Project: Modify everything, even the aftermarket parts to fit...

Wow, did I lose some progress posts or have I just not updated this in forever? Shit. I'll get some updates up tomorrow.

I don't have pics like I expected to, just been too busy. I moved just 4 or 5 months ago and will most likely be moving again in about a week and a half. Next place I should be in for about a year though, so I might just be able to make some real progress.

The engine is built and turns over nice a stiff like a new engine with good compression should My old 4.3 I can literally spin by hand on the balancer or flywheel. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it to build for something else(who knows what) or sell it to help fund the next project, but either way, I'll be sitting on it for a while. I currently have the engine mocked up into the truck to see where I'm going to have to trim/beat for clearance. It's sitting 3/4 forward on the mounts and the tranny mount doesn't line up, but it's hitting firewall, and I still have body bushings installed. I'm going to pull the accessories off the 4.3L while I have it on the engine stand and the V8 in the truck to swap them onto the new engine. Then I'll stow the 4.3L somewhere and pull the V8/700R4 back out to pull the body mounts and start on the floor/firewall modifications so I can set the engine back on the mounts.

For the suspension, I got the new coils in to see what kind of drop I would get out of them, and it's only 3/4" with the front end off the truck but the engine and tranny in. Once I get the front end back on, I'll see if I get enough drop out of them, not completely sure right now. The new spindles, brakes, UCAs and ball joints are sitting on the shelf waiting. The stock replacement LCAs have been started, but I need some time with the press at work to get the new steel bushings and the ball joints installed.

The wiring has been reworked and is ready to go back into the truck once I get the body modifications done and the engine dropped back in. The light harnesses are exactly the same, untouched. The body harness has been cleaned up, seat sensors removed, electric windows and locks removed, popper for the rear gate removed, interior lights removed. The engine harness is now a clean, stand-alone harness with a plug connection to the body harness for specific sensors and ECM outputs. If I go to non-TBI, which is still under debate, it'l be as easy as pulling(or not installing) the TBI harness and augmenting those two readings with sensors that plug into the body harness.

The interior is still gutted, the lower vents will have to get ditched for the tunnel mods, so I'm also going to pull all the defrost except one on the drivers side and make it a permanent outlet along with the dash outlets. If I need air, it'll just come out everywhere.

Got moved to the new place! Blazer is in it's new home and ready to go. I also got a trip to the yards for valentines day. Picked up a hydro boost two cavalier seats and an intrepid efan set. I also decided that based on the new location,  I'm going to lift the body off, get the engine and tyranny where I want them and modify the tunnel and firewall as necessary. I'll definitely have to modify the motor mounts a bit, relocate the tranny cross member and have a driveshaft shortened,  but I think it'll be well worth it. Eyes open for continued progress in the coming months.

BODY COMES OFF THE FRAME TOMORROW. It's official. Body is coming off the frame tomorrow so I can finish stripping them both down for the last fw modifications that are going into it. I'm going to set the engine back as far as I can without effecting the footwell too badly. I'm really hoping for 3-4" but will take whatever I can get. This will mean either relocating or re-making the transmission crossmember. Still up in the air about the rear suspension. I would really like to get away from stock leafs and shackles, so it may be as simple as sliders, bearings and a panhard, with drop leafs, or custom leafs.

I'm excited for progress on this.  Also interested in what you come up with for sliders as they've been attractive to me ever since they were brought up on this site as an improvement over shackles.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be making progress on this project. I feel like I've done more in the last week than in the last year, and that's quite probably true.

Ok, time to make up for lost time. I don't know where my last update or two went, so I've got a lot of progress to show you all, just in very, very few pictures, as seems to be my my style.

First picture is from way-back, when I found I had two engine harnesses kicking around in my truck. Apparently when they did the swap from the 2.8L to the 4.3L, they just threw in a new harness for the engine and spliced it in where necessary. Oh, and rand a new 12V source to the fuel pump from the ECM, through the firewall, across the top of the transmission, and along the fuel lines back to the tank....

Second pictures in the body harness after re-wire, unfortunately I need to go back and change two things now that I'm definintely going to run propane, but it's a whole hell of a lot better than it was.

Third is from paining the engine block after cleaning it up really well, before honing.

Fourth and fifth and end of day progress from the weekend I decided to tear the front clip off and wrestle the engine out.

And that takes us through the end of 2012 if I'm not mistaken. From there I did a little work here and there on the chassis and finished building the engine and then it sat, for about 9 months until...

I got moved into the house I'm in now. First picture is from after getting it into the garage, second picture is the progress I made over this last weekend. I think they both speak for themselves pretty well.

Now, after getting the blower and AC off, I think I'll be saying to hell with it and not putting it back on, and then thinking, that might be a GREAT cold air intake location! Thoughts?

Oh, and I will in the near future be starting to sell off parts from this that will not be getting re-used. Let me know if any of you are after anything specific. I may keep a couple of parts for the next S10 build that I'm already starting to plan, but I don't even know when that will be quite frankly.

Cold air intake in the cab?  Not a terrible location in terms of being out of the elements and isolated from the engine bay.  I'm sure you will be serenaded by the inhaling of your engine too.

If the engine ever backfires you might not enjoy it.

ive seen people run it not quite from the cab but from the wiper cowl.

Yeah, was thinking of using the blower inlet from the cowl.

I've been in mud trucks that inlet from the cab, it's kind of cool and fun, until that 502 hits 6K rpm and you're not sure if it's going to suck your pants off or your ears will start bleeding first.

Get a system like this:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/spe-743/overview/

And hook in the inlet up over that big hole from the cowl that the blower motor would usually occupy, and bob's your uncle. Medium pressure cool air intake.

i wish i had done shackles on mine. im really curious how those will work from a performance standpoint.

After doing more research and staring at the frame for a while. I've decided I'm going to throw caution to the wind, get a set of Camaro or Chrysler style circle track leaf springs, relocate the front perch to make up the 2 inches they're shorter in the front, and raise it up to lower the rear end, then locate the slider on the under side of the frame as needed.

Now I just have to dig out the old chassis frequency calculator, estimate my weights and figure out what spring rate I'll want in the back. As memory serves, I should be good with 175lb/in springs and get the swaybar as stiff as I can manage with the stock-style bar.

Well, my FNB brake brackets and hubs don't line up for shit. there isn't enough room between the bracket and the rotor to even fit the abutment in there. I've got an email out to Ed to see if we can figure out what happnened. But it looks like I'll have to throw some spacers behind the rotors to get everything lined up. If it's anything more than a quarter inch, There's just absolutely no way I'm stuffing that back there and hoping for the best, less than quarter and I'll do some locator bolts through the rotors and spacers into the hubs like more modern GM stuff has and call it a day.

Hopefully it's something minor.  I gave up on FNB after he didn't return 3 or 4 of my calls and multiple emails.  All I wanted was a shipping estimate so I could buy parts from him.  Kore3 FTW.

I jinxed myself, said I couldn't find any ZQ8 springs till I Said I couldn't find them, and got a call from a yard in Tucson that got a 2001 with 40K miles in that had the complete ZQ8 suspension in it.

Well, my FNB brake brackets and hubs don't line up for shit. there isn't enough room between the bracket and the rotor to even fit the abutment in there. I've got an email out to Ed to see if we can figure out what happnened. But it looks like I'll have to throw some spacers behind the rotors to get everything lined up. If it's anything more than a quarter inch, There's just absolutely no way I'm stuffing that back there and hoping for the best, less than quarter and I'll do some locator bolts through the rotors and spacers into the hubs like more modern GM stuff has and call it a day.

what brakes did you end up going with?