Also, when you had this apart to change to Blend door actuator, did you happen to have any cabin air filter out as well, I know you did the heater core and that involves quite a lot, but I wasn't sure if you had changed the cabin air filter, that will definitely restrict air flow, I know the 2002 Sierra and Silverado I believe have cabin air filters, those have blower motors that are inside the vehicle under the passenger side dash, and the cabin filter is just to the left of the blower, but they are like any other air filter, they get clogged. And if you live out in the country, I would also suspect rodents making nests, I have pulled hundreds of mice nests out of vehicles, although they do make a pretty strong odor within the vehicle. It may not have a factory cabin air filter, since its not listed in service info, but pulling the blower motor out and checking for any nests might be a good idea.
I would also wonder how dirty the evaporator core was when you were in there replacing the heater core, since air runs through the evap core all the time, but it is diverted when it gets to the heater core. This is the diagram will each door, plus the Evap core and heater core.
Another case I came across was Low air flow on a 01 S10, caused by the Evap core icing up in the dash and causing low air flow, it seems this only took about 10mins or so and he would lose air flow. Very interesting case study, not a common fault.
And the last thing I'll add here is the Ground location for the Blower motor, its located below the hood lamp, on the firewall, you can try cleaning up the ground or running another ground temporarily to battery negative and see if that helps at all.
Images (Click to make bigger)
Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 AT 2:59 PM