Bloverlanding in a Blazer

[SuperBuickGuy]

sometimes it just floors me how little I can accomplish in 2 hours (my normal 'shop time')
tonight... I cleaned valve covers. Wait, you say, you cleaned them yesterday. Well sure, the scrap ones.... didn't know they'd be scrap until I took a wire wheel to get the silicone off.... not even someone else's fault...

so onto the 'new' (now clean) ones

then started cleaning another and wondered... why is there a vent? was there a vent on the H1 motor...

now it's 11 and I'm looking for that answer

yes, yes there was

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

time to pull the trans
but first, picture for posterity (and so I can remember where all the brackets go)




pulled the starter, this is the spendy version ....

just forgot one bolt and one cable... the cable was frayed so I don't feel bad hacking it

I win


tomorrow, motor (I hope)


this will make a good 'for sale' picture .... or maybe

I'll play the theme song to Raiders of the Lost Ark where Harrison Ford is arguing the ark needs to be in a museum while it's put into a box then rolled back in a faceless warehouse...

[video]https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxKcaVReMYmTXXog_MIZ-twg1W_fBTdtUY[/video]

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

time for the missed-wire-stress test, aka the 'how to do an Exxon Valdez for fun and profit'

yep, have a perfectly good forklift behind me and I use this... and bend it more... no promises about whether or not I'll risk the new motor with the cherry picker

look, greasy hole

more greasy holes

I am going to scrap this, however, all the brackets and such will make life simpler on the new motor... so those come off. Also, I think it has a relatively new injection pump... score

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

more assembly
if anyone is interested in the difference between a 6.5 with PCM and a 6.5 without (the same as 6.2s)


getting closer

and a bit of an annoyance.... the new glow plug had messed up threads... thankfully I didn't force it, but ran my thread cleaner to test the head, then tested this .... it jammed...


ah well.... still a ways to go, and this isn't the fun stuff, I need to finish the assembly then get to installing the turbo

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

oil cooler adapters... the 6.5 is bigger...

the only downside is I bought new oil lines for the 86, not the 99 H1... no biggie, I'll AN them
I would love to know how they managed this - it's a rear, driver's seat captive nut....

and while we're at learnin' who thought that fence-wiring down the driver's seat was a good idea

time to find out what lies beneath

not bad


If you live on the east coast, look away.... it's terrible, terrible rust


I know, terrible (not really).. this is actually a very common problem with this generation of K5 Blazers

but still, if you're on the east coast, this is what floors look like

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

The 6.2 in scrap form. I'll hang behind the shop in the scrap bin for a little bit but ultimately what you're seeing here is a new Kia.

strangely the exhaust bolts came out without too much trouble... 200,000 mile motor but a 34,000 mile motor couldn't come apart


test fitting time again

vacuum pump fitted

lots of little things to do, but this is the general idea

Happiness is large turbos


7 months is what it takes to fill a shop 8x larger by volume

Paul's Corvette is back for its BBC

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Today was more about cleanup

nowhere near done, but gained a lot of room


Did, however, get the front axle moved forward



next up, spring pockets.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

tonight's task - start with the spring perches

level and align

love this measuring tool.... glad I bought when I did.... omg they're expensive now.... like 4x what I paid


at least the idea

some parts came in, such as the pillar gauge pods

egt gauge (so I can drill and tap the exhaust also the manifold bolts... early, even

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Spring pockets.

does it work?

works fine on the passenger side, driver's side, decisions are being made

with some mods...

the schedule 40 tube is a bit larger - I need that space - so a bit of shaving and it's fine

rather then being an inch above the frame (optimal), it'll be even with the frame top...

and it works... though it seems a bit angry

passenger side too

3 pods, 3 gauges, tach, EGT, boost

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

today's side fun. I need 2 of those hooky things... bought this kit to replace the chinese junk I've been suffering with.... but the whole reason to purchase... yeah, I got half the parts I needed... damn


in news, one tack holding it in place... that I'll need to knock apart... no worries, this is still in the fitting stage. still finding it hard to believe that it's all going to fit, but there it is right before my eyes so I've gotta believe it.

passenger side is better and might get burned into place

 

