A couple s-10's

black anodize is classy and looks awesome

Yea I was definitely pleased with the result. I just wish I had more pieces to do.

that thing is SUPER clean man, love the stance and everything about it..


what kinda of numbers should the blower put down?

Thanks. I still am not totally happy with the suspension at the moment. To be honest the 1.4" eibach lowering springs are a bit soft. I would like to get some stiffer springs up front with a bit less of a drop. I'm not 100% certain of the numbers the blower is putting out. On a 2.8 and a 2 3/4" pulley it runs 5#'s at 5000rpm. My 2.8 is bored/stroked to 3.2 is about 14% larger. So that would mean at 5000rpm it's building 4.3753#'s. The engine was running around 200hp and maybe slightly more torque prior to the blower with just the 4 barrel and block/head work. The bower at 5#'s is claimed to be a gain of 45% on a stock 2.8 so that would put it right in the high 200's power wise, at the crank. This spring I would like to swap to a smaller pulley and set it up for meth so I can get it over the 300 mark.

I can't wait to see the truck all back together.

sorry I haven't updated this in a while, here it is.


well I finally got the alternator sorted out with Summit. I originally ordered a tuff stuff 90 amp alternator. It was a real nice looking unit but turned out they sent me one with the wrong mounting points. Then they sent me another one, but this time for a 4.3, wrong again. They sent me one more and again it was not what I needed, external voltage regulator instead of internal.


Finally I just gave up and got a power master 140 amp unit.


another thing that gave me a ton of trouble was finding the right size belt. We measured it out with this old surveyors tape and thought that would be the end of it.  Well the belt I had ordered turned out to be about 3" to short. 4 belts later I finally managed to get the right size. The canvas surveyors tape must have been stretched out a lot.


This was definitely my best purchase of the year. nos GM seat covers from '84. They aren't the exact design of my old seat covers but they are saddle/tan and they were only $15 for 3 uppers and 2 lowers! I can't imagine what the owner paid way back when. Now I can put off getting custom seat covers made for a while.



before/after



Definitely the best $15 I've ever spent on my truck. Now they make the rest of the interior look so old and faded haha. That's a project for this spring.
A friend of my dads welded an o2 bung in the base of the header. Still need to get an air/fuel gauge and boost gauge.



We started it up a week after my last post here. I was so happy everything went very smooth. No leaks, no pinging. The carb wasn't running to rich or to lean. There was a lot of unknowns at this point and we weren't really to sure of ourselves. So when we got to start it up and just take it out for a spin that was a real pleasure.  There was only a couple weeks left before it snowed. So I just cut a hole in an old hood I had so we could at least enjoy it for the time being and be legal.



first time I got to wash it all summer


changed out all 4 shocks. The rears were going on 14 years old. The ride is a lot firmer now.



The couple weeks I had before it snowed I had fun with it. A locker is definitely on the agenda,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z2bnqs5xFo

Finally got the x pipes and mufflers put on.


I've been playing with the idea of putting one of helwig's tubular rear sway bars on it rather then the zq8 one. That's why the x pipe, muffles and dumps are just clamped on. So it can all be taken back a part when I get the rear end and sway bar figured out and then I'll run pipes out the back.

The exhaust is so much nicer now. Before it was quite choppy in the lower rpm's and it was loud. It was kind of jokes driving in town. Like I would just be barely pedaling it from a stop at a traffic light and it sounded like I was giving it all it had because it was so loud, and the minivan next to me would just go cruising by. Now it's a lot more fun to drive around town but will still bark above 4k. The x-pipe did a lot for the overall tone. The only thing is it drones at idle because of the dumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG9Af7EoYCE

a couple random pictures,


rear end with no resonators, much cleaner



I've got a list of about 100 things I want to do. I'm going back to school this January and that is really going to limit my funds and what I am able to do. We have this little instrument for measuring g-force, 1/4 times, 0-60 etc etc. Before I put it away I wanted to get a benchmark of where it was at now. I could not for the life of me find a good clean and level parking lot to use as a make shift skid pad. So I ended up settling for one that was small and dirty. I could only get it up to 45 km/h so that would be a little less then 30 ml/h It would hold at .83g but then it would start to under steer. In the spring I'm going to do it again. I think the combination of slow speed, sandy/dirty lot and very cold weather (-5*C, or 23*F) took a lot away from it. Better conditions I think I should be able to break in .9x's  Now I'm just looking for a decent 2nd gen ext cab truck that I can part out and keep the frame and start on swapping that out.

edit* I almost forgot to mention the new found power. I was very surprised with how much the blower woke up this little motor. The difference is very noticeable. Before at 4k it would just fall flat on it's face. Now it'll pull right up to 6k and still want to go further. Honestly I'm afraid if I do it'll blow it up. I try not to rev past 5k. It'll chirp the tires in second and even in third now which it could never do before. The whine of the blower is very fun and addictive as well. Overall extremely pleased with the results so far.


