Orangy Blazer X

Been a while since I have posted here.... Some may remember that I had a 03 ZQ8 that I did a LS swap in.  Well drove it a couple years & got tired of all the little things that I had to fix & lack of room to comfortably go on a trip with the family.

Since I always liked the looks of the Blazer Xtreme,I sold the ZQ8 & got a Blazer X.....Pic of it when I got it









Its a 2004 came stock with sunroof,ZQ8 wheels,power windows,locks,cruise & dark charcoal interior.

Didnt take long to start modding it,Belltech spindles,3 inch rear lowering blocks,SS mirrors,billet grill,clear corners & a new front spoiler.

I have been doing a few mods,tubular upper a arms,tall upper ball joints,poly sway bar bushings,posi rear axle,new tires Falken 245/50-16 ZE 950s painted the wheels black with plasti dip,drilled & slotted brake rotors frt & rear,transgo shift kit,corvette servo

Sweet! Another project to liven this place up a bit

When does the LS happen? 

As much as I would like the extra HP & the badazz sound of a V8 I am gonna stick with the 4.3 for now,as I like the quiet ride & no leaking headers to piss me off.

List of things to do....

Race seats,ZQ8 steering box,Big azz tires for the rear (probalby Corvette)  Looks like I am heading down the same road as my ZQ8...doing everything I can then finally giving in to the LS swap LOL

Shouldn't it have the ZQ8 steering box already?

You would think....being a Blazer Xtreme .....but no,they did not come with the ZQ8 box.

i think the blazers never got the "zq8" rpo. they got something else. z87? or something similar i think

Yeah the Blazer RPO code is Z87. My truck came with Bilstein shocks & lowered front & rear suspension. No quick steering & no limited slip,kinna sucks but it is what it is & I already installed a posi & getting a ZQ8 box in a couple weeks.

Blazers never got the ZQ8 box because of their shorter wheelbase. You have to look at it in terms of rotation per degree of steering and the shorter the wheelbase, the tighter the turn per tire angle, so less tire angle is required, so less steering input is required.

That makes sense...I figured because of the higher center of gravity & the increase risk of roll over.

I ordered the ZQ8 steering box & a flaming river steering joint,should be here by the weekend.

Well I got the ZQ8 box & FR steering joint & doesnt feel any different.

Really? Wow, the FR u-joint made a huge difference on my truck but maybe your rag joint wasn't as bad as mine.

Yeah the FR made it tighter but the steering didnt change with the ZQ8 box,my old box was 3 turns lock to lock & so is the ZQ8 box.

I think it had a quick ratio all along.

Some of those last year trucks had some odd ball part combos.  Could any previous owner have swapped in a fast ratio at some point?  I had a similar feeling with my non-extreme 2 door when I swapped in a supposed fast ratio, but I always assumed it was just the a wrongly advertised steering bx.

They are both 3 turns lock to lock in the box itself. That doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't much faster in the first half turn or so off center each way, which is where the biggest difference will be.

Doesnt feel any different than the box I had in the truck,I usually feel a difference when I do mods like tall ball joints,tubular A arms,spindles,etc

But no difference what so ever.

I was doing some searching & ran my VIN # on www.compnine.com & my Blazer came up with code "N41" variable ratio steering & after googling that code came up that my Blazer had a "ZQ8" steering box all along.

Sounds like it was simply an opportunity to put in a freshly cleaned box and to keep a spare on the shelf to clean up later