'88 Jimmy with 5.3

[Flatpat]

Well, I had a friend who really wanted a TDI Jetta I had so he sweetened his offer with a ’88 Jimmy he was using for parts on his ’86 Blazer. I had a 5.3l out of a wrecked ’02 Tahoe I acquired in previous trades. I was looking to put it in something so fate brought it all together.

The Jimmy didn’t run very well, didn’t have interior, and had a mixed set of bald (2 of them flat) tires. It did have 6” lift springs on it though. A search through CL and $250 later I had a used set of 36” swampers (about 25% left) with aluminum wheels. I also grabbed some new shocks for it from Offroaddesigns.




I used motor mount adapters and the 700r4 adapter kit from Advance Adapters. It was almost a drop in affair. I did have to remove the passenger side exhaust manifold to get it in. I reused the stock radiator with mechanical fan. I’m not running a heater so I capped the feed from the pump and adapted the steam vent to the return. Put in a EP-381 fuel pump and used some metric to AN adapters from the fuel lines and AN to LS fuel rail adapters to get it fuel. I reworked the 5.3 harness and stock fuse block using the guides from LT1swaps, pretty simple after I got my head around it. Runs really good and uses a lot less fuel than the other trucks out mudding with me.






It’s pretty much for chits and grins. I finished it the weekend before I headed to Afghanistan.





My friends and family took it out over the Christmas break. Still running great! Here’s my friends 5 year old driving in the mud with his Aunt.