04 blazer project

couple updates:

got a new and improved winch plate.
looks like they followed EXACTLY the sketches I sent them saying "minimum needed gussets"



I hope my simple calculations work out.... maybe ill weld in a bit more before i paint it. when i said min, i meant safety factor of 1.0

since my right foot is out of commision i made a hand throttle.

oh and the rear defrost tab fell off and the permatex conductive glue didnt work.
Thanks to Harley got a used glass super quick

super annoying to swap on crutches.

I like how the junkyard glass is cleaner than the rest of the truck haha

I'm glad to see the crutches aren't slowing you down too much.

I like how the junkyard glass is cleaner than the rest of the truck haha

I'm glad to see the crutches aren't slowing you down too much.

It definitely has some stubborn oil residue either on the inside or outside of it still.... I havent decided which.
Tempted to acetone it but i think tint dislikes it.

It's definitely slow.... and moving the spare glass to the back of the garage on one foot is kinda scary. dontfalldontfalldontfall....

Factory tint should be fine with acetone knowing the requirements we set.

You need a parts cart! It's an awkward part to carry without the crutches, so I give you 5 well done's and a can of great soda.

turns out a proforged balljoint boot is ripped already. 7550 miles on it.
luckily their warranty is good, so summitracing is shipping me a new one (they want the old one back though)
so i guess I'll be swapping it out this weekend with a bump foot still.
at least I cleaned up the garage enough that I can bring the blazer in and on the lift.
still a big pain on the 4x4s to swap a lower balljoint.

turns out not only do you need to pull the wheel bearing to swap a lower balljoint, but actually the entire upright. that was annoying.
but all good again, got a nice coat of wax today, and jeez I added a bunch of scratches this summer....

new and improved winch plate painted and bolted on, now with a modified aluminum skidplate too!


also working on diff cover protection

The diff armor is bad-ass 

done, ready to surface "grind" the mating surface flat, and then paint

I made use of the warm weekend and headed to a junkyard with Harley.
picked up 2 wiring harnesses for a 5.3.
one from an 03 L59 that had some cuts in it, and another from a 02 L59 that was fully complete until I ran out of time before the yard closes, so I had to cut the trans connector area off.

I'll be working through Harley's harness rework thread and various wiring diagrams and trying to integrate the 5.3 harness into the Blazer's setup.

I've narrowed down to an 03 or 04 5.3, and at this point I'll probably try to get a flex fuel truck so I can keep the injector plugs.

Also grabbed the round heat sink style coil packs off the 02 since I got them off anyways, and the sunday bucket deal was good.

still undecided if I will go DBW or DBC at this point.

Big savings on the coil packs?

yea, bucket sundays meant i got the harness, a maf, and the full set of round coils for <$50.
the coil brackets are a touch rusty but cheap enough that I can sell the set and make some profit

picked this up today


aluminum block!

Nice!

and it's in the house for cleaning and harness mock-up-ing.
I should have grabbed a blazer harness while i was at the junkyard so I can lay it out in a similar fashion

for those of you not getting out there, because of various excuses, stop making excuses!!!
I trophied in the stock awd class of ice racing a couple weekends ago.

so much fun!

videos too
run1
https://youtu.be/aVsgDdNRJzA
run2
https://youtu.be/zNx5UHeK7oo
run3
https://youtu.be/leFt9ErL4yo
run4
https://youtu.be/6_koGPJjoFM

How far north did you have to travel to find safe ice?

Good thing you replaced all those bum ball joints recently.

Some nice wallpaper shots there! I tried a winter rally-X in my truck once - it was very, very slow