That about wraps it. Now it's under an old car cover and it'll be sitting until next spring.

VERY nice, glad to hear it all went well. I sure hope we do get to see this out again! I'm a prime example of life getting in the way.

awesome job man!

That's a crazy deal on those seat covers, they do look a lot better than the old ones.

Talking about the frame swap, I know the 2nd gen frame is stronger, but does the 1st gen body swap directly over?

There's been a lot of discussion on this lately elsewhere, and from what I can tell, truck to truck it should, blazers changed first to second gen, but we don't have any real confirmations. If someone with a first get could take all the measurements, they could be pretty easily compared against the upfitter information.

Thanks guys. Artos I started a thread on s10forum about it a couple weeks ago. After talking to a couple people there and a few other locals I can confidentially say it is a direct swap. The thing that is not a direct bolt on is the front bumper. I'll have to make up a bracket or modify the existing one. The nice thing about getting another frame is I can take as much time as I want to work on it and get it looking nice and bit a more functional and then do the swap.

That was actually my plan once I completed stage one of my suspension and engine upgrades, but given how long it's taking for me to get through stage one and the sheer volume of modifications I want to do, it stopped making sense so I'm likely to just start from scratch.

And I didn't notice that was your thread, I did reply to it over there as well, with the same thought, and unsurprising the same mental omission of the front bumper.

hell of an update, looking goood!

There's been a lot of discussion on this lately elsewhere, and from what I can tell, truck to truck it should, blazers changed first to second gen, but we don't have any real confirmations. If someone with a first get could take all the measurements, they could be pretty easily compared against the upfitter information.

i can see how the trucks will swap over but i have trouble visualizing the blazers swapping straight.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say, the blazers will not.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say, the blazers will not.

oh oops. im done with school, and no work till next year. so im allowed to not read

That was actually my plan once I completed stage one of my suspension and engine upgrades, but given how long it's taking for me to get through stage one and the sheer volume of modifications I want to do, it stopped making sense so I'm likely to just start from scratch.

And I didn't notice that was your thread, I did reply to it over there as well, with the same thought, and unsurprising the same mental omission of the front bumper.

It seems to be a solid route to take. Right now the way I have been going about it up to now I find I am redoing things. I mean taking the interior out more then once, or replacing something only to find I want to replace it with something better 6 months later. I think building from the frame up I can really do things right the first time and have time to play around with it and get it just right.      
 When you say start from scratch do you mean you are just going to build your own frame and go from there?

on the same topic I remember a little while ago seeing someone say something about using a zr2 frame. I've been playing around with the idea of doing it.
From what I've read the only difference between reg s10 frames and the zr2 frame is;
- slightly lower front leaf spring mounting position
- The frame is 3" wider up front for the added track width
- slightly lower mounting points for the control arms to give the added height.

Is there anything else I'm missing? I'm trying to think if running a 2" spindle and maybe a 2" drop coil would give roughly a 3" drop on a zr2 frame. I wonder if I would get any major bump steer issues? Having the ball-joints out an extra 1 1/2" on either side has got to be beneficial to handling I would think. I would have to run a different backspacing but that's not a big issue. The additional room in the engine bay between the frame rails would be handy when I finally get around to doing an 8.

If anyone else feels they can add more or mention something I'm missing please feel free. It never hurts to bounce ideas off of someone.

I'm kind of surprised but I think I may have found my donor frame. I was just lurking kijiji and found this 2000 zr2. It was in a roll over but apparently its just cosmetic damage. I've been wanting to swap a zr2 rear axle into my blazer as well so I might even be able to kill 2 birds with one stone.

the truck;









Damn I need to stop finding ways to spend money. A part of me hopes it already sold haha, we'll see.

from what ive read, thats all that i think is different from a 4x4 to a zr2, but a 4x4 and 2wd have vastly different frames and control arms.
spindles and drop coils will not work on the 4x4 suspension.

as for the super rare 2wd zr2s, never seen one so i have no clue how they are done.
i have no idea how the steering is different from ta regular 4x4, but id asume the drag link is different, at least that would be the most cost effective way for gm to do it.

from what ive read, thats all that i think is different from a 4x4 to a zr2, but a 4x4 and 2wd have vastly different frames and control arms.
spindles and drop coils will not work on the 4x4 suspension.

as for the super rare 2wd zr2s, never seen one so i have no clue how they are done.
i have no idea how the steering is different from ta regular 4x4, but id asume the drag link is different, at least that would be the most cost effective way for gm to do it.

