My Nameless 79 Blazer Project

[RockhoundII]

My project of 11 years is now coming back from the dead, so I decided it would be a good idea to finally start a build thread and document the process.

I'll start with a little history on the truck. It's a 1979 2wd Chevy Blazer.
It became my first car when I was about old enough to get my permit and my dad said to me "If you can make it run, you can have it."
I have never stopped loving this thing ever since. It was my big square hot rod. I drove it all through high school and for several years after. I've hopped up a few different 350's for it over that time. I did some freshening up of the suspension and brakes. Even tried my hand at some interior work.

Fast forward a few years and after browsing this forum I decided I really wanted to try an LS conversion on this thing. It seemed like every time I started the swap, life happened and I'd have to hit the brakes on the project before I ever managed to get the ball rolling.

As of right now my Blazer has been sitting unused for about 2 or 3 years. It currently has no engine or transmission. I have gutted the interior as well. So I have a fairly clean slate to start with right now.

My short term goals for it are mainly to get it on the road again. I am going to continue where I left off and try to swap in something LS based, and hopefully make some decent power with it. I'd like to get ahold of a 4l80e to back it as well. I also need to finish the brakes I started working on a few years ago, and give the suspension a once over to make sure it's road worthy. I also need to make the interior driveable, but will probably keep it very bare bones until I'm happy with the motor and trans.

Long term I am shooting for a daily driveable race car that looks like a beat up old Blazer.

Now for the pics! First is from when I parked it for storage a few years ago, nothing really has changed since then. After that is the engine bay the last time there was a motor in it. Followed by the engine bay in it's current state.

[RockhoundII]

Here is a 6.0l I recently picked up for the project. More updates with this tomorrow.

[Dads79GMC]

Looks good! I want a Blazer/Jimmy some day!!! Good luck!

[RockhoundII]

Originally Posted by Dads79GMC

Looks good! I want a Blazer/Jimmy some day!!! Good luck!

Thank you kind sir! I have a long way to go, but am very happy with it so far.

[RockhoundII]

On to today's events. I mated the old th350 to the lq4 for mockup purposes and proceeded to put this motor where it belongs!

[RockhoundII]

A few pics of the dirty, beat up engine bay before the motor goes in. And a couple of the mounts I'm using. I left them loose until I had the engine positioned where I wanted it.

[RockhoundII]

.....And it's in! You'll have to excuse the dirty motor and engine bay. I'm planning on sprucing things up as I go.

[Palf70Step]

I agree. Shame on you, Feed your poor starving Blazer!

[RockhoundII]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

I agree. Shame on you, Feed your poor starving Blazer!

Haha! I'm done being neglectful, it's been fed!

[RockhoundII]

Today I am going to be ordering some more parts for the motor. I also picked up a set of LS3 heads for the motor. Tomorrow I'll start getting things ready for the head swap. While I'm waiting for parts to arrive I think I'll get to work on the interior a bit. I also have a Wilwood manual master cylinder I'd like to use instead of my stock vacuum booster/master combo. I like how it looks much better and I'd like to rely on engine vacuum as little as possible. I'll post up some pics of the interior I have to work with tonight.

[RockhoundII]

Last summer I gutted the interior. I found some rust under the carpet, however most of it seems to be surface rust. There is one small hole in the passenger side floor pan. I had also cleaned up the rust with a wire brush last summer, but our wet winters and a leaky top have put me right back to square one.

[RockhoundII]

A couple pictures of the heads I picked up from craigslist. Just dropped them off to get resurfaced.

[Wraith]

I used these guys for my LS/truck accesories swap in my Malibu.

https://www.speed-engineering.com/ls...ck-engine.html

Installed on my car

[RockhoundII]

Originally Posted by Wraith

I used these guys for my LS/truck accesories swap in my Malibu.

https://www.speed-engineering.com/ls...ck-engine.html

Installed on my car

Oh awesome, thanks! I'll take a look at what they have, I'm hoping to keep the accessories as tight to the block as possible. Just in case I decide to try my hand at turbocharging in the future.

Yours looks great. Is that a stock truck intake that's been smoothed? If so, I really like how it turned out.

[RockhoundII]

I picked up a 4l80e yesterday and swapped out the old th350 for it. I don't have any flexplate bolts yet so I'll have to install that later.

[reaper71]

Looking good so far.

I was looking at the same intake for mine, good to know about the crossover being to close to the alt.

Here is a shot of a customers truck I built a few years ago with a smoothed intake.

Mark

[RockhoundII]

Originally Posted by reaper71

Looking good so far.

I was looking at the same intake for mine, good to know about the crossover being to close to the alt.

Here is a shot of a customers truck I built a few years ago with a smoothed intake.

Mark

Oh wow, that looks really good. I like how clean that engine bay is, hopefully I can clean mine up a bit.

[RockhoundII]

I haven't been able to get on the forum in a while, but I have been making some progress. Here are some pictures from test fitting my headers today. The passenger side one is going to have some clearance issues with the 4l80e bellhousing. I'll get before and after pictures of that tomorrow. I also been working on my wiring, throttle cable, and finishing up my fuel system plumbing.

[reaper71]

Thanks Man! Looking back there is some things I would have done different, if you look below there is a link to his build maybe it will give you some ideas. (Blakes 67 gmc)
Builds looking good!

Mark

[RockhoundII]

Originally Posted by reaper71

Thanks Man! Looking back there is some things I would have done different, if you look below there is a link to his build maybe it will give you some ideas. (Blakes 67 gmc)
Builds looking good!

Mark

Thanks!
I started to read through your 52 A.D. build. That is some seriously cool stuff, I love it.
Someday I'll get to work on my metal working skill. Right now I have little experience and even fewer tools for it.

[reaper71]

Well Thank's I appreciate that.
Definitely keep us posted on this swap and any issues arise with the intake system (Im wanting the same one) only Ill be running the 92mm throttle body


Mark

[RockhoundII]

I'm hoping to have it running and driving (just barely) within the next month. So I will definitely be updating here more often.

[RockhoundII]

So far I like the intake, although it's probably not the best choice for the stock cam I am currently running. The only things I've had to deal with were the clearance with the alternator, the fuel rail brackets were too short for my larger 83lb injectors, and I'm going to have to make my own throttle cable bracket. My intake is for LS3 heads so the only option was the 102mm throttle body. It has 4 npt ports on the underside toward the back and came with hose barb fittings for those. It also came with four -6an fittings for the fuel rails and one -6an crossover hose. I switched everything over to -8an fittings and made a -8an crossover. Mine also was set up for the LS3 style map sensor on the back as well. It seems like the throttle body is a knock off of a holley throttle body.

[RockhoundII]

Here are a couple pictures of the cutting I have to do on the passenger side of the bellhousing. I will get some more pictures after it's all done.

[RockhoundII]

I don't think I mentioned it before, but I'm going to be running the Holley Dominator efi. I chose the holley because it has transmission control, lots of expandability, and seemed fairly user friendly. This is my first experience with efi and tuning, so I'll let you all know how it goes.