taps like crazy when cold, but mine goes almost completely away once warm.
yeah probably just because it's cold.
These two concerns are not at all related. Top end concerns are pretty much unheard of on the atlas 4.2L.
Wow - a relief!!
Use a full synthetic like Amsoil or Mobil 1 and see if it goes away. Mine immediately went down noticeably in volume when I switched from Pennzoil to Amsoil. It also came right back up just as fast when I switched back to dino oil for 1500mi after I seafoamed my engine. Changed the filter and oil back to Amsoil, and presto the valve tapping went down again.Crazy - I'm going to get full synthetic!!
On rare occasions, an upper end tick noise may occur inside of the engine when cold and/or hot. This noise may be due to a collapsed lash adjuster (s). In some cases, replacing the lash adjusters may temporarily correct the noise but it may have returned shortly after with collapsed lash adjusters again.
This may be due to Dexcool coolant in the engine oil, which is not as obvious as convention ethylene glycol coolant (green) in the engine oil. Since some of the evidence will break down and / or volatilize at operating temperature, an engine oil analysis may not indicate that there is Dexcool in the engine oil. Typically, the only visual evidence of Dexcool in the engine oil is significant black or brown sludge deposits that appear to be the result of not having the engine oil changed even though the oil has been changed according to the maintenance schedule / engine oil life monitor. If the sludge is a result of Dexcool in the engine oil, a low cooling system level will be found with no external leaks.
On rare occasions, the oil gallery plug located between the number 1 cam journals may come out of position causing insufficient oil to the lash adjusters. This will result in a tick noise at all times from multiple lash adjusters.
Wow the OEM Shop repair Manual is THREE volumes and sells for $430 - crazy
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Another atlas oiling issue...
Under high rpm/boost - it appears the oil is staying in the head and not draining back to the sump fast enough to maintain oil pressureOn Tue, Nov 1, 2022 at 1:27 AM Voidisyinyang Voidisyinyang <voidisyinyang@gmail.com> wrote:When GM lopped off the 6th cylinder, that was literally about all the reengineering they did , so the engine block wasn't strengthened to deal w/ the 5cyl's natural imbalance w/ the result that the engines literally shook themselves to death. His advice? "Never, ever ever buy one of the 5cyl Atlas engines, they're crap..."The atlas i6 has issues where the oil pressure is first sent up to the vvt solenoid so the oil pressure at the bearings is lower then it should be. my guess is the i5 are the same, and the last rod would be the first to go. Possibly wasn't even oil starved, couldve been just low oil pressure after many miles.The oil pan on these Atlas engines actually have a secondary set of bolt holes used to pry the pan from the engine with said oil pan bolts. Cause that AC Delco Grey silicone ain't a joke. And is used everywhere on these engines..
My mechanic said if you want to make these engines last a long time you have got to keep the oil changed. They have little oil passage ways and they will sludge up.On Tue, Nov 1, 2022 at 1:16 AM Voidisyinyang Voidisyinyang <voidisyinyang@gmail.com> wrote:On a stock engine the fix is to take oil from the front port above the oil filter and feed it into the main gallery between #4 & #5.
Attached is a pix the -8 fittings to do this.
GM designed the oil system to send more oil to the head & #1 main bearing than to the rest of the main/rods. If you have ever washed an Atlas block for assembly and watched where the water comes out while putting water in to the oil filter outlet fitting - you will know this.
Reminder to you atlas engine owners you can prioritize oiling on these engines by running a line to the main bearing port on the side of the block. A simple line to the 5th cilynder can keep these engines going for 400k+Trailblazers had a front-sump pan, in order to provide mounting surface for the diff. This probably lowered the center of gravity a bit (wise, since the #1 competitor was the Explorer V.1 with all the rollovers), but makes it a pain for our applications.
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