Newbie here. I have a 1997 silverado z71 that just had the 2nd trans in 2 months put into it. 1st trans was shot then replaced in dallas after a drive from Dallas to midland it limped home in no higher than 3rd. Come to find out trans fluid mixed with coolant, trans 2 with separated trans cooler and cooling system Shop couldn't explain how but it definitely mixed and ate away at the hoses, causing coolant to seep/sweat out. Replaced every hose and flushed with dawn and water. One coolant port on the intake has a plastic retainer that broke, couldn't find a rplacmnt so bought a 3/4"-1/2" ****** fitting for what I consider a viable option. Ok so here's where the real problem occurs. It ran fine after everything was done. Cut it off for 10min now it won't start. Turns over, belts spin, gettin air, and blows a fire/smoke out of the throttl body and an awful grinding like the starter is still engaging, unplugged cps, clean and dry. Any ideas? Haven't gotten a scan tool yet but any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance .

 

Could be a failing crank sensor one failed on me and called for so much ingnition advance at start up that it tore up a flex plate and starter the second one left me in my drive way there is a TSB for them,also had problems with a cheap after market cap and rotor,how many miles are on it the distributor gears are know for wearing and causing problems maybe it jumped a tooth

 

Truck has 225k on it. I'll check the distributor. Scanner says 0 codes, but I suppose the truck needs to be on to read.

 

Got the cap off. Whats next? How do I tell whether or not its out of whack?

 

The truck has to be on but not running to get the codes,if the cap is real dirty wipe it out i never saw anything with my cap but the after market rotor didnt have a blue plastic shield on it to prevent it from arcing strait up to another cylinder,in order to check the distributor gear you need to pull the distributor out,while the cap is off line up the #1 cyl on top dead center theres a mark on the crank balancer and a pointer on the timing chain cover and a #8 on a pointer on the distributor those should all approx line up,also check the disributor rotor for lots of play

 

why the coolant and trans fluid mixed was because the trans cooler is built into the radiator. and i agree you have a timing issure.