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.

[RockhoundII]

I went ahead and threw my radiator/fan and brake master/booster on to check all of my clearances so far. Looks like I have tons of room.

[RockhoundII]

There is about an inch of clearance between the firewall and heads on both sides.

[RockhoundII]

I'm throwing this pic in just because I like it. Looks like a hungry blazer wants to eat that motor.

[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.

[RockhoundII]

Not much of an update. After a long day of working all I have to show for it is an oil cooler block off, removed alternator and power steering bracket, and got the firewall ready for my wilwood master cylinder. Removing one of the studs where the master cylinder mounts proved to be a big pain, but I needed them gone so I can use some longer bolts in their place.

[RockhoundII]

I managed to get a bit done this weekend. Shot the motor with some degreaser and swapped my LS3 heads on.

[RockhoundII]

A few more pics with the heads off.

[RockhoundII]

And a couple more with the new heads. I got them used with 50k miles on them and dual valve springs with titanium retainers.

[RockhoundII]

Since I cleaned the motor up a bit and am going to be putting a new intake on, I decided I would spruce things up a bit.

[RockhoundII]

In case anybody was wondering about my setup for painting, here's a pic of my top of the line paint booth and curing station.
I also can't figure out how to rotate pictures on here, so the my paint booth shot is sideways.

[RockhoundII]

Yesterday I went ahead and test fitted the new intake and throttle body I picked up. Not what I would prefer to be using for my setup, but it was the cheapest thing I could find so I'm going to have to make do with it.
I also need to pick up some nice hardware for the valley cover, valve covers, and coil packs.

[RockhoundII]

I was getting some work done this weekend and I set the alternator and power steering pump on the motor to see how it fit. Turns out I have some clearance issues with my alternator and fuel rail setup. So I'm going to look into what dirty dingo has to move my accessories around.

[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.