What this guy said.  The front suspension and steering is drastically different between 2wd and 4wd.  Artos I believe did some research on it for his project and there are a couple threads on both Blazinlow.com and s10forum.com discussing using 2wd spindles on 4wd.

Oh yeah, I did a LOT of research on 2WD spindles on a 4WD chassis, and it's pretty easy, you just have to pay $50 a piece for custom ball joints from QA1, which is actually the same cost as tall ball joints for PPM, and you can get them tall if you like, though you really only need tall uppers. Steering is a whole nother story, you're going to need stock inners with custom links, heim ends with studs, and you're on your own for bumpsteer.

Thanks for the input guys. I never thought about the steering, it makes sense for sure. I'll keep that in mind when I'm comparing them.
Thanks for the additional info on the control arms Artos. I talked to the guy and I might go take a look at it tomorrow. The frame is likely to be pretty rusted so I doubt it will happen. Around here a chassis that's been daily'd for 10 years isn't very good unless it's been oil undercoated every winter.

I was playing around with the idea of awd. So we'll see what the truck looks like underneath.

pipe dreams, sold it last night. Oh well.

First update of the year here,

Been collecting parts for the last couple of weeks,

Finally found some zq8 rear bar frame mounts, also picked up a boost & a/f gauge,


now I won't have to worry about over revving it,


and just some misc stuff for the gauges,


boost gauge is a bit overkill as the most it'll ever see is maybe 7lbs, but it was bought for a great price and who knows maybe I can use it in the future in a bigger boost application. A/f gauge is just a light-show narrow band one but it'll give me a ballpark of where I'm at and what I need to do to the carb prior to going a couple sizes down on the pulley.


Also picked up this great little scale. It's good up to 1000lbs. I was a bit worried that wouldn't be enough but I quickly threw it under the front to see a min ago and it's just enough,


Just need to make up a couple of 2x4 spacers for the other 3 wheels and I can get a pretty accurate baseline of where it's at,


also got my new alternator installed after reclocking it,

I've been picking away at the to-do list little by little.

My dad and I made up a little gauge pod and a radio delete panel.







Got the gauges hooked up and I was in for more or less good news. I thought it was running lean with the blower but turns out it was running a bit rich. It's making exactly the boost I thought it was which was also good news.


I ended up buying the cervini's fiberglass hood.


Looking forward to getting it painted,


Got the new coils installed,



Wired up the msd 6al2


Picked up this g80 ten bolt,



picked up the parts to do a 98+ brake upgrade. Made the mistake of getting 4wd rear rotors however. Guess they'll just be in storage for the blazer when the time comes again.


Finally got around to getting the weights,




Front*
Driver - 925 lbs
Pass - 926 lbs
----------------
- 1851 lbs


Rear*
Driver - 676 lbs
Pass - 623 lbs
----------------
- 1299 lbs

I was happy to see the front end as even as it is. I was a bit surprised the front end wasn't even heavier then the rear. If we can just move 225lbs to the rear of the truck that will make it just about dead even.

I wish I had your budget, hell I wish I had half your budget.

^ I'm a bit of a stickler for deals. I try to buy used whenever I can and get a lot of stuff from the local yard which is dirt cheap. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be able to afford to buy 1/2 the stuff I do. I'm not saying I'm not spending money. I'm just saving everywhere I can so I can do more.

Up until now the current holley carb has not been suited for the blower. The power valve is not boost referenced therefor it never opens and the secondaries are vacuum actuated so they have never been opening either.
I was really hoping to avoid this but I was more or less in a bind and had to get another carb. We could have boost referenced the other one but there wasn't really anyway around the vacuum secondaries.
Holley's 600cfm blower carb. Summit price matched another site for 45$ off and I also had a 20$ off coupon so it was only 379$ which was a lot better then the original price.



Got the rear end together



New rear rotors 20$ a piece


My dad made up some 5/8" spacers to get the calipers where they need to be.