[bobs77vet]

nice work, I always wondered how quickly a person could fill up a bigger shop. I am sure I would suffer the same fate. its like old people and mice all they need is a little tunnel to get around everyting else is fair game for "treasures"

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

In all fairness to myself, I have a Blazer mostly dismantled - once it's back together and the extra parts stored away again... I'll have quite a bit more room - but it is true, chaos fills whatever space you allow it.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

lots easier to work when the inner fenders are out

zz0.ep1b2smk10ozz

it was not fun
zz0.3a3ll7t2ihxzz
truth is I didn't like the schedule 40 brackets, so I rebuilt them


and tail is now draggin

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Oops - wasn't planning on getting this far tonight

tonight's plan was get the clutch pedals installed

then brown santa arrived, so I got distracted

figured out what the 'kit' was missing....

elbows, the pan fitting was supposed to be steel... ah well

the good news is what was sent, fits... which is actually kind of an exception

back to work
well, maybe I should put the new throwout and slave cylinder on... then realize I need another part that I thought I already had

to put the master cylinder (that I don't have) in place... I needed to remove the fender and get after all the stuff that was stored on the fender


I did have success, I put another hole in the floor

what I didn't realize was that after removing the inner fender, the fender was held on by 3 bolts...so it came off.. need to anyway but it wasn't in the plan for tonight



and never fear, there is Corvette content coming with that red one that's on the lift... bear with me... we'll be there soon

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have every master cylinder but the right one

I ordered the right one - forgot GM went to hydraulic clutches in these in the 80s... so I ordered a replacement and the correct line to make it all work
this poor table, as much as I am leary of HF stuff, this one has taken the abuse .... but not to clear it off to abuse it again

500 lbs lol

and it carried the truck there for a minute

strap it, lift it, move it

the hole is in the wrong spot so moving it around... I abuse my trans lift even more

I need to clear the lift, to do that means making space - so I might as well do two things at once, and get the trans in the truck

 

[bobs77vet]

i dont what surprises me more the size of the transmission or the size of the coffee containers, maybe everything is bigger on that coast

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

as the sun sets on other projects

time to get back onto completing this

but first, time to block the motor up - this stand does not give me warm fuzzies on its strength

I was reading somewhere about someone getting some lines crossed on their 6.5... didn't think much about it but decided to check while on these... good thing I did those front two were wrong

these were fine but I spent more than a little bit of time on them because those two lines that weren't right had been Bubba modified

people who know 6.2/6.5 motors will see how f**kd up lines to 2 and 4 were

close, but as long as they don't rub, they're good.... I'm also not quite done because I need to tie lines together to prevent them from contact. Do I know where all my other 6.2 lines are? yep, I scrapped them just before I moved in May *d'oh*

also started on the clutch.... a 83 c10 master cylinder... just need to figure out the thread pitch and get an AN adapter

strangely, the easy part was getting the adapter to the throwout.... it interchanges with pretty much any manual transmission circa the 90s


as part of 'clearing the shop out' I figured I might as well put the right top on it and the 'other' top outside

have I mentioned how much I love the crane?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

tonight's fun and games - install the EGT sensor

weld the oil return to the blank where the mechanical fuel pump installs

and build a CAD template for the oil feed - explanation - the oil feed for the 6.5 TD (van edition, aka h1 hummer edition) is in front of the oil drive. Can't use the drain, for obvious reasons) but might as well use the feed for the new turbo since it avoids the perilous route that the stock system uses on trucks.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

while Paul was working on his motor or on polishing my C3 - I spent a few minutes on the Blazer
cardboard becomes steel

then welded

carefully weld with just a touch proud so it compresses the rubber seal in the block

view of how it runs


truth be told, I'm probably not going to do much painting.... why? my plan is wear the axles to knubs and make this my go-to-go-anywhere rig. The bare metal, yeah, a bit but nothing like the '40. If it needs to be show-worthy, it'll get pulled apart again and just painted.... body gets paint because I hate driving cars that look like crap... but it will be pretty understated - and likely a refresh of what it already looks like.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

motor is pretty much ready to drop in - just need to get some fuel hose and finish the oil drain



of course the problem is when? I might be able to sneak a couple hours tomorrow during the day - but the week gets really busy until Thursday.... then I need to finish the Corvette and get it into the trailer.