Bloverlanding - 86 Blazer build

[fatguyzinc]

https://www.raylarengineering.com/vo...te-engine.html

i see your $14k engine, and raise you a $4300 cheaper, still 600hp skip white motor....

https://www.skipwhiteperformance.com/catalog/bbc-chevy-454468-engine-dart-big-m-block-crate-motor-600-hp-base-engine_94770/

[fatguyzinc]

honestly, id do a MK-IV 454, you can easily get 500hp/500ftlb for roughly
$4000 if you build it yourself (and this IS you so we know thats a given)
AND its a direct bolt in swap using factory stuff--the C/K 20 and 30
trucks from 73-87 could have come with a 454, so factory mounts and
bracketry is readily available.

off the shelf headers are $300/give or take, or i have a set of both truck
or big block vette manifolds you can have (the vette ones are dorman repops...)
i even have a performer RPM oval port intake you can have......

just saying.

[Loren]

For overlanding on the vast spaces you'd need a much bigger gas tank, or haul along more cans. For a given amount of distance my 454 trucks needed about 2.4 x the amount of fuel as the (built) Cummins 6BT does.

[SuperBuickGuy]

For overlanding on the vast spaces you'd need a much bigger gas tank, or haul along more cans. For a given amount of distance my 454 trucks needed about 2.4 x the amount of fuel as the (built) Cummins 6BT does.

or pretty much any diesel.... the biggest issue I have with the 6bt is its length... I really don't want to chop into the firewall to make it fit. Great motor, for sure, but on that path I'd use a duramax - and body lift it to clear.

[Loren]

Cummins just used as a real-world example of something that can run for miles and miles on a tank vs. something you can blast around in but need to fill up in a couple hours. Even in the stock 4.0 Cherokee I have to stuff extra gas along just-in-case, if I plan to be poking around in the middle-of-nowhere all day.

With that, my choice for my Wagoneer project that I'm never going to actually do was going to be a mild gas LS based on considering all things. (Not figuring on FGZ being OK with that one...)

[Captain]

Hey, these were sent to me this afternoon from my Electic Friends from the Concours d'Lemons Detroit.




And for that age old rear hatch support

[SuperBuickGuy]

car camping done right.

[fatguyzinc]

Cummins just used as a real-world example of something that can run for miles and miles on a tank vs. something you can blast around in but need to fill up in a couple hours. Even in the stock 4.0 Cherokee I have to stuff extra gas along just-in-case, if I plan to be poking around in the middle-of-nowhere all day.

With that, my choice for my Wagoneer project that I'm never going to actually do was going to be a mild gas LS based on considering all things. (Not figuring on FGZ being OK with that one...)

hey, just cause i dont like them LS motors
(although i GET it--small, lightweight, tons
of power potential, strong enough for turbo
or blower even stock, etc...) dont mean i
forbid you from running one..

heck, that just means 1 more mk-4 bbc or a
1st gen sbc laying around for me!

[Loren]

I actually have no practical experience w/ LS motors at this point (making me 20 years behind the curve) despite having collected up a couple, so I should not be in the business of making recommendations, it just seems like theoretically a good mix of all things...power, efficiency, and for a smaller SUV, not weighing a thousand pounds. First thing I read in race-car books; everything about a vehicle is a compromise for its' intended purpose.

[SuperBuickGuy]

focus guys, (yeah, I know it's bangshift).... diesel or BBC.... and by BBC I mean 496 ci 8.1 motor.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I pulled the trigger on a Hummer H1 take out motor (6.5 TD) from someone in San Diego.

[Captain]

Better get two !!!
Our local Bar & Grill owner,
A Army Motor Pool Veteran,
Because of HER small stature had Swapping out engines to a science !!
She said they're known for "Field Failures"
Something about a cooling system problem
On the right side if I remember correctly.......

[SuperBuickGuy]

Better get two !!!
Our local Bar & Grill owner,
A Army Motor Pool Veteran,
Because of HER small stature had Swapping out engines to a science !!
She said they're known for "Field Failures"
Something about a cooling system problem
On the right side if I remember correctly.......

I've had.... a lot of these.... 8? maybe 10? no... at least 12. I know these and really like them. Right now I own 4.

So yep, if you overheat them there is nothing but badness in your life
- problem is the way the early ones (pre-97) were cooled - the system isn't balanced right/left. There's a simple fix, replace the water pump with a post 97 pump.
Also, head gaskets
- torque to yield bolts are not happy if you turn the boost up even a little bit (7 psi stock, 11 psi head lifts)
- fix, arp studs
back to cooling issues
- the block will crack if overheated
- stitch repairs (pretty cool tech)
broken cranks
- the balancer doesn't keep its ring in place so an already hard-to-balance motor has a problem. Add to that the redline is 3400 rpm but people wind them up far farther than that... you have the problem my current motor has.
- fix is a fluid damper

there's a bunch of other things - but
there are literally millions of these out there and countless have moved our troops (albeit slowly) out of harms way - whatever problems there are have well-known fixes.

OR
don't drive like a Debbie. Don't overheat the vehicle, don't run it out of oil, don't turn up the turbo without doing minor upgrades

OR buy the Navistar or GM 'Optimizer' motors that were built starting in 2001. Had this motor been an optimizer, it'd be 8-11k.... I didn't pay anywhere near this but many of the repairs were done by 99.

Stock, these motors run for 400,000 miles. I know, I sold a motor that I ran from mile number 100,000 and pulled at 400,000 - where I sold it to someone else who I knew and ran it for another 200,000 - and then it was pulled from what was left of that squarebody and I know it was installed in something else but lost track of it. Don't overheat them, take care of them.

oh and the only 'service' at that level was the guy I sold it to replaced the timing chain as preventative maintenance.

This motor has 35k on it and I'll probably pull the head studs and replace them with ARP studs - also, once I get it, I'll do a photo montage of the differences between the H1 diesel and pickup diesels. I had a 6.5 diesel van, those are different too (all external differences to fit the application)... oh wait, forgot about the vans, what are we at 16, double that number.... I've had at least 32 of these... not to mention the several I helped keep running for friends and random acquaintances.

[Loren]

All-else being equal, having a motor that's super-familiar to you is the best way to travel. You know what to fix.

If you're not in a hurry I'm headed as far as the Sacramento area during the holidays.

[SuperBuickGuy]

All-else being equal, having a motor that's super-familiar to you is the best way to travel. You know what to fix.

If you're not in a hurry I'm headed as far as the Sacramento area during the holidays.

I thought about looking for a relay, but I'll just pay the shipping

I'll be down in Cali in March and I have a very good friend who lives near Sac - but sometimes, I just don't feel like working that hard.

nice bonus here is that it's a 4L80e trans attached to it - yes, have to change either the adapter and gear in the transfer case (or buy another NP208), but the 4L80 is so much better of a trans then a 